ATG Stores Blog

As the days are getting shorter, consider throwing some pathway lights to your yard.

This is a dining-sized oval patio table that is designed to store all the chairs underneath it.  No need to keep hawling stuff to the garage when it rains!

Designed to bring indoor comfort outdoors.

A heavy-duty solid brass lizard accent can be used to light up decks and break up walls or other points of interest. Depending on specific climate conditions, this accent light may ultimately turn verdigris. Patinas over time and may turn verdigris.

I recently received an excellent tip from our friends at Hinkley Lighting.  I wrote an outdoor lighting guide a while back where I discussed how to pick outdoor lighting, but Hinkley takes this one step further and has a great way on how to size outdoor lighting.  Considering the size of the fixture is important to ensure it doesn’t stand out too much compared to the doorway, yet still provide enough light to be functional.  So how do you determine lantern size for a front door?  As with so many other things, the answer depends.

Single Sconce Entries

If you’re only placing a sconce on one side of your doorway, the physical lantern should be 1/3 the height of the door from top to bottom.  Be sure to consider any artsy long tails or top scrolls with the fixture when determining size.  The center of the bulb should rest 66″ above the threshold of the door.

Double Sconce Entries

If your doorway has space for sconces on both sides of the door, then the 1/3 rule may be slightly overpowering.  In this case you should look for lanterns that are 1/4 the height of the door, but still make sure that the base of the bulb is 66″ above the door’s threshold.  Again, be sure to consider the artful use of materials on the top or base of the lantern’s size.

Hinkley also says that it’s a good rule of thumb that your lantern should appear to be half the size of your doorway from 50 feet away.  Be sure to check out Hinkley’s information page on Lighting Universe, where you can browse their great selection of outdoor lanterns and other lights.

This one converts an existing firepit into a gel burning pit, so you’ll never have to haul wood again.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last several months, you’ve probably heard of this thing called Twitter.  You may have heard of another thing that people occasionally use called Facebook.  If you have profiles set up with these sites, why don’t swing by and pay us a visit?  We have several of our stores featured on both, so please feel free to use them as another line of communication.  Me casa et su casa, right?

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Lighting Universe                     Twitter     Facebook

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On top of Twitter and Facebook, you can also find us on Youtube and StumbleUpon.  More will be coming soon, so stay tuned.

Nothing says summer relaxation better than a hammock.  It’s one of those little luxuries that everyone can afford, but not many people think about purchasing for themselves.  These aren’t your grand daddy’s hammocks that you tie between two trees, either.  Today’s hammocks typically come with a stand and only need minor setup time.  The only thing you really need to know how to do is not fall out of it.

If you’re out on the go and want to bring the hammock experience with you, then check out one of my favorite products we carry: The hanging chair.  These are great to bring along for camping or small yards.  If you want to be even more portable, there’s a version that can stick into a truck’s trailer hitch.  Just don’t drive the truck with these on.

So grab one of these relaxation tools and kick back! Enjoy the summer while you can!

Image Courtesy of LightsbyLighthouse.com

You may spend hours landscaping and cultivating the perfect yard, but have you considered how your home looks after the sun goes down?  Improper or poor outdoor lighting can be the difference of an inviting home full of holiday warmth all year round, or a spooky house that people only want to visit on Halloween.  Unfortunately it’s not as simple as simply buying some lights and turning them on, you have to consider what you’re trying to accomplish.  Ask yourself this: are you going for curb appeal, security, or safety lights to get to the front door?  The combination of these main attributes will help you decide the best way to present your home to the community after dark.  Before we look at concepts, let’s consider the basic lighting tools that we have to work with:

• Spot/Flood Lights – Lights of various sizes that shine directly onto the targeted area.  Typically produces bright circles with few shadows, and are great for highlighting a specific piece of architecture or landscape detail.
• Directional Lights – Also known as up lights and down lights, and directional spot lights.  These are small lights that shine light directly up or down, producing a triangular pattern of light with the base of the triangle being the light source.
• Ambient Lighting – Lights of various sizes that shine light to cover a general area for visibility.  These include wall sconces, outdoor pendants, other common outdoor ceiling fixtures, and make up the most common types of outdoor lighting.
• Diffused Lighting – Low intensity lighting that can point out specific areas or obstacles, or add a softening glow to specific parts of the yard.  Consider these bollard lights and various recessed well lights as examples.
• Pathway Lighting – Small lights on stands or post to highlight a walkway to and from the entry points of the home.

