What Gemstone Lighting Actually Is
Gemstone Lights is a permanent outdoor LED lighting system. Tiny fixtures installed once along the eaves of your home, each individually controllable from an app on your phone. Default state: warm-white sconce-like glow that highlights your home's architecture after dark. On-demand state: full color, holiday displays, team colors, custom patterns — anything you want, controlled from the app.
The product is genuinely good. It's the dominant permanent-roofline system in the market, the hardware quality is high, the app works, and the manufacturer warranty is strong.
Whether it's right for your home — and whether the install you're being quoted is worth what you're paying — depends on factors that most sales pitches don't cover.
Things Worth Knowing
The install is more important than the product
Gemstone fixtures themselves are commodities — they're the same hardware no matter who installs them. What separates a good install from a bad one is layout, wiring routing, attachment method, and finish detail. A poorly-installed Gemstone system reveals itself within a year or two: visible wiring, fixtures pulling away from the fascia, uneven spacing. A well-installed one looks intentional even five years in.
The aesthetic isn't for everyone
Gemstone is a fixed-position system. The fixtures sit along the roofline in a continuous line. On some architectures that's beautiful. On others — particularly homes with elaborate trim or unusual rooflines — the look may be too uniform. A good designer should tell you this before recommending the system.
The "never deal with Christmas lights again" pitch is real, but partial
Permanent roofline lighting eliminates seasonal install on the eaves. It does not eliminate wreath hanging, tree wrapping, yard displays, or any of the rest of holiday lighting. If you want a full holiday production, you're still hiring someone for the rest of it — which we also do.
Pricing varies more than it should
We've seen quotes for the same home from different dealers vary by 40-60%. Some of that is real (more roofline = more fixtures, more electrical work = more labor). Some of it isn't (margin variability between dealers). Always get more than one quote, and ask each one to itemize their proposal.
The app and the system are getting better over time
Gemstone updates the app and firmware regularly. Features that didn't exist two years ago — better animations, more granular control, additional preset modes — exist now. The system you install today will keep improving.
Compare Before You Buy
Gemstone Lighting
Permanent roofline lighting is a decade-long decision, so compare carefully. A few questions worth asking any installer:
Investment Range
Most Gemstone installations with Light Up Columbus range from $5,500 to $18,000 depending on home size, roofline complexity, and electrical requirements. The Gemstone Buying Guide breaks down what drives the cost and what to expect at different home sizes.
Why Buy Through Light Up Columbus
We're an authorized Gemstone Lights dealer, which means our installers are factory-trained on the hardware and our installs are covered by both Gemstone's manufacturer warranty and our own workmanship warranty.
But the more important reason: we've been installing exterior lighting in Central Ohio for two decades. The same crews who install our award-winning landscape lighting install our Gemstone systems. The same standards apply.
If you're going to have a system that lives on your home for 15+ years, who installs it matters.
