Why is foyer lighting so important in a home?
Perhaps the most important value of foyer lighting is its ability to instantly set mood for arriving guests Foyer lights introduce the interior design of a home, and they function as a link between outdoor lighting to indoor lighting. Foyer lighting needs to differentiate the inside world from the outside world, but too much differentiation creates shock to the guest with either too much or too little light. Because of this, foyer lights work best when installed on dimmer switches that allow you to directly control light levels. You can also install several foyer lights on multiple, separate dimmers, each controlling separate combinations of fixtures and allowing for the creation of layered and colored lighting effects.

What types of houses need special attention to foyer lighting?
Foyer lighting is critical to homes with a staircase entrance or a tall ceiling as not only a mood setter, but also a much-needed source of safe task lighting. In a two-story foyer RLLD recommends a suspended fixture or even a chandelier for foyer down lighting. Much of the ultimate selection of physical pieces will depend greatly on both personal preference and fit with other lighting systems inside the home. This is why we furnish foyer lighting fixtures in styles that range from compact fluorescent, contemporary, Craftsman & Mission, crystal, iron & rustic, traditional, and transitional.

How do you know which fixtures to choose?
The choice of fixture size will depend mostly on the size of your ceiling, although factors such as the dimensions of one or more adjacent wall(s) and the presence of mirrors and paintings also play a role. Smaller foyers lend themselves better to recessed lights, and usually a single overhead fixture is all that is necessary to center down lighting over the room. This can then be complimented with wall sconces or multiple light fixtures placed at or just above eye level.

Are there any special considerations to take into account when lighting my foyer?
Many foyers also have mirrors, and placing sconce lights on the sides of the mirror is an excellent way to blend function and decorum. Sconce mirror lights on a foyer dimmer switch can be adjusted to illuminate the mirror either as a decorative piece or as a tool for visitors to use to check their appearance before entering the house proper.

Can foyer lighting benefit commercial clients as well as residential homeowners?
In fact, a growing segment of our client base is emerging from the commercial arena as increasing numbers of professionals find time saving and cost-saving value in our convenient drop shipping delivery policy. Every decorative chandelier or light fixture ordered travels straight from the factory to the location of install. Interior designers working as sole proprietors find this service invaluable, as it absolves them of the task of having to figure out where to store the lighting equipment they plan to install for their clients. At the end of the day, everything is a one shop, one click convenience that benefits all parties concerned, and leaves no loose ends of problematics dangling about (unless of course they are pendant fixtures, and placed there deliberately for effect.)

Click here to use our e-forum to Ask an Expert any questions you have about foyer lighting. Our consultation services are free. Read more here about the many models we offer commercial and residential clients throughout the United States and Canada.

What do step and brick lights do to add to outdoor lighting?
RLLD’s impressive selection of step lights and brick lights represents a wide range of options for the decorator with both function and ambiance in mind. Step lights and brick lights in brass fixture molds provide aesthetic compliments to many traditional and contemporary-style wall sconces and hanging lanterns. For decorating darker colored bricks, we carry copper lights that blend seamlessly into the background of their surroundings.

What do step and brick lights look like?
They are either flat or protrude slightly from the surface of the wall, casting the light downward. The majority of our brick lights and step lights are molded in the louver design, which resembles a small “grill” with the fins pointing downward. This focuses the light on the ground where people need to see to walk, and keeps the glare from hitting the eyes. When brighter lights are required for extra security and safety, RLLD brick and step high voltage fixtures provide both extra lumens and a wider distribution of landscape light.

For more ambient lighting conditions, low voltage brick lights and step lights offer a wide range of opportunities to highlight and accentuate key outdoor lighting themes along areas of human traffic. We also carry several brick lights in contemporary fixture design called “post sconce lights.” These eclectic peripherals can encircle a patio in light and bring a modernesque touch to the area. RLLD brick and step lights feature all major bulb types and designs as well. Many of our bulbs are designed with maximum energy efficiency in mind and feature bulb life of up to 2,000 hours.

