Residential Showcase: 25 Home Installations
From the Gallery: Our Gallery Hub features the best work in the industry. This showcase highlights exceptional residential installations.
Every residential installation tells a story about the property, the homeowner's vision, and the installer's ability to translate both into light. The 25 installations profiled here represent the range of what professional residential work looks like across different home styles, budgets, and design approaches. Study these not just for inspiration but for the technical decisions behind each one.
Category 1: Classic Warm White — The Premium Standard
The Colonial Revival (4,200 sq ft facade)
This two-story Colonial sits on a corner lot with 190 linear feet of roofline, twelve 3x5 windows, a portico entrance with four columns, and mature boxwood hedging along the foundation.
Design approach: Full roofline outline in warm white C9 at 12" spacing. Window frames outlined with warm white C7 at 8" spacing. Each column wrapped with warm white mini lights at 3" branch spacing. Boxwood hedging covered with net lights. Two 8-foot wreaths with warm white mini lights mounted on the second-story windows flanking the front door.
Why it works: The C9 roofline establishes the architectural envelope. The C7 window outlines reinforce the symmetry that defines the Colonial style. Column wraps add vertical dimension without competing with the roofline. Net lights on the hedging create a continuous base of light that grounds the entire composition.
Key technical detail: The installer ran separate circuits for the roofline (two circuits, split at the center peak), windows (one circuit per floor), columns (one circuit shared), and hedging (two circuits). This allows the homeowner to run partial displays on mild evenings and full displays for the holiday peak.
The Craftsman Bungalow (1,800 sq ft facade)
Craftsman homes present a different challenge than Colonials. The roofline is lower, the overhangs are deeper, and the architectural character comes from horizontal lines and natural materials, not symmetry.
Design approach: Warm white C9 at 12" spacing along the main roofline only, not the secondary porch roof. Porch columns wrapped in warm white mini lights. Two potted evergreen topiaries flanking the front steps, wrapped in warm white mini lights. Pathway lights (warm white C9 stake lights at 3-foot intervals) leading from the sidewalk to the porch.
Why it works: Restraint. A Craftsman home loses its character when over-lit. The installer respected the horizontal emphasis by lighting only the primary roofline, letting the deep overhang shadow create natural depth. The pathway lights guide the eye to the front door without competing with the architecture.
Key technical detail: The deep overhang on Craftsman homes means roofline clips must be attached to the fascia edge, not under the shingle. Shingle clips would place the bulbs too far back, hidden by the overhang. Fascia-mounted C-clips with the bulb facing outward keep the light line visible from the street.
The Mid-Century Ranch (2,400 sq ft facade)
Ranch homes are the most common residential installation and the most frequently botched. The single-story roofline is low, the facade is wide, and there is minimal vertical dimension to work with.
Design approach: Warm white C9 at 12" spacing on the full roofline, including the garage. Two large evergreen trees in the front yard wrapped trunk-to-tip with warm white mini lights at 4" spacing. Foundation shrubs covered with warm white net lights. A single large wreath with warm white mini lights centered over the garage door.
Why it works: The trees provide the vertical element that the architecture lacks. Without them, a ranch home roofline reads as a flat horizontal line hovering above the ground. The trees create height, the roofline creates width, and the net lights on the foundation shrubs fill the gap between them. The garage wreath balances the composition since the garage door is typically the largest single surface on a ranch facade.
Key technical detail: Ranch rooflines often have long, unbroken runs that exceed safe circuit length for C9 strings. The installer used a centrally located GFCI outlet at the peak of the garage, running lines in both directions. This eliminated the need for extension cords across the garage door or visible from the driveway.
The Two-Story Traditional (3,500 sq ft facade)
Design approach: Full warm white C9 roofline with matching ridge line on the front gable. All windows outlined in warm white C7. Front door framed with a garland of mixed greenery and warm white mini lights. Two flanking yard trees wrapped in warm white.
