Outdoor smart lighting allows for greater control and customization of exterior spaces. You can schedule smart lights to come on at specific times or control them while you are away. You can also choose from an amazing variety of smart lights, from downlights to deck string lights. Some models can even change colors on the fly, further enhancing the security of your home as well as its appeal when it gets dark.

Admittedly, this was not enough to invest in extending smart lights to the outside of my home. At least until the rusty floodlights got under my skin enough to upgrade. At least, until the rusty floodlights were upgraded. I currently use smart outdoor lighting in most of my primary exterior living spaces.

Here are the models I own, where I have them installed (from my front yard to my back yard), and what I learned after adding them to my smart home.

Let's go back to three years ago. I was power washing the vinyl siding on my home when I noticed that the floodlights in my parents' house were badly corroded and rusted. This old light fixture was older than I was, but it had done its job of illuminating the entrance to my mother-in-law's apartment. Of course, the motion detection was imperfect, but I come from a family of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.

Nevertheless, there was a noticeable orange stain floating up from the beige vinyl siding like a stain, which slowly but surely began to drive me to Macbeth's "Get out, damned stain" level of insanity. Once I saw it, I couldn't watch it again.

My parents are a Ring camera family, so I replaced the light with a Ring Wired Flood Cam Plus ($199, Amazon). Little did I know that this would open the door to adding other types of outdoor smart lights.

I had been using smart bulbs in my house for years and was convinced that having remotely controlled outdoor lighting was a natural progression. On top of that, Ring Floodlight killed two birds with one stone: a 1080p camera that allows me to see my yard live, and smart speakers throughout the house to receive notifications of motion detection.

Not only do the smart and camera features work smoothly, but the bright dual 2000 lumen LED lights add a phenomenal accent to the yard. These LEDs automatically emit a wide mesh of light when motion is detected.

At night, they completely illuminate the 15-foot path from the driveway to the front door. This light stays off until I park my truck. As soon as I step out, I am greeted by a blanket of light. This eliminates the need for actual pathway lighting sticking out of the ground.

The camera feature has also become indispensable over time. We can see our roads and driveways from our Echo Shows. This comes in handy when keeping an eye on Amazon package deliveries or when my sisters' bus arrives in the morning. I ended up getting hooked and bought a couple of Ring Spotlight Cam Plus ($169, Amazon) cameras to mount on either side of the house for additional lighting and surveillance. That way, I can keep an eye on the kids in the backyard and the deck on the side of the house at all times.

Now that our house was covered with cameras, my next project was to add an always-on security downlight to the front of the house. However, I wanted it to be customizable in a variety of fun colors. Thus, I made the move from Ring into the Govee ecosystem.

Govee's permanent outdoor lighting kit is a string of 72 LED cubes. They simply wire them into the eaves of the roof. In addition to the thousands of color combinations, it's great for displaying bright white light as a security downlight; for most of the year, it keeps our house warm, illuminates our driveway when we have guests, and makes our house stand out in the street.

You can easily control the lights from the Govee Home mobile app or smart home hub to refresh the way your home looks on the fly. If you don't want to play with effects or have red and green lights for the holidays, you can choose from hundreds of other colors and patterns to apply to individual lights.

It works with Alexa and Google Home, so you can use the smart home platform's app to schedule the lights and link them to automation. This is a great option for installation along the house. But if you have a separate deck or patio, you'll want to hang string lights. This is where my recent addition of LIFX Smart String Lights comes into play.

Our backyard is a hodgepodge of crap, from a children's play set for my elementary school sisters to lounge chairs for sunbathing. Our main hangout after dark is the deck, which is lit primarily by two dimly lit candelabras attached to the house. At the risk of sounding like a caveman, the fire pit kept the place lit on summer and fall nights.

Adding LIFX smart outdoor string lights to our yard was a complete game changer. I went with a 24-foot string consisting of 12 LED bulbs, bright at $129, but pricey because of the three-zone mixing technology for richer color; think of it as a quality jump from LED TVs to OLED TVs; LIFX's Polychrome color technology, so bright and vivid that one can distinguish between different hues, such as neon and hot pink.

Twelve tiny LED bulbs brightly illuminate not only my deck, but also the yard beyond. This covers a huge area and provides enough space for a wiffle or a game of bocce ball after the sun goes down. Even at night, when I choose the basic white light mode with no color, the LIFX bulbs make the normally pitch-black yard look good. As the weather gets warmer, the ambiance makes me play and eat outside more often at night.

For a long time, I saw smart outdoor lighting as an aesthetic choice rather than a way to meet my needs. However, these devices have allowed me to make better use of my outdoor space, better protect my home, and improve the overall style of my property. I just had a rusty old floodlight and realized that outdoor smart lights are one of the most underrated additions to a smart home.