Every quote starts with the same question. What color do you want the house to be? Most people have not thought about it past "white." That is fine. There are only five looks we install, and the house usually picks for you.
Warm white, the classic
Warm white is the one that never dates. It is what most people picture when they think of C9 bulbs on a roofline. It works on nearly any house, and it is especially good on cedar shake and dark siding. Both pick up the warm tone and hold it.
If you have a colonial in Sayville or a farmhouse in Smithtown and you are not sure, start here. It is the safe pick, and safe is not a bad word when the whole block is going to see it every night from dusk on.
Pure white, sharp on brick
Pure white is cooler and crisper. It reads sharp against brick. On a brick two-story in Garden City or Rockville Centre, pure white draws a clean line along the roof and lets the brick underneath stay brick.
It is also the pick if warm white reads too yellow for you. Some people want the house to look cold and clean. Pure white does that. Warm white does not.
Red and white, and solid color
Red and white alternates down the roofline. Candy cane. It suits a ranch with one long run of gutter because the pattern has room to repeat. We have done it on a brick ranch and on a stone estate, and it carries on both.
Solid color is green, blue, or team colors. It is a bolder call. It is the right call if you want the house to be a specific thing rather than just lit. We have run a solid green roofline on a split level and it holds its own.
Matching wreaths and garland
Wreaths and garland should match the roof. Warm white roof, warm white wreath. Pure white roof, pure white wreath. Red and white roof, red and white wreath. A warm wreath under a pure white roofline looks like two different jobs.
Where the wreath goes matters too. Over the garage on a hi-ranch. Between the windows on a colonial. On the front door of a ranch, where the roofline is low and there is not much else to break it up. Garland on a railing or a column ties the door back to the roof.
When to mix, and when not to
Mixing works when it is deliberate. "The works" is roof, wreaths, columns, uplit beds and walkway. It uses more than one element on purpose. Warm white C9 on the roof, mini lights wrapped on the columns, the beds uplit in the same warm white. It reads as one plan.
What does not work is mixing whites by accident. Warm white on the roof and pure white minis on the shrubs looks like a mistake, not a choice. If you want contrast, get it from color, not from two whites.
A short version, by house:
- Colonial: warm white on the roof, wreaths in the windows, minis on the columns if you have them.
- Brick two-story: pure white, and let the brick do the rest.
- Cedar shake: warm white. It picks it up well.
- Ranch or hi-ranch: warm white or red and white on the long run, a lit wreath over the garage.
- Split level: warm white, or solid color if you want it to stand out from the block.
Whatever you pick, it gets cut to your roofline so the bulb spacing stays even, and it gets clipped to the shingle or gutter. Never stapled. That matters more than the color when a nor'easter comes through in December.
Try it on the home page
The look picker on our home page does this for you. Tap a scheme and the photo changes. Every one of those photos is a real install, shot from the street the night we finished. No renders. Find the house that looks most like yours, tap through the five looks, and you will know in a minute which one you want.
Then hit the button under it. It goes straight to the quote form.
We come out, measure the roofline, and give you a flat price in writing. No deposit just to get a number. Call 516-434-1726 or use the quote form on the site.
