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As you scroll through countless types of recessed lighting, look for features and light quality. Motion sensors can make your home more accessible. Smart-ready fixtures give you control at your fingertips. Light quality can set the mood. The package's label and the online specs for LED lights will display the lumens and Kelvin (K). Lumens tell you the brightness—650 for daylight, one for candlelight. Kelvin tells you the temperature—warm (below 4,000K), neutral, or cool (above 5,000K).

Before investing in motion sensor lights, there are a couple of disadvantages worth noting. For starters, they’re not as reliable as other forms of lighting. Motion sensor lights can be accidentally triggered by pets or wind, which can become a nuisance after a while. The opposite situation can occur, too, where they don’t turn on when you need them to. 

You will likely need an electrical permit to install outdoor lighting, but it depends on where you live. Some municipalities don’t require a permit for electrical work, but you should call your building department or ask your outdoor lighting installer if a permit will be necessary. Your professional should pull the permits for you, if required, and close them out after the work is done. Either way, you will be responsible for the permit fee, which typically falls between $50 and $150.

There aren't any hard and fast rules about how far recessed lights should be from the wall. It depends on your needs for the lighting. For instance, if you want to highlight a specific piece of art on the wall, you'll want to install lighting close to it. But if you want to illuminate an entire room, you might want your lighting farther from the wall.

A general guideline of one-and-a-half to three feet from the wall is a good place to start, but in the end, you want to make sure the lighting meets your unique needs.