Whether you’re looking to highlight your home’s architecture or light up a safety hazard walkway, landscape lighting can add a beautiful finishing touch.
Garden lights use canopies on top of 18- to 24-inch posts to reflect light into planting beds and work well as pathway markers. Contact Landscape Lighting Orlando today!
A well-lit walkway makes a property look inviting and warm. In addition, well-lit pathways and stairs can help prevent trips and falls and provide safety for guests on your property. Illuminating these areas also helps to deter trespassers and intruders from entering your home.
Adding landscape lighting to your yard can make it stand out and create an inviting space for your family, friends, and guests. However, it’s important to be careful not to overdo the lighting. Too much lighting can wash out your landscaping and create a flashy look. Instead, focus on highlighting your most beautiful features, such as the fronds of a Foxtail Palm or the intricate details of a statue.
A lot goes into creating an effective lighting design, so hiring an experienced team is important. They can walk you through the process and help you to avoid common mistakes. For example, a common mistake is to light every plant and tree in your yard, which can overwhelm your landscaping. Instead, you should focus on your most impressive features and highlight them to add value to your property.
You can also elevate your curb appeal by lighting a water feature or statue. These features often get overlooked when the sun goes down, and they can be highlighted by uplights, which are mounted to illuminate upwards. These fixtures can create a natural moonlight effect, a gorgeous and welcoming aesthetic.
A great curb appeal is more than just making your home or business look attractive — it’s about providing a positive experience for potential buyers. Studies have shown that properties with high curb appeal sell faster and at higher prices than those with lower appeal. Landscape lighting can make your property shine in the eyes of buyers, enhancing your home’s value and helping you sell it more quickly when the time comes.
Many homeowners mistakenly assume landscape lighting is a