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Up and Down Wall Lights

Exterior lighting provides plenty of opportunity for you to dress up your outdoor space. With up and down outside lights specifically, you are able to draw attention to the exterior walls and architecture.

At Ultra Beam Lighting, we offer a number of different outdoor up and down wall lights for you to choose from. No matter the style of your home’s exterior, you’re sure to find something on our site to suit your tastes.

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How Do Up and Down Outdoor Wall Lights Enhance the Outside of a Building?

Outdoor up-down lights provide one layer of a layered lighting scheme that is versatile enough for use in a number of different house styles. No matter what you’re working with, you can trust such lighting to enhance the building’s exterior in a number of ways.

For example, external up-down lights can create a sense of height and vertical space even on shorter buildings. By elongating the appearance of the wall, it can enhance the facade and give it more depth and sense of scale. Using them can add drama and dimension to the outdoor space, increasing its kerb appeal.

In doing so, it can also enhance architectural features, such as pillars, columns, and textured walls. The grazing nature of these lights can show off wall textures like stone or wood, while drawing attention to elements like doors and window frames.

Due to the indirect lighting that up and down external wall lights provide, it is also good for creating ambience and mood. You can choose cool lighting to give a commercial building a more modern minimalist look, or warm light to create a more welcoming environment at home.

How to Use Up and Down Outdoor Wall Lighting on Different Styles of Home

No matter what sort of home you may have, there is sure to be an up down outdoor wall light that suits the space. These are incredibly versatile lights that can add vertical drama to even the most compact of buildings.

Modern and Contemporary Homes

This style of home prioritises clean lines and angles with neutral palettes and minimalist designs. Opt for fixtures with simple or geometric shapes as well as those with matte finishes.

Traditional Brick Homes

With its textured surfaces and warm colours, brick is benefitted by warm lighting as well. Choose lights between 2700K and 3000K to complement the warm, earthy notes of brick. Up and down lights can accentuate the texture of the brick as well by casting little shadows.

Heritage and Period Homes

This style of home is characterised by timber frames, sturdy stonework and ornate detailing. With your up and down exterior lights, you can draw attention to historic features without overwhelming them. Choose wide beam angles and shine them toward decorative lintels, corbels, or arches.

Rural and Farmhouse Style Homes

Stone walls and timer cladding work together to provide rustic charm in this style of home. Opt for warm light that naturally enhances the textures and brings out the cosiness of the property.

Townhouses

Townhouses have narrow facades that benefit from the vertical design of up down outside lights. Choose compact fixtures that won’t take up much space but have powerful beams to accentuate the lines of the house.

How Up and Down Wall Lighting Can Enhance Textured Walls on the Exterior of a Home

Up and down lights draw attention to the architecture of a building without being too bright and glaring. One of the benefits of this is how closely it sits to the wall and how it can show off the textures of said wall.

A well-placed up & down outdoor wall light can show off the textures of brick, wood, stone or even composite walls. They add a tactile richness to the exterior facade, especially in places that feel rather flat. This is accomplished by casting small shadows over the tiny textures, making them stand out more dramatically.

Vertical beams accomplish this in a number of ways besides casting shadows. They also create a grazing effect that can accentuate even the finest of textures. The verticality of the light can also draw attention to any architectural features surrounding the walls, such as beams and columns.

When choosing the outdoor up-down wall light, consider what exactly you want to achieve. If you want crisp, defined columns of light to provide an accent, opt for narrow beam angles. Broader beam angles are better for giving a softer light and more gently picking up on the textures.

LWA370 brass up and down outdoor wall light fitted on a wall

 

How to Choose the Best Beam Angle for Outdoor Up and Down Wall Lighting

Beam angle is important when it comes to up and down lights for outdoor spaces. Beam angles refer to how narrowly or how broadly the light shines. The beam angle that you choose depends on the kind of illumination you wish to cast. Whatever you choose, to keep the focus on the light itself, choose subtler fixture types, such as black up and down outside lights, as well.

For architectural drama, opt for narrower beam angles that create bolder light columns

Or, go for subtle ambience that uses wider beams to illuminate the walls softly and reduce contrast. Rhythm and symmetry with consistent beam angles across several different fixtures will provide visual harmony.

Narrow beam angles create a more concentrated spread of light that is best for focusing lights on certain features. Accent vertical elements like pillars and grooves using narrower beams.

Medium beams provide a nice balance between coverage and drama, offering generous wall washing. Medium beams won’t wash out entirely, though; they will also provide emphasis on the architecture.

