How to Enhance the Beauty of Your Exterior Garage Door with Lighting

Exterior garage lighting, when done right, can transform the look of a garage door on your home. One of the most striking features you can add to your home is a fully custom wood garage door, but why should you (and your neighbors) only get to admire it during daylight hours. Exterior garage lighting not only brings visibility to your beautiful investment when daylight runs out, it can also highlight its more unique features.

The Benefits of Implementing Exterior Garage Lighting

• Enhance the appearance of your garage door 
• Increased security, safety, and theft deterrence 
• More visibility of your front yard, driveway, etc. 

How Many Light Fixtures to Install

Getting the lighting right on your garage door requires you to choose the right number of fixtures to install. Too few and your door will look too dim when the sun goes down. Too many and the door will be over-illuminated, which can make it look overexposed and take away from its natural beauty. 

It’s good practice to have a light on each side of the garage door, but depending on its size, more lights will need to be added above it, if possible. Lights that are placed above the garage door can be installed in an overhang, mounted directly into the soffit. 

As a general rule of thumb, single car garage doors can get away with two lights, two car garage doors should have at least four (depending on the size of the fixtures). More should be added for wider doors. If you have two or more separate doors, place fixtures in between them. 

Consider Direct Lighting

For more direct lighting on your door, which is a great way to draw attention directly to your garage door, consider adding ground spotlights. These fixtures cast a strong direct light on your garage door. They allow your garage door to be the first (and sometimes only) thing to be seen at night. 

Additionally, in ground floodlights can also be used. Unlike spotlights, these types of fixtures cast a wide light over an extended area. They are good if you have a lot of garage doors and want to only have minimal fixtures placed to shine light across all of them. 

Choose a Fixture That Matches Your Home (And Door!)

Is your home a rustic cottage? An English colonial? A gothic revival? Whatever style of home you own choose fixtures that match the exterior style and time in which the home is built. There are many styles of lighting fixtures to choose between, find the right ones that match your unique style and the time period of your home. 

Many fixture styles include barn lights, lanterns, sconces, etc. 

Additional Features

Some of the additional features you can choose for your exterior garage lighting include: 

• Dimmable lights (allowing you to choose the right illumination for your door) 
• Bug repelling lights 
• Motion sensors 
• Solar powered lights and lanterns 

Why light an old garage door? Get a custom built wood garage door from CAMBEK today. We can help you increase the appeal (and value) of your home!

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