Can commercial lighting designers benefit from brick and step lighting to their proposals?
RLLD strongly recommends that every lighting design firm offer step and brick lights to its clientele if nothing more as an optional line item. This is because many clients may not want to invest in lighting poles or hanging fixtures. Step and brick lights also provide an extra touch of physical safety in an area where even the most coordinated people often trip—the stairs. Any commercial facility hosting events at night can reduce the risk that guests could fall and injure themselves by installing step lights on the stairs themselves and brick lights in adjacent walls. Even from a purely decorative perspective, brick lights offer great value and benefit. High-end clients such as country clubs and resort hotels that host events near pools and patios, or have formal dining areas outside, can add ambiance, convenience, and utility with step lights and specialty deck lights found in this section. We also help individual homeowners for

Are step and brick lights easy for the individual homeowner to install?
Normally, yes. If you run into difficulty, we will be happy to help you either over the phone or through our Ask and Expert e-forum. Increasing numbers of homeowners are decorating with step and brick lighting because these innovative fixtures offer both increased safety and enhanced decorative appeal. Many people like to install them both around the deck and around pool areas, finding them to be simple and relatively low-maintenance, hazard-free items. Children and pets can safely play around step and brick lights without risk of injury, and since so many of our fixtures are low voltage in nature, there is no risk of fatal electric shock from a 12V device. Safety, and convenience, and efficiency not only equate to more comfort and peace of mind, but also reduced energy costs which makes home entertainment simultaneously attractive and desirable but not so expensive as to have to limit the joy or length of events.

Click here now to Ask an Expert what step and brick lights can do for your commercial or residential lighting system.

On a practical level, outdoor hanging lanterns deliver functional lighting by providing outdoor around any structure from which they can be suspended. Outdoor hanging lanterns are also fantastically decorative, and RLLD’s online selection offers an expansive range of choices for those decorating from both a traditionally minded perspective and for those who intend to stay abreast of current trends. We include any number of fixtures that in spite of their commercial grade quality offer an affordable price point for home decorators on a budget, or for those who live in rural areas and smaller houses with only 2 or 3 bedrooms. Outdoor hanging lanterns can actually serve as the primary keynote to an outdoor decorative theme, or they can provide counterbalanced contrast to architectural and landscape lighting designs of a more high-end nature, and they provide a wealth of opportunity in both style and task lighting.

Style and conscious awareness of today’s and decorative movements determines our selection of outdoor hanging lanterns. In today’s world of design, the Arts and Craft/ Mission style lanterns is perhaps one of the hottest decorative trends on the marketplace. Outdoor hanging lanterns in this genre combine a superb blend of mold, metal, and glass to compliment eclectic bungalows, cottages, and urban lofts alike. Some of our more popular designs include Franklin, Pendant, and Glasgow models available in glass styles ranging from iridescent and off white to antique copper and metal finishes. For designers working who wish to work extensively with brass fixtures, we also have low voltage outdoor hanging lanterns that feature 2000 bulb hour lamp life and unfinished brass fixtures. These are favorite choices for landscape lighting designers to use in decorating client flowerbeds or garden areas adjacent to a home or office building. A more refined and elegant touch can be added to an outdoor dining area by suspending a candelabra base pendant lantern above the tables. For true eclecticism, we offer contemporary outdoor hanging lanterns that feature low voltage wall mounts and progressive styles in fixture design. These are an ideal choice for designers to recommend to young clients living in progressive urban areas, as they combine both a sense of forward motion and a power saving economy that makes them very attractive line items on any bid.

Choosing Residential Landscape Lighting and Design as a one-source supply depot for outdoor lanterns and hanging pendants makes it easy for both contractors and artistically motivated homeowners to find exactly what they need in one conveniently organized selection. Contractors receive the added benefit of our vendor contracts with top-name manufacturers, as lighting design clients often request specific fixtures from specific manufacturers and contractors will need access to these companies to win the bid.

