It’s prime time to talk about Holiday Lighting here in Nashville as the end of Daylight Saving Time beckons on Sunday, November 3, 2024.
Kimberly Greenwell from My Southern Home just interviewed our Nashville local franchise owner of Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, Bob Lyons, and we wanted to share this highly informative and educational dialogue with you.
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Nashville Holiday Lighting That Almost Magically Appears At Your Home, Year After Year
Kimberly Greenwell: We're back with My Southern Home, now here with Bob Lyons with Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, and thanks for joining us.
Bob Lyons, OLP: Oh, it's wonderful to be here on this beautiful day.
Kimberly Greenwell: It is a beautiful day in October—the perfect time to talk about Holiday Lighting. Of course, we're already starting to put lights up back in July for Cheekwood, so we're well on our way.
Bob Lyons, OLP: Yes, as we are in our 8th year of putting the lights up, it takes us from about mid-July to late October. Then we go back for a few days for another week so that brides don't have to have Christmas lights in their photoshoots.
Kimberly Greenwell: Well, that's very important. Yes. So, when it comes to holiday lighting, you help families all over Middle Tennessee bring the holiday spirit to the exterior of their homes, correct?
Bob Lyons, OLP: Correct. We do that in a few different ways. Most traditionally, we’ll design, install the product, take it down, and store it for them. And we also have Permanent Roofline Lighting options.
Kimberly Greenwell: Well, it's really nice to have that option for someone like you to come out and perfectly design it and put it up, because some of these homes are extremely dangerous to work with.
Bob Lyons, OLP: That's true. We always have somebody holding the ladders, and we have all the proper insurance and so forth. What we do for clients is I take a picture of their house, and then I'll draw in all the different options. I give them several different options so they can pick and choose. One of the nicest things about how we do business is they purchase all the items, so in year two, the cost, if it’s a $5,000 project, might be around $2,500 to $2,700 in the second year. So it's quite a bit of savings.
Kimberly Greenwell: Oh, that's really nice. And do they store the items as well?
Bob Lyons, OLP: We store it all. We store it all, so it's just a matter of writing a check or giving me a credit card, and we're all good.
Kimberly Greenwell: Nice, you're a one-stop shop for holiday lighting!
Bob Lyons, OLP: That's what I try to be. I try to make it easy and make sure you don't have to worry about any of this stuff.
Kimberly Greenwell: So, when it comes to the design process, how does that work?
Bob Lyons, OLP: Well, most of the time, I’ll show you examples of different things. I’ll show videos—we have a great video of Cheekwood that we took with a drone—and I’ll show them that as an example. We’ll talk about tree-wrapping, and I steer people toward exactly what they need or even less. Some people don't want "this tree and that tree" and “Merry Christmas” all the way down the line.
Kimberly Greenwell: Well, it's nice that you provide those renderings for the homeowners because that way there are no surprises, and they know exactly what you're going to install.
Bob Lyons, OLP: That’s right. I try to make sure there are no questions about what to expect, and I always try to do the old "under-promise, over-deliver." That's generally how we try to do things.
Kimberly Greenwell: One of the things that's important to you that your company offers is exterior lighting maintenance throughout the year, not just during the holidays, correct?
Bob Lyons, OLP: Correct. It’s interesting because a lot of our holiday clients don’t even know we do landscape lighting year-round. We work 365 days a year, and we have some really broad offerings. Oftentimes, when we go out at night, we’ll light the tree, light the house, and you can get a really good feel for what can be done at your home.
Kimberly Greenwell: There are so many options now. Like the home we’re at right now has this beautiful string of lights, and I’m sure it’s absolutely gorgeous in the evening.
Bob Lyons, OLP: Oh yes, festival lights are a big hit. We put them in the front yard here, which creates ambiance and gives some safety at night as you go to your car. They’re wonderful. We typically put all these on dimmers, so you can adjust them to get the right balance. We can also add these to a traditional low-voltage system, so we don’t have to run line voltage. I don’t plug it into an extension cord and walk away; we use custom lengths, cut to size, and stainless-steel cable. It's a top-notch installation from beginning to end.
Kimberly Greenwell: Where are the trends you're seeing in outdoor lighting?
Bob Lyons, OLP: We’re seeing more and more interest in color-changing lights. They have a broad range of whites, from really warm to cool, and then full RGB lights. For holidays, you can change the lighting for St. Patrick’s Day, the 4th of July—I do that here all the time.
Kimberly Greenwell: It’s nice that you have so many options in one place. Another trend I’ve heard about is permanent roof lighting. Is that coming to Nashville?
Bob Lyons, OLP: Yes, Permanent Roofline Lighting started in Calgary, Canada, and it’s moved here. We work with a company called Gemstone, and they’re top-notch. By the end of this year, you’ll be able to sync your lights to music. It’s a permanent system that rides underneath your eaves, so it’s invisible during the day but stunning at night. You can change the color and even make the lights move. It’s impressive.
Kimberly Greenwell: Once you have all these wonderful products at home, if something happens, do you help fix them as well?
Bob Lyons, OLP: Yes, we’ll service any system, even if we didn’t install it. We would love to do it the first time around, but we often go out, assess the situation, and give a fair estimate. If we can save the system, we do. If a hybrid approach works—replacing some parts but not others—we do that too. We also warranty what we do. For example, if we do a complete bulb exchange, we’ll warranty it for the next year, and we’ll extend that warranty if needed. We want to take care of our clients because the worst thing is installing a lighting system and not having anyone come back to maintain it.
Kimberly Greenwell: I always say on the show that who you choose is important, and that’s just a testament to why I have companies like yours on the show.
Bob Lyons, OLP: I appreciate that. We try to do things right, and that way I can sleep better at night.
Kimberly Greenwell: Thank you so much for being with us today.
Bob Lyons, OLP: Alright, it's been a pleasure. Thank you.
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