Curb Appeal

The Surroundings

Curb appeal is intended to highlight your house’s best features.  Whether that feature is a door, an architectural accent, or part of the landscape, you typically want to have one main focal point with everything else supporting that focal point.  For example, in the image at the top of the post, you’ll notice that light is brightest around the main door way, with the light getting less ambient and more focal the further you get away from the main door.  This is in attempt to lead the eyes from the edges of the home to the focal point: the front door.

Using What you Already Have

Outdoor lighting for curb appeal is only partially based upon the lights you put on the outside of the house.  Unless you’re living in a bunker, chances are you have a couple big windows too.  You can use your drapery, internal lighting, and even wall color to help emphasize that room of your home from the outside.  A well placed table lamp in your living room, can warm up both the inside and outside of your home.

Walk This Way

Pathway Lighting

An illuminated path will help visitors safely get from their car to your door, but from a distance pathway lights can also act as a visual map from a rather boring part of the house (the driveway/garage) to the main focal point (your front door).  If you have street parking, consider adding a pathway light at roughly 1.5 car lengths (roughly 25 feet) away from each other to make it easier for multiple visitors to know exactly where to park. The extra space is to allow room for parallel parking, if needed.

Watch Your Step

While most important for the first and last steps, it’s a good idea to light up all the stairs so someone can get a scope of how many and how steep the staircase is.

Along with step lights, you can also invest in some nice rail lights for a stair case or deck rails.  These add just a touch of light for emphasis, and are very easy to install.

Security

A well lit home will always add a sense of security by making it difficult to go unnoticed when approaching a house, however some like to have security-specific lighting.  While most use security lights over the garage, you can add a little style with using them with a moon-lighting effect.  Simply take a security flood and position it at a higher point (like the top of a tree) with a sharp down angle, and you can simulate the look of the moon’s glow beaming down to whatever area the light is pointed towards.  If you have a separate motion sensor, this can be placed at ground-level to turn on when movement is detected by the house.

Finally, don’t be afraid of shadows.  The more angled your light, the more shadow it will cast.  Angled lights can literally make your house look different by skewing lines and edges, making it stand out amongst your neighbors.  Also, consider the temperature of the bulbs you’re using.  Hotter bulbs usually have a warmer tone, like yellow or orange-ish, while cooler bulbs will have a more white and cooler tone (bulb temperatures are based on the Kelvin scale).

Have fun finding the right style for your home.  Check out all the other options for your outdoor lighting project here.

I love finding new things for existing pieces.  It saves money and makes me feel like I accomplished something.  Kind of like this guy did with a couple construction barriers, although he got arrested for destroying property.  Bummer…

So here are a couple ideas that you may be able to do yourself.  I haven’t tried all of these, but definitely want to.  If you do, let me know how it works out. 

Turn Planters into Coolers: With a clear plastic bag and some ice, you can make a planter water-proof and throw in the drinks to make an instant cooler.  This one even has built-in LED lights to glow cool colors.

Grow Your Own Furniture: The ultimate outdoor piece to any lawn.  Learn how to do it here.

Turn Your Lights into a Canvas:  Lights made from ceramic materials are often paintable.  Draw anything you want, and truly make it your own.

Make Greeting Cards from Paint Strips: Colorful, Unique, and CHEAP!  Check out the how-to’s over at DIYLife.com

Use Tin Cans as a Vase: Or display/organize anything else you may need.  Here is a great tutorial