So, as most of you guys know, we live on a barrier island on the Texas coast and are just a couple miles away from the Gulf of Mexico. Awesome of course…BUT, it is absolute hell on anything outside! We can’t have anything nice outside, no matter what side of the house it is on, ESPECIALLY if it is metal.
*affiliate links included for your convenience. Click here to see my full disclosure policy
About four Christmases ago, Matt got me these new outdoor light fixtures that were so adorable and perfectly nautical. I LOVED them! But within a year, they were starting to rust, and after four years this is how they were looking. Crazy, right?!
So, it was time to replace them. We wanted to stay on the farmhouse/nautical side as well as keep it under $40/fixture since we had to get three of them. These are the choices we pondered (click each one for more info):
sconce
While all of these are beautiful and are the perfect farmhouse/nautical-inspired look we love so much, all but one of them are metal which would put us right back where we are now in just a few short years. It doesn’t matter how “weather-resistant” something says it is, out here it WILL rust in a VERY short amount of time and need to be replaced. May as well put that money towards something that will last more than just a few years.
So, this light, being the only non-metal one, was our choice. And, funny story, we actually looked at these back when we were initially shopping four years ago but I totally scoffed at the plastic idea and fell right into the “weather-resistant” sell of the other ones. The husband made sure to point out that these were the lights he wanted all along…SMH.
I don’t have any pictures of Matt installing them, because it took him not even an hour probably to install all three. Just your basic light installation process, and most of the time was spent figuring out which breaker worked each light.
I love that they are a little bit larger than the ones we had before, and the light seems to be distributed further laterally since more of the bulb is shown. I’m not sure how the plastic would hold up if installed in direct sunlight over the years, but I’m confident ours won’t fade and stay nice and black since they’re on our covered patio. (Also, I SOOO wish we had updated these during our patio makeover last fall! grrrrr)
I’m so happy to have fixtures out here that we won’t have to worry about for a much longer time! We’ve seen these on many of the nice beach homes around here and now we know why, they’ll actually last! If you’re trying to find some outdoor lights that can withstand wet and/or salty air, I highly suggest these guys!!
** Update **
These guys held up perfectly even after 100mph winds during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. We installed two more for our garage door sconces on the front of the house as well in 2018 and they’ve also held up great!
The new lights look fantastic! I have to say, I will be taking a closer look at these. I would have scoffed at having “plastic” lights too…However, now living in AR where there is no salt air — but — often 30+inches of rain a year, rust, moss, and mold are issues. These lights may be a solution to rust, and perhaps mold too!
Thanks for the great info, Em!
T
Right?! “Plastic” lights have such a negative connotation but in this case, they’re absolutely perfect. I’m sure they’d be perfect for AR too with all the wet y’all have. I’d love to hear how they do if you install them up there :)
I live in coastal FL and I had these lights installed for 2 years, the white ones. Here’s the only thing bad about them – unless you use yellow bulbs, or basically never turn them on, they will attract bugs like crazy and the globe will literally fill up to the bulb with bugs! I had to literally empty them out all the time. We like our porch lights on in the evenings for security reasons, and these things were great except for that. Issue is that they are not sealed inside at the top, so bugs can just fly right in. The other issue we had was, over time, the globe began to yellow and fade. After about 2 years, they looked like crap. Also, because they are not sealed tight, the socket and wiring begin to corrode and you’ll eventually go to change a bulb, and the entire socket will break off while you do. So… long and short of it, be prepared to replace these out in 2 years if you live in a high salt coastal area like we do. We are 100yrds from the ocean so…. Seems like the hunt is still on for a light that lasts.
Oh no! Ours are going on three years now and knock on wood we haven’t experienced those headaches yet. They are on pretty often but are well protected and are on the leeward side of the house so that definitely helps. I’m sorry you guys have to still replace yours pretty often, I know that’s crazy frustrating, but at least they’re economical to do so LOL!
I am looking for an ocean front light and am in the northeast. The question I have is how well these stand up to high winds. It looks like the arm might not be sufficient. In winter we regularly experience 40+ mph winds. Also, your link to Lowe’s is now broken. I suspect Lowe’s changed their website. Who is the manufacturer?
Hi Peter! I’m sorry about that link issue, I’m not able to find them there any longer but here’s another link to try: . We haven’t had any issue with these lights and high winds, they went through Hurricane Harvey in 2017 with no issues at all (winds at 100mph at our house, coming directly towards the patio side of the house) and we frequently have 30-40mph winds here throughout the year anyway.
CAN I HAVE THE LINK FOR THIS LIGHT?
There is a link in the body of the post, however this exact light is discontinued now. There is a similar one available HERE though.