Inspiration

Teal Barn Lights Bridge Gap Between New Garage, Older Home

Ordering online is arguably one of the best benefits of the Internet. It’s also a bit daunting when it comes to purchasing items you’ve never seen or held in your hands. When Kate clicked the “order” button to purchase lighting from Barn Light Electric for her new garage and home office, she admits to being nervous about her choice of finish color.

“I was scared I’d made a mistake,” she says. “I didn’t tell my designer and contractor what I’d chosen for a couple of weeks. I was afraid they would think I’d lost my mind.”

Kate’s new garage sits adjacent to her 1920s Craftsman-style home in an older neighborhood called East Sacramento in California. She demolished the old garage which she described as big and unsightly, and replaced it with a new structure on a smaller footprint. This opened up room for a yard and a small pool.

To blend the older home with the new building, Kate wanted exterior lighting with clean lines and a modern feel but that didn’t stray too far from the existing arts-and-crafts style.

“The Barn Light look — simple and modern but gesturing at classic and traditional — bridged that really well,” she notes. “Plus the fun finish options gave me the opportunity to add color.”

As a returning customer to Barn Light Electric, Kate was familiar with our American-made quality. Because California requires LED fixtures for new construction, she browsed our LED Collection to find garage lighting that complemented the fixtures already installed on the house.

“It was important to get the look to coordinate with the existing lights,” Kate explains. “I had a great experience ordering from Barn Light before. The lights are a really good value and high quality, plus they look great and are low maintenance.”

Kate chose two Avalon LED Gooseneck Lights to flank the new garage door. She customized these handspun wall lights with 10″ shades, Teal finish, and G11 gooseneck arm. She also chose an 850 lumen LED, 3000K neutral white temperature, and a domed lens.

“I was so nervous about the Teal. But I was choosing everything last winter when the weather was rainy and dreary, and my back yard was a giant construction mud pit. Teal made me think of brighter summer days to come,” Kate explains. “You can see the lights over the fence from the back yard and I had chosen teal-colored tiles for the pool, so the lights tie the garage to the rest of the space nicely.”

For the stairway and deck leading to her office, Kate needed a more compact fixture. She fell in love with the Streamline LED Industrial Guard Sconce. She customized these nautical-style sconces with the same Teal finish as her gooseneck lights, a standard cast guard, and frosted glass.

“I think they look great,” Kate says. “I like the silhouette and retro-modern look of these. The Teal color is my favorite thing about the lights. It livens up the whole building. Although it seems like a little detail, I feel the combination of coordinated lights, some with matching shape, some with matching color, subtly ties the entire project and property together.”

Note: Color samples are available from Barn Light Electric. Simply call 800-407-8784, email sales@barnlight.com or chat with our sales team via Live Chat from our home page. 

Landscape design: Design by Misha
Architect: Ellis Architects
Building contractor: Andrew Turner Construction
Landscape contractor: Red Leaf Developments