Christmas Lighting Design Ideas for Nashville Homes

Most Nashville homes do not need more lights. They need a clearer plan. The houses that look right in December usually run one clean line along the roof and add one deliberate accent underneath it. Everything after that is noise.

Red Nose Lites has been designing and installing holiday lighting in Middle Tennessee since 2006, and the same handful of christmas lighting design ideas keep working across very different streets. Here is how to think about your own house.

Start with the roofline. It does most of the work.

The roofline is the drawing. It is the only part of the display that reads from the far end of the street, and it is what makes a house look lit rather than decorated.

Walk out to the curb after dark and look at the shape of your house against the sky. The line you want to trace is the edge where the roof meets the gutter, plus the peaks, gables and dormers that face the road. On a simple gable front, that is one continuous run, and it is enough. On a house with three dormers and a wing, the temptation is to light all of it. Resist that. Light the front plane and the peaks a person on the sidewalk can actually see. Nobody is standing in your side yard in December.

Custom cut strands matter here more than people expect. A strand cut to the exact length of the eave sits tight and evenly spaced end to end. A stock strand that runs two feet long gets doubled back or left to dangle, and that is the detail that makes a house look homemade from thirty feet away. Every Red Nose Lites install uses commercial grade LED strands cut to the property and held with clips sized to the roof edge or the gutter lip. Never staples, nails or screws into fascia, trim or shingles.

Then add exactly one accent layer

This is where most designs come apart. Roofline plus wrapped columns plus every window plus four wrapped trees plus a lit walkway is not five times better than roofline alone. It is a house with no focal point.

Pick one accent and commit to it:

• The entry. Wrapped porch columns, a lit garland along the porch rail, or a matched pair of small trees flanking the front door. This pulls the eye to the door, which is exactly where you want it.
• One specimen tree. A single well lit tree in the front yard reads as intentional. Six half lit shrubs read as leftovers.
• Windows. Outlining windows works on a symmetrical facade, and only if you do all the ones facing the street. Half a face of lit windows looks like somebody ran out of strand.
• The walk or the drive. Low, even, repeating. Worth it on a long approach. Wasted on a twelve foot path to the steps.

One accent under a strong roofline is a design. Three accents is a pile.

Match the light to the architecture

Nashville is not one kind of house, and one layout does not translate across neighborhoods.

Brick traditional and colonial

Symmetry is the whole point of these houses, so the lighting should be symmetrical too. A tight, even roofline run plus wrapped columns or a lit entry surround. Warm white against red or painted brick looks correct. These homes are common through Belle Meade, Forest Hills and Green Hills. They are also the easiest style to overdo.

Bungalows and cottages

On a deep porch bungalow, the porch is the facade. The roof edge sits low and close to the street, so every clip and every gap is visible from the sidewalk. That argues for tight spacing and a clean cut, not for more lights. Garland on the porch rail or wrapped porch posts is usually the right accent. This is most of what you see walking through 12 South and Sylvan Park.

New builds and farmhouse style

Black window frames, white board and batten, hard edges. These houses are already high contrast, so they take a crisp, graphic line well. Keep the roofline and skip the fussy accents. Cool white can work here where it would look wrong on old brick. Common through Franklin and College Grove.

Ranch homes

A ranch gives you a long, low horizontal line and not much height. That line looks good lit evenly, but it needs something vertical or the display goes flat. One tree at the corner of the house, or a lit entry, gives the eye somewhere to go. Ranches and split levels are everywhere in Hillwood and across greater Nashville.

Color: pick one and stay with it

Warm white is the safest choice and flatters brick, stone and wood siding. Cool white looks sharp next to white trim and black windows, and slightly blue and cold next to warm red brick. Look at your house in daylight before you decide.

Multicolor is a real choice, not a lesser one, but it wants to be the whole idea rather than a garnish. A multicolor roofline with warm white accents underneath usually looks like an accident. Multicolor throughout, evenly, looks deliberate. Whatever you pick, hold one color temperature across the entire display. Mixing warm white from last year with a new cool white run is the most common way a display looks off without anyone being able to say why.

Things that are not worth paying for

• Lighting a roof plane nobody sees. The back of the house, the side facing a fence line, the second story dormer hidden behind a mature oak. If you cannot see it from the street, it is money spent on nothing.
• Wrapping tall trunks very high. Past a certain height people stop looking up. The bottom fifteen feet does more than the top thirty.
• A wreath on the front door. That is a five minute job, and it is fine to do it yourself. Hire out the parts that involve a ladder and a roof edge in cold weather.

Design for Nashville weather, not for the photo

A display that looks great the day it goes up and sags by New Year was not designed, it was hung. Middle Tennessee gives you wind, rain, freeze and thaw cycles, and the occasional ice event that puts real weight on a strand. Lines have to be clipped tight, spaced consistently, and run so water is not sitting in a connection. Nothing should be fastened by driving metal into fascia or shingles.

In season maintenance is part of every install, along with a 24 hour service guarantee during the season. If a run goes dark in the third week of December, it gets fixed. Takedown after the holidays and off season storage are included, so the strands live at our shop and not in a tangle in your garage. No contracts, no long term commitments. The full sequence is on how it works.

How to get a price on your design

You do not need a finished plan before you call. Call (615) 595-9686, tell us the style of house, how many stories, roughly what you want lit, and you can get a price on that call. If your property is large or unusual, or you would rather walk it with someone, a site visit is available. It is an option, not a requirement. You can also start with the form on the get a quote page, or read through residential installation to see what is included. Offices, retail and property managers can start at commercial installation.

Family owned in Nashville since 2006, with 20+ years of experience. Design, custom cut commercial grade LED strands, installation by insured crews, maintenance, takedown and storage, all in one.