For homeowners on a budget, we offer both high-end and budgetary options and provide complimentary design suggestions over the phone or through our Ask an Expert e-forum or contact us online. We are always willing to give advice on which additional fixtures will compliment your selection, and which outdoor hanging lantern accessories will work best with your desired theme.

RLLD inventories three categories of flex lights to accommodate a wide range of commercial lighting design requirements and residential lighting needs.
We provide flex floodlights to bathe a specific portion of the landscape in light. We carry flex path lights that add a decorative touch with to moonlight walks and garden tours, and we carry flex spotlights to bring special emphasis to landscaping features and water works. Additionally, we carry a number of low voltage models to help conserve power consumption by lighting systems on timers that stay on throughout the night.

It is important to use commercial grade flex lights for any outdoor lighting system.
Flex lights are often used in very damp areas or places where they will be directly exposed to mist and water vapor. They also tend to take a beating from the elements and severe weather. Commercial grade flex lights are built with sturdier materials, tend to have superior connectors and insulation for wiring, and feature a higher lens quality that maximized bulb life in high humidity and severe weather areas.

Even at the commercial grade level, flex lights are still extremely affordable compared to more high-end lighting fixtures, so in terms of reducing replacement costs alone it serves nothing to save a few dollars on a retail alternative that simply isn’t designed to work as well or last as long.

Flex Spot Lights can cause illumination to dance on water all night long
Many city parks use flex spotlights to showcase waterfalls, ponds, and fountains. Most of the time, unless they look closely for the fixtures, people don’t even know they are there. Flex lights can hide almost anywhere in the landscape, or behind almost anything. People see the light, but never see the spot lights themselves because the fixtures are hidden behind landscaping features or earthworks.

In tight spots where the lights are actually hit directly by droplets of water, one might want to consider a copper, brass, or aluminum fixture with a sturdy, stable wiring system that won’t rust or short circuit. Arrange them along the inside of low walls that encircle fountains, or place them tucked away behind boulders that surround small ponds or lakes to make the light dance on the water throughout the night and into the morning.

Flex flood lights make excellent garden lights
For flower beds and garden lights that need an every greater “decorative touch,” consider a scallop or starfish hat flood light that will distribute light in a very wide beam spread over the tops of perennials, new blooms, and shrubbery with any number of light levels and height adjustment levels available through RLLD’s many custom fixture, finish, and equipment size options. Garden tours at midnight and flowerbeds around trees can both experience greater aesthetic affect when lit by decorative flex lights.

Flex path lights light the way for moonlight strolls and keep the path safe for all
In other instances where the fixture can actually serve as a decorative adjunct, a fixture designed to emulate a lampshade makes for a very charming path light. We have a number of sizes and bulb strengths available to make path lighting both functional as well as decorative. Flex lights make pathways safe as well as beautiful, so keep this in mind when selecting your fixture choices, or use our Ask and Expert forum to get a specialist’s advise on what the best model is for your needs.

Flex lights resolve many issues that people encounter with standard flood, path, and spotlights.
For small businesses and homeowners on tight budgets, flex lights can create add lighting design to landscaping and gardening in lieu of a high-end system. For commercial and custom landscape lighting clients and commercial contractors, flex lights provide an essential decorative adjunct that adds a special touch of light to any custom-installed system.

Read more here about flex lights, and visit our selection at http://www.residential-landscape-lighting-design.com/ for specific product specifications.

Residential Landscape Lighting and Design offers a number of residential and commercial model holiday led lights and decorations that make The Holidays a brightly lit, colorful extravaganza.
Led Christmas lighting technology has already evolved to the point that diode-based illumination now does everything incandescent technology did in the past. LED decorations by RLLD provide offer a number of color, size, and lighting level options for both Christmas trees and holiday decorative accessories. For instance, our led Christmas wreath fits trees, holiday sculptures, windows, and displays with equal flexibility. It’s bulbs shine green, red, and yellow to fit the season, and it sports plug and play installation convenience with all necessary hardware prewired so it can be hung whatever location needs extra holiday light.

Another great led Christmas lighting sculpture for holiday retail advertising is RLL’s Ultimate Window Tree.
Standing approximately 36-inches tall, the RLLD Ultimate Window Tree will attract attention the minute shoppers pass by and see it in a window or display case. Many shopping malls and strip centers buy these Window Trees in bulk from RLLD and create row of Christmas led lighted sculpture using from one of the world’s most famous and well-known symbols. The Ultimate Window Tree features a professionally applied, durable coat of emerald paint and long-life LED bulbs that store owners can leave on throughout the night without fear of overheating. Its removable trunk changes dimensions with the turn of a screwdriver, allowing merchandisers to fit it into specialty and custom-cabinet displays as a central-piece Christmas Holiday decoration. LED light bulbs hang in clusters that shine like traditional Christmas balls, thus adding decoration to illumination that burns more consistently and brightly than traditional incandescent equivalents. The Ultimate Window Tree further adapts to flush mounting against walls and glass windows or hangs as a display from an overhead support by an attaching wire. Small stores and gift shops can even hang it from the wall like a 3-dimensional Christmas picture!

People passing by in cars, however, might not notice an LED Christmas light sculpture that that stands only 36 inches high and markets more to pedestrian traffic than motorists already distracted by traffic signals, other cars, holiday signs, and billboards.
To offer our commercial clients the best competitive advantage in such a case, RLLD now offers The Ultimate Holiday Tree. LED-lit like its window-sized counterpart, this tree resembles a flat panel sign that stands in a large window or hangs on the side of a building. No one will miss the thousands of LED Christmas lights decorate the sculpture and provide a 30-direct view that is clear from any distance. With over 13 sizes ranging from 8 to 100 feet, this Christmas light sculpture looks equally appealing when viewed from afar or a focal point nearby. The lights of this LED holiday decoration and be adjusted through intensity controls that control brightness and color, and they also include optional pre-programmed lighting themes that automate hands-free advertising through decoration all hours of the night. It offers the same aesthetic appeal as pre-lit artificial Christmas trees, but is also able to fit in places full-sized trees cannot.

Read more here about LED lighting and how it can make holiday decorating more colorful and cost effective than ever before.

You can also call a holiday lighting specialist toll free at 800-239-2939.

RLLD football field lights and accessories can meet and overcome these challenges head on with a number of key features and configuration options that will make any field clearly visible but glare free.

RLLD football field lighting fixtures are made with the finest tempered glass specifically designed to minimize blinding glare. These fixtures range in wattage from 400W-1500W and mount on steel poles by means of 2, 3, or 4 light angle cross arm bars. This allows for lights to be added in groups, building levels of intensity incrementally until optimal luminosity for the field is achieved. Football fans in the stands will also benefit from this type of lighting system when fixtures are correspondingly placed around walkways, concession areas, bathrooms, and entrances and exits.

RLLD specialists will help configure lighting systems for football fields free of charge with any serious inquiry or bulk purchase.

With RLLD football field lighting fixtures, adapters, and poles, summer camp fields can be the reason kids decide to spend two weeks in the great outdoors—not to fish, but to play football.
For summer camp football fields, lighting packages for wooden poles can be substituted for sports lighter fixtures when the traditional seating or stands we associate with the game are absent and the field itself may multi-function as an arena for other games or equestrian events.

Churches and community organizations can likewise expect higher attendance on Fridays and Saturday night when they have a good, clear well-lighted playing field for football players and fans alike.
Both school spirit, school attendance, and even small community college enrollment can increase with a quality lighting design on the mid-sized stadium level that specifically targets the key points of football and adequately illuminates the entire facility throughout.

