41 midcentury lighting ideas – post lanterns, lamp posts, wall lanterns and landscaping lights

HERE IS A REALLY GREAT SURVEY OF VINTAGE OUTDOOR LIGHTING, from my 1961 Progress Lighting catalog. I started with this photo because: Just look at the little umbrella landscape light. It is phenomenal! The careful addition of outdoor lighting can be one of the easiest and relatively cheapest ways to improve the curb appeal of your midcentury ranch house, Cape, colonial or contemporary. At minimum, think: High quality, well maintained wall lanterns adjacent to or above the entry door and garage, and a lamp post either at the front of the driveway or closer to the house next to a walkway heading toward the door. Landscape around the lamp post – this is also a great piece of ‘hardscape’ to launch a decorative fence. Light are “sentinels”. Use them to ultimately draw attention toward your front door…they are tools to make your house say a big, warm “Welcome.”

All of these lamp post styles are “around” — except, as far as know, for the decorative steel one, #3. I did feature a metal post for a mailbox that might be able to be adapted for this use. I also must say, I am not quite sure where to get a post that includes the hanger thingy shown above on all the posts. We had to drill ours in, it was a real hassle. Finally, on this topic – I know where to get a nice, heavy duty custom name-and-number plate to hang on your lamp post. We have one! It is so cool! Will do a post soon. A post post tee hee.

1961 post lanterns. SO COOL. LOVE that guy in the upper right with the house numbers included. Swoonable.

A couple more. The three colonial styles can *pretty much* be found today. 

Oh, and here’s some more. Nice! These lanterns – hmmm, nothing like them available today, I fear. ?

Wall lanterns to match. Hanover make lanterns with the scrolly thingys, like the example at the top. This style goes over the garage, center. You need to make sure you fascia is tall enough. Be careful about scale. In fact, scale is a very Important issue regarding all these lights: You don’t want your lights to be too big, or too dinky. You want them to be just right. One of my biggest pet peeves is the houses today with their gargantuan wall lanterns. Ugh. You want people to see your House. Not your Wall Lantern. These are like jewelry. Agonize over this decision, please.

More outdoor retro lighting. Love that P5973!

The three colonial style ceiling fixtures on this page – ubiquitous in the 50s and 60s. Everywhere! Easy to find replacements today. But they can be cheap looking. Spend a little extra to get solid heavy construction. It will subconsciously comfort you even though the inexpensive big box store lights look the same.