Wide beams, on the other hand, cast broader illumination that covers more area with a dimmer light. They soften the effect of the light, providing a smoother look over larger facades.

How to Use Up and Down Exterior Wall Lighting in Entertainment Areas

Your outdoor entertainment space needs to have proper lighting to make it as comfortable as possible. Up and down garden lights provide the perfect opportunity for such a thing. They provide ambient glow without any sort of harsh glare and can frame the columns, walls and seating areas for visual appeal.

Below, we will take a look at how to incorporate them into different types of entertainment areas.

  • PATIO AND DINING. Be sure you have light bright enough to see by when dining and chatting, but still low enough not to be glaringly bright. Mount fixtures around pillars or surrounding walls to provide a soft, indirect glow. Opt for warm white lights in this area.
  • GAZEBOS AND COVERED AREAS. Place up and down outdoor lights on vertical supports such as beams, columns and walls. This will enhance the vertical appeal of the space and give it the appearance of more height, making it feel roomier and more spacious.
  • OUTDOOR BARS AND KITCHENS. Use up and down lights as a supplement in kitchen areas. The main light there should be bright task lighting, but the wall lights can help balance out the sharper illumination and create an even look.
  • POOLSIDE AREAS. Pools should have a nice glow that is still bright enough to see when swimming after dark. Up and down lights can be used on surrounding walls or even around privacy screens to create a softer, smoother level of illumination. Be sure you are choosing IP rated fixtures for this area due to its proximity to water.

Up & down outside lights, when attached to smart home systems, are incredibly convenient. They update the exterior of the home in more than one way while also bringing with it modern charm and convenience.

With smart lighting, you can set your up and down lights outside fixtures on a timer so they only turn on when the sun begins to go down. You can also have them on a daylight sensor to a similar effect. Choosing motion sensors, on the other hand, can help enhance security without it being too glaring.

You also have more direct control with up & down outdoor lights connected to a smart hub. You can turn the lighting on or off, or simply adjust it, at a moment’s notice. This helps you create the right kind of mood for outdoor entertainment and more.

Furthermore, having stricter control over the lighting can help you cut back on energy usage. Only having the lights on when you need them is more energy efficient, saving you money in the long run and lessening your carbon footprint at the same time.

One of the biggest benefits of up and down wall lights outdoor fixtures is the versatility they offer. They can be installed virtually anywhere outdoors that needs a bit of a face lift thanks to the different sizes of the fixtures and the beam angles.

Keep reading to learn how to incorporate up-down lights for outdoor spaces in any section of the home.

  • FRONT ENTRANCE AND PORCH. Your wall lights can be used to welcome guests and enhance the overall kerb appeal. Mount the fixtures on either side of the door to emphasize it and create vertical emphasis. Choose warm white light to create a more inviting glow.
  • DRIVEWAY AND GARAGE. Illuminate the various access points and enhance visibility with outdoor up & down wall light fixtures on the walls flanking the garage area. These wall lights can zone out the practical areas for your benefit.
  • GARDEN WALLS AND STRUCTURES. Position the lighting along the garden walls to show off the textures and to create little zones. Narrow beam angles add more drama than wider ones do.
  • PATIO AND OUTDOOR ENTERTAINMENT AREAS. Use up-down wall lights exterior fixtures around patios and seating areas to zone out the little areas in the space. Dimmable lighting works well here, since you can alter it to adjust the mood you want to set while entertaining.

Wattage is a measurement of the power that a traditional bulb outputs and is often used to get an idea of how much light the bulb outputs. In LED bulbs, however, wattage is not talked about as much.

This is because LED bulbs don’t consume as much power as halogen and incandescent bulbs and their brightness is therefore discussed in lumens. Lumens directly refer to the amount of light output opposed to the power that they consume. That said, you can have a general conversion of lumens to wattages, so you can still purchase lights according to the light power you need.

Before deciding the wattage amount you want to use, think about what the purpose of the lighting is going to be. If you want accent lighting, lower wattages of three to six are ideal. For general illumination, opt for medium wattage amounts, and higher wattage for security.

The beam angle you choose also matters. Narrower beam angles can concentrate light and appear brighter while still having lower wattages. Wider beam angles will diffuse light and make it seem a bit dimmer, therefore requiring higher wattages to make up for it.

A general rule of thumb for lighting various locations around the house is as follows:

  • Front door and porch areas: 6W to 10W
  • Garage and driveway areas: 10W to 15W
  • Garden Walls and features: 3W to 6W
  • Patio and entertainment areas: 6W 10 12W
  • Side passages and alleys: 8W to 12W
  • Rear facade areas: 10W to 15W
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