You've come to the right place if you're not sure where to begin with landscaping lights. The following is our helpful outdoor lighting guide, where we'll go over the advantages of landscape lighting, where to put them, what sorts of lights to use, and how to use light to achieve the best results.
We're here to assist you in enjoying your landscapes and hardscapes with the help of expert lighting pros. Learn more about the main advantages of outdoor lighting for your home or business.
Enhanced Appearance and Curb Appeal: The most popular reason for homeowners to invest in outdoor lighting is for its aesthetically attractive beauty. Light improves a home's evening curb appeal when professionally installed.
Maybe you've seen it when driving through a neighborhood late at night. You can't see a home's features or landscape if there isn't enough light. In the dark, it vanishes. While perfectly illuminated houses stand out, you may notice how lighting subtly enhances architectural and landscaping aspects.
Most homeowners first invest in outdoor lighting because of the aesthetic value it provides. They quickly appreciate the added security that comes with a properly equipped system.
The most important thing you can do to improve your home's security and deter unwanted attackers is light its exterior. To be effective, security lighting does not have to be harsh or frightening.
If you entertain or spend time outside after dark, lighting your walkways, trails, steps, and stairs reduces the risk of you, a family member, or a guest tripping and falling.
Many homeowners like relaxing on their deck or patio, grilling outside, or swimming late at night in their pool. Outdoor lighting is necessary if you want to use your outdoor living space after the sun has set. You'll spend more time outside, and you'll feel safer knowing that you can see what you're doing.
As the seasons change, the lighting aspect remains consistent, resulting in distinct lighting effects with each season. When the light beams up upon fresh snowfall on evergreens in the winter, it's an entirely different feeling than when everything is blooming in the spring.
A contractor can set your professionally installed system to automatically switch on and off, so you don't have to worry about it. In addition, most dedicated landscape lighting firms have a service team or offer continuing service programs to guarantee that your system performs well year after year, making it simple for you, the homeowner.
Lighting your surrounding landscapes and hardscapes is crucial for safety, entertainment, and aesthetic reasons. Although you may feel tempted to illuminate your entire yard for maximum visibility, this technique is both costly and wasteful.
Illuminating specific features such as walls, ponds, and trees will help create a welcoming environment for entertaining. Landscape path lighting and other tactics will make your yard simpler to navigate and welcome guests to your house, so outdoor lights also have a practical component.
When you highlight pathways, it makes it easier for you and your guests to navigate the landscape, especially when there are barriers such as stairs. Path lighting is often staggered to illuminate the entire path and can add a romantic touch to your home's walks.
Patio lights give light for entertaining and create a pleasant environment in the space. It is beneficial during the summer months when the sun sets early, allowing you to barbecue and entertain visitors late into the evening.
It is vital to illuminate decks and steps to the outside of the house. Strategic placement can comfortably define the entertainment area and increase the amount of time spent outdoors.
Garden lighting produces a pleasing ambiance while also enhancing the attractiveness of the plants and surrounding area. It allows you to spend more time in nature and enjoy your beautiful garden whenever you want. LED lights also have the added benefit of stimulating plant growth.
With the correct lighting, hardscapes such as retaining walls, boulders, and wooden arbors come alive at night. The most extraordinary hardscape lighting can accentuate the natural beauty of your surroundings and provide a dimension that isn't visible during the day.
Proper lighting of your front and back yards will make them look appealing to visitors while also deterring burglars due to greater visibility. Lights strategically placed about your home will draw attention to the landscaping and boost curb appeal.
Ponds are a terrific focal point that you may highlight with the proper lighting. Adding ponds and other water features to your landscape adds drama and interest.
There are various forms of outdoor lighting to use in your yard, in addition to deciding what objects to light. When determining which low-voltage lighting solution is appropriate for your needs, take into account their specific qualities. For complete illumination of outdoor locations, you can blend some light sources.
Line any hard-to-see sections in your yard, flowerbed, or sidewalk with them. They enhance the ambiance of the outdoors while also providing security. These lights also serve to improve your home's safety and curb attractiveness.