Most of the smaller football fields we light are for children in pee wee and little leagues, or for junior high and high school teams, and the requirements for safety become even more paramount when we consider that it is the safety of children that is at stake.
Football will never be anything less than a rough contact sport, and a certain amount of painful battering is part of the overall nature of the event. Nevertheless, when there is optimal lighting, players who are trained in the game—even extremely young children—have a better chance of weathering the impacts than they would if visibility were obscured on the field due to bad football lighting fixtures or incorrect lighting pole placement.

These things that often escape the notice of the general public and sometimes even schools, churches, camps, and community leagues can make a key difference in both the way the game is played and the impact it has on people involved in all levels of the game. Superior, commercial grade football field lights first and foremost protect the safety of young people in these facilities and ensure that injury, heartache, and liability are minimized.

Click here to read more about specific fixtures specifications and adapter mounts. Be sure to visit as well our full text article on Sports Lighting in general, and look through our selection of steel and wooden poles and lighting packages and kits while ordering online today. We can be reached toll free at 800-239-2939 or online at www.rlldesign.com

Christmas is a tradition that follows traditions. If you pause for only a moment to consider what makes Christmas a holiday as much as a holy day, there are certain things that come to mind that you simply cannot imagine this time of year being without.

The most obvious of these is the lighted Christmas tree. The second thing you picture is holiday lighting and decorations that enhance Christmas trees and create entire, separate themes of endearment- even humor- for holiday cheer and celebration.

A brief list of these items follows as a partial sampling of our offerings. Check back daily as we will be adding more holiday lighting strings, lights and decorative items all the way through the end of November.

A Tradition of Light
RLLD also carries mainstream, traditional holiday lighting decorations that represent Christmas on a Universal Spiritual as well as a secular level. Lighted stars enliven any environment and uplift the spirit regardless of belief system. We carry Christmas stars that emit traditional white light that make excellent lighted decorations for holiday window displays and also top off Christmas trees of any type or size.

For specialty lighting, we offer a number of colors in Moravian star design, including green, and purple. The star measures an even 14” both vertically and horizontally and comes with a 5 feet lead cord. For specialty lighting, decorators in holiday lighting can select a number of mini lighted star spheres that feature elegant, 6" clear twinkling light. This is a favorite for retailers looking to draw the eyes of shoppers to key areas of the store showcasing special merchandise for the season.

Snowflake decorations can light up holiday display windows as well, and they make excellent ornaments for trees both in stores and in the living room. Lighted snowflakes can also dual serve as yard art and outdoor retail lighting. Shrubs, trees, hedges, and overhangs can all be enhanced by flakes of light of all shapes and sizes suspended over walkways and holiday lighted statuary.

Endearing Symbols
Of course, Christmas tradition would not be true tradition without Santa and his reindeer. RLLD has a number of holiday lighted decorations and Santa displays in a variety of sizes and colors. Building on the popularity and versatility of rope lighting for holiday decorations, we have a 60" holographic rope light Santa that comes completely assembled and ready to plug in straight out of the box.

This Santa makes an excellent centerpiece to a Christmas scene both indoors and out, and children and adults equally love the design. We also carry Santa and reindeer holiday lighting decorations, as one of the season’s most world famous symbols.

Possibly our most ornate holiday lighted decoration is our special freestanding reindeer made from a fine gold-colored foil that adds a special glow to the light of 250 bulbs within. You can add them to your Santa display, or you can create little "herds" of reindeer that fill up empty spaces in your parking lot or front yard.

Santa Rides More than a Sleigh
For decorators looking to light up the yard with holiday humor, we even have a Santa on a motorcycle. Harley buffs and weekend bikers may argue at times over who truly owns the road, but at this time of year, we’re all behind Santa on his Easy Ride, we’re all at peace and happy on equal holiday ground beneath the RLLD Christmas tree.

Contact Us today at 800-239-2939 or sign up for our RSS feeds to learn more about holiday lighting products from Residential Landscape Lighting & Design.