Christmas light design and installation for Atlanta homes

The photo you text is the starting point. From it, and from a look in person when the house needs one, we measure each run: eaves, rakes, ridge lines, porch roofs. The quote that comes back names every line, the bulb and spacing for it, the trees and how they are wrapped, and any wreaths or garland. You approve it, change it, or ask for a lighter version.

On install day strands are cut to length at the house, so there are no loose coils stuffed behind a downspout. Clips go on at the set spacing, runs are tested section by section, and the timer is programmed to come on at dusk and go off at the hour you pick. The photo above shows the result on a brick colonial: warm-white C9s on both front gables and the lower roofline, and nothing else competing with them.

North of the Perimeter, where much of our design work is, the typical house asks for scale more than delicacy. In Alpharetta and Johns Creek, a large brick or stone traditional often has a two-story foyer under a tall front gable, a side-load garage wing, and a deep front lawn on an estate-sized lot. Many sit in golf and swim-tennis communities where every house on the street shares that scale, so the display is read against the neighbors as much as on its own. A tall gable like that needs C9s at a steady foot of spacing to hold its shape from the curb.

The older houses closer in were not drawn with a light strand in mind either. The 1910s and 1920s homes of Ansley Park and Druid Hills have deep eaves, dormers, slate or tile roofs, and front gables set at different heights. Large two-story brick houses in Buckhead often sit well back from the street behind mature trees, which changes what can actually be seen from the curb.

On houses like these, restraint usually wins. We might light the main eave and the dormers but leave a rear wing dark, or trace the front gable and let a wrapped oak carry the side yard. The blue-hour photo shows that balance: roofline, a dormer, and foundation shrubs in warm white, with the brick left to do its own work.

Bungalows in Virginia-Highland and cottages across the close-in east side sit near the sidewalk, so lights are seen from a few yards away rather than from across a lawn. That favors C7 bulbs or tighter C9 spacing on the porch roof, and a warm white that does not glare. A Tudor revival, with its steep front gable and arched entry, often looks best with light on that single gable and garland around the door, a simple composition that respects the shape of the house.

A stone-and-shingle Craftsman like the one pictured shows the idea: the roofline is outlined, the driveway reads clearly, and the bulb size matches a house of that height.

A full residential plan can combine rooflines, wrapped trunks and canopies, lit shrubs, driveway or walkway edge lights, wreaths on the windows, and garland on the door or porch rail. The stucco home pictured uses lit shrubs and edge lights along the drive with no roofline at all, which suits a house whose roof is hard to see from the street.

On the wider lots in Roswell and Cumming, where a long drive curves up to the house, the edge lights and a pair of wrapped trunks near the road often matter more than anything on the roof. Some homeowners also ask about a system that stays up year-round. That is a different product with different trade-offs, and our permanent roofline lighting page explains it plainly. For restaurants and shops, the storefront service works around business hours.