Why it works: The gable ridge line adds a design element that most installers skip. Running lights along the ridge as well as the eaves creates a complete architectural outline rather than just an edge. The garland on the front door adds texture and natural material that pure light displays lack.
The Luxury Estate (8,000+ sq ft facade)
Design approach: Warm white C9 on all rooflines, including dormers and secondary structures (detached garage, pergola). Warm white C7 on all windows and dormers. Driveway lined with luminaria-style ground lights at 5-foot intervals. Mature trees (six total) wrapped in warm white. Custom-fabricated 6-foot wreaths on the upper facade. Landscape uplighting in warm white on the stone facade.
Why it works: At estate scale, the quantity of light must increase but the density should not. The same C9 at 12" spacing used on a 2,000 sq ft home works on an 8,000 sq ft home. What changes is the number of circuits, the total material, and the installation time, not the design philosophy. The driveway luminarias and landscape uplighting extend the display beyond the building envelope, making the entire property feel designed rather than just the house.
Category 2: Multi-Color Classic — Bold and Traditional
The Family Neighborhood Home
Design approach: Multi-color C9 bulbs (red, green, blue, gold, warm white) in a repeating five-color pattern at 12" spacing on the roofline. Matching multi-color C7 on the garage and porch roof. Green mini lights on foundation shrubs. Red and green rope light outlining the front walkway.
Why it works: Multi-color works best when the pattern is consistent and deliberate. Random color ordering looks chaotic. This installer used a strict five-color repeating sequence so the pattern reads as intentional from the street. The green mini lights on the shrubs unify the base, and the red/green rope light on the walkway carries the palette to ground level.
Key technical detail: With multi-color C9 strings, pre-loading your sockets with the correct color sequence before climbing the ladder saves significant installation time. Many professionals pre-build their strings on the ground, loading bulbs in exact sequence, then hang the completed string as a single unit.
The Victorian Painted Lady
Victorian homes with complex rooflines, turrets, and decorative trim practically demand multi-color treatment. The ornate architecture provides visual structure that can support bold color without becoming chaotic.
Design approach: Multi-color C9 on primary rooflines. Multi-color C7 on secondary rooflines and trim details. Purple and gold accent colors on the turret, matching the home's painted trim. Icicle lights (multi-color) hanging from the porch overhang.
Why it works: The installer matched accent colors to the home's existing paint scheme rather than using a generic holiday palette. This is a technique worth adopting: pull your accent colors from the property rather than imposing a standard palette. The home already tells you its colors. Your lighting should amplify them.
Category 3: Accent and Specialty Designs
The Minimalist Modern (3,200 sq ft facade)
Modern architecture resists traditional roofline lighting. Flat roofs, sharp angles, and minimal ornamentation call for a different approach.
Design approach: Permanent LED track lighting installed along the fascia lines in warm white, with RGB capability for holiday color accents. No roofline bulbs. No wraps. Uplighting on two architectural concrete walls. A single large LED star mounted at the highest point of the facade.
Why it works: The design follows the architectural language. Modern homes are about clean lines and negative space. Draping C9 strings on a modern home fights the architecture. Track lighting in the fascia channel maintains the clean edge while adding light. The star serves as the single focal point in an otherwise restrained display.
The Woodland Property
Properties with heavy tree cover and setback from the road present a unique challenge: the house may barely be visible from the street.
Design approach: Instead of focusing on the home, this installer focused on the approach. Twelve trees along the 200-foot driveway, each wrapped in warm white mini lights. Ground-level pathway markers along both sides. The home itself received only a simple roofline and front door garland.
Why it works: The installer recognized that the impact zone for this property was the driveway, not the facade. Driving through a tunnel of illuminated trees for 200 feet is a more memorable experience than squinting at a distant roofline. The design met the viewer where they actually are.
The Townhouse / Zero-Lot-Line Home
Limited facade width (16-22 feet), shared walls, and restricted roof access make townhouses a puzzle.
