Facade lighting
Two fixtures do the whole job: boxes on the wall that wash it up, down or both, and floods on the ground aimed at whatever the house is proud of. Neither one sits on the roofline, and neither one comes down in January.
The same wall, lit and not.
Two up-down boxes on the piers, one flood on the gable, one spot at the tree.
Illustration, not a render. Nothing in this pair was placed by a catalogue count or spacing — it shows what the fixtures do, not what any one product does. The renders on the product pages are placed by each product’s real count and spacing; this pair is not.
Two fixtures. They do opposite jobs.
One mounts to the wall and lights the wall it is on. The other sits in the bed and lights something from six feet away. Most facades want one of each, not four of either.
Mounts to the wall
Wall lights
Beside the door and on the garage piers. A single-direction box is the plain choice; an up-down throws a cone each way from one housing and reads as a feature in its own right. On a small facade, one of each direction is too much.
Wash a two-storey wall
~1500 lm
per fixture
A sconce by the door
~400 lm
per fixture
The catch: a hardwired box replaces an existing fixture on a switched circuit, which is a job for whoever you trust with mains wiring. Plug-in and low-voltage versions exist; the listing says which one you are looking at.
Sits in the bed
Landscape spotlights
Staked in the ground and aimed up the wall, a chimney or a tree. They change a facade more than anything else in the line, because they light the wall rather than sitting on it. Aim so the beam stops at the eave — spill into the sky is a wasted fixture and an annoyed neighbour.
Two-storey gable
48 W
from about six feet out
Tree trunk
10 W
narrow beam
Colour or white: most of the line is RGB with a warm white in it. Warm white on brick, colour for a week in October, is how nearly everyone ends up using them.
One per feature. Four is already a lot.
A gable, a chimney, a tree and the front door are four features, and that is a fully lit facade. Two floods on a flat two-storey front is plenty; add a third and the wall goes flat, because there is no shadow left to tell you it has depth.
Count the things on your house worth pointing at, not the square feet of wall. Then buy that many, in a pack size that gets you there without three spares in the garage.
Rule of thumb
Sconces come in pairs because piers come in pairs. Floods come in fours because most fronts have three or four things worth aiming at.
- 1 · The gableOne 48 W flood, six feet out, aimed to stop at the ridge.
- 2 · The chimneyA narrow beam. A wide one lights the sky either side of it.
- 3 · The door piersA pair of up-down boxes, mounted level with each other.
- 4 · The tree10 W at the trunk. The canopy does the rest for free.
Every one we cover, in order
The order is the catalogue’s. Rank is never printed.
-
Govee Outdoor UpDown Wall Light, 2-pack2 LIGHTS · 600 LM EACH · IP66
The smart wall wash: a cone up and a cone down from one box, and the one wall light here we had no reservations about. Hardwired, so it is an electrician or a confident afternoon.
-
Govee Outdoor Wall Light, 2-pack2 LIGHTS · 1500 LM EACH · IP65
The single-direction version: a flat panel that washes the wall it is on. Brighter on paper than the UpDown at 1500 lm, but it is one cone, not two, which is the whole difference between them.
-
Emliviar Outdoor Wall Lantern, 2-pack2 LIGHTS · UL WET LOCATION
The safe black lantern. It takes whatever bulb you want, which means you choose the colour temperature and whether it is smart.
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hykolity Dusk to Dawn Outdoor Wall Sconce, 18 in, 2-pack2 LIGHTS · ETL WET LOCATION
The dusk-to-dawn pick. Each fixture senses for itself, so a pair either side of a door will not switch at quite the same moment.
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Kichler Cylinders Outdoor Wall Sconce1 LIGHT · UL WET LOCATION
A real designer fixture with an ordinary E26 socket, so you supply the smart or dusk-to-dawn bulb. Open at both ends: in a spot that takes wind-driven rain it needs the enclosed-lens accessory.
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Linkind Smart Solar Spot Lights SL5C, 4-pack4 SPOTLIGHTS · 3 W EACH · IP67
The pick of the smart spotlights, and it is solar — so treat it as an accent on a tree or a gable end, not as a way to wash a whole facade.
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LEONLITE Low Voltage LED Landscape Spotlight, 6-pack6 SPOTLIGHTS · 5 W EACH · IP65
The mid-tier uplight to default to: cast aluminium, CRI 90, a narrow 45-degree beam that puts light up a tree instead of into your neighbour's window.
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SUNVIE 12V Low Voltage LED Landscape Lights, 8-pack8 SPOTLIGHTS · 12 W EACH · IP65
The value pick, with one condition: a real cluster of these needed a joint re-soldered to fix an intermittent light. If a soldering iron is out of the question, buy the DEWENWILS.
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DEWENWILS 12V Low Voltage LED Landscape Spotlight, 4-pack4 SPOTLIGHTS · 14 W EACH · IP65
The brightest single fixture here at 540 lm, and the cleanest complaint record of any budget spotlight we looked at. Fewer, brighter uplights is usually the better plan anyway.
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VOLT 12V LED Landscape Lighting Kit, 8 Spotlights and 4 Path Lights8 SPOTLIGHTS · 5 W EACH · UL, DIRECT-BURIAL CABLE
The professional system in a box: solid brass, a real transformer, a lifetime warranty on the fixtures, and a price that is still a fraction of the install quote.
Price tiers are our own rough budget bands, not live prices. Check the listing for today’s price.
This page merges two categories, because on a real wall they are one decision. Each shelf on its own: Outdoor wall lights · Spotlights and floods
The questions that decide it.
Up, down or both?
A single-direction light washes one way and is the plain choice beside a door. An up-down light throws a cone each way from the same box and reads as a feature in its own right. On a small facade, one of each direction can be too much.
How bright?
Lumens per fixture is the number. Around 1500 lm washes a two-storey wall beside a door; a 400 lm sconce is a light to find the keyhole by.
Do I need an electrician?
A hardwired wall light replaces an existing fixture on a switched circuit and is a job for whoever you trust with mains wiring. Plug-in and low-voltage versions exist and the listing says which one you are looking at.
How many do I need?
One per feature. A gable, a chimney, a tree and the front door are four. Two on a flat two-storey front is plenty; more than that and the wall goes flat.
How bright?
Brightness is stated in watts or lumens per fixture, and the two do not track each other across brands, so compare lumens where a listing gives them. The wired fixtures here run from 5 to 14 W and 540 to 900 lm, which is a wall or a tree from a few feet out. The solar one is a fraction of that and lights one shrub. The render shows the beam stopping at the eave, which is what a well-aimed spot does.
Colour or white?
Almost all of this shelf is fixed warm white: a low-voltage landscape fixture is an LED at 2700K or 3000K and there is no colour in it to change. One product here does addressable colour, and it is the solar one. If colour on the facade is the point, the eave kits do it better than a ground spot ever will.
Beam angle decides this, not brightness.
A narrow beam grazes a brick face and disappears on stucco. Every fixture we list carries its beam angle and its lumens on the card.
Compare the spotlights