Well lights, also known as inground lights, are circular fixtures used to illuminate sidewalks, driveways, flowerbeds, and trees elegantly. They are buried in the ground so that the light effect, rather than the fixture, is the focal point.
Post cap lights are built into deck posts and provide a warm glow and ambiance to your recreational areas. They add to the aesthetic while also giving safety as people move throughout the venue.
You use floodlights and spotlights to highlight visual features in the yard, such as statues, bushes, and trees. The spread of light produced distinguishes them.
Floodlights have a broader beam to illuminate general regions, whereas spotlights have a narrower beam to highlight specific features. You determine the placement of landscape spotlights by the unique aspects you want to draw attention to in your yard.
You use deck lights to increase the safety of people walking up and down deck stairs at night. To enhance architectural details and light-up entertainment places, they are immediately embedded into the hardscape or on the deck itself.
Post lights, like path lights, help to enhance a pathway by lighting regions that you would otherwise miss in the dark. They're bigger and higher, and they provide a relaxing atmosphere without being overly bright.
There are several ways for highlighting specific regions, in addition to various types of yard lights. Landscape lighting design can help to create a particular atmosphere or environment in an area.
Highlighting is the process of using light to draw attention to the shape, color, and form of fascinating items. Floodlights or spotlights are placed at the base of the feature to generate this effect. You can change the beam's distance and angle until you attain the desired impact on the plant, statue, or distinctive architecture.
Spotlights or well-lights placed behind an object or plant can draw attention to dramatic forms that aren't visible during the day. As it shines towards the walkway or yard, the light source is hidden and creates a silhouette.
Accentuating individual features such as trees, statues, and other décor is another way to draw attention to them. You perform the technique by shining a narrow flashlight on the object from a hidden point, either down or high.
Shadowing, as the name implies, casts a shadow on the wall or hardscape behind the item to create a melancholy impression. Place a spotlight, well light, or floodlight between the vantage point and the object or plant to be lighted to accomplish this.
Moonlighting is a method that creates the impression of moonlight by placing spotlights high in trees and angling them downward. A soft light fixture casts delicate shadows from the tree's lowest branches and bathes the ground below in mellow light.
You create washing by shining light from an indirect angle on a massive wall or hedge. In an entertainment area, you utilize floodlights to cast an even, soothing light.
Downlighting is a technique for accentuating planting beds or garden elements from above by simulating natural light. It makes a garden more secure and safe while also giving it a lovely, natural glow. Fixing outdoor lights on a tall trellis, eave, or hardscape creates this appearance.
By positioning spotlights or well-lights close to the base of an item, uplighting can produce varied angles of illumination. This method adds drama to tall buildings like trees or monuments by displaying their form from below.
If you have flat surfaces, grazing can make stunning shadows by utilizing their texture. You can accomplish this by grazing the surface of various hardscape components with good lights or hardscape lights.
You don't need any electrical knowledge to install most outdoor lighting because it's low-voltage. The only equipment you'll need for a DIY landscape lighting installation is a wire remover. Here are some suggestions for being safe and secure:
Even though LED lights are becoming widespread, you don't have to get rid of your old halogen lighting. With retrofit bulbs, you may still reap the benefits of LEDs. Replace the halogen bulbs with the same base type and wattage as the old ones.
You should install underground wire after planting to avoid accidentally cutting it with a shovel. Be sure to eliminate factory-installed connectors because standard connectors will only work for a short time buried underground before corroding and failing. Splice connections with gel-filled wire connectors, which are designed specifically for outdoor use.
Avoid shining lights directly on a terrace. Indirect lighting, such as illuminating trees, stones, and other objects around the space, works nicely. Pools of light should not be overlapping. Make sure the fixtures aren't too close to one another.
Whether line or low voltage systems, your landscape lighting plan can use energy-efficient LEDs, and the most advanced technology landscape and lighting will illuminate your outdoor areas at night, making them both beautiful and safe. Also, don't forget to look at our outdoor lighting ideas.