Design approach: Warm white C7 (not C9, which would be too large in scale) on the narrow roofline. Window boxes with lit garland on the two front windows. A wreath on the door. Two potted topiaries with mini lights flanking the entrance. Total material: under 200 feet of light string.
Why it works: The installer scaled the product to the property. C9 bulbs on a 20-foot-wide facade would look disproportionate. C7 maintains the outlined look at a scale that matches the architecture. The window box garlands add dimension without requiring roof access to adjacent units.
Category 4: Tree and Landscape Features
The Specimen Tree Display
A 40-foot blue spruce in the front yard is the focal point. The home is secondary.
Design approach: The tree received a full wrap, trunk to tip, using warm white mini lights at 3" branch spacing on the lower third, 4" on the middle third, and 6" on the upper third. This density gradient creates the appearance of uniform brightness because the wider spacing at the top compensates for the longer viewing distance. The home received only a simple warm white roofline.
Key technical detail: A 40-foot tree at this density requires approximately 15,000-20,000 mini light bulbs. Power was supplied by three dedicated 20-amp circuits run to the base of the tree. Strings were installed from the top down using a 40-foot extension ladder and pole-mounted clips for the uppermost branches.
The Landscape-Forward Design
Some properties have unremarkable architecture but spectacular landscaping. This installer leaned into that.
Design approach: No roofline lights. Instead, twelve landscape elements were individually lit: four ornamental trees with mini light wraps, three large boulders with warm white uplighting, a water feature with submersible warm white lights, two hedgerow sections with net lights, and a garden arch with wrapped garland. The driveway was lined with warm white pathway stakes.
Why it works: Not every installation needs a roofline. This property's strength was its landscaping, and the installer had the confidence to skip the roofline and invest all the material and labor into ground-level features. The result reads as a lit garden rather than a lit house.
Common Patterns Across All 25 Installations
After studying these residential installations, several patterns emerge that separate professional work from amateur attempts:
Consistency Within Each Property
Every installation here uses a consistent color temperature, consistent spacing, and consistent product selection within its design category. None of them mix warm white with cool white. None of them use C9 on the roofline and then switch to a completely unrelated product on secondary features without a clear proportional logic.
Architectural Respect
The best installations follow the home's existing architectural language. Colonial homes get symmetrical, outline-dominant designs. Craftsman homes get restrained, horizontal emphasis. Modern homes get clean-line, minimal-product designs. Victorian homes get complex, multi-element, color-rich designs. Fighting the architecture always produces a worse result than working with it.
Intentional Hierarchy
Every installation has a primary element, secondary elements, and supporting elements. The eye knows where to look first, second, and third. If everything is equally bright and equally dense, the display has no hierarchy and reads as visual clutter regardless of how much product was used.
Invisible Infrastructure
In none of these installations can you see extension cords, power connections, timers, or mounting hardware from the primary viewing angle (the street). Professionals hide their infrastructure. Homeowners leave it visible. This single factor often determines whether a display reads as professional or DIY.
Proportional Product Selection
Large features get large products (C9). Medium features get medium products (C7). Small features and detail work get small products (mini lights). Wraps and fills use the finest available product. This proportional logic applies regardless of the design style or color palette.
Building Your Residential Portfolio
When photographing residential installations for your portfolio, capture three images per property:
- The establishing shot — Full property from across the street during blue hour. This is your primary portfolio image.
- The detail shot — A close-up of the most technically impressive feature: a clean roofline corner, a perfectly wrapped tree, a symmetrical window outline.
- The context shot — The home in its streetscape, showing how the installation relates to neighboring properties. This image sells the "your home will stand out" narrative to prospective clients.
For detailed photography techniques, see the Before & After: Transformation Stories article, which covers timing, composition, and camera settings in depth.
What's Next
See how commercial properties approach holiday lighting at scale.
Next: Commercial Showcase: 20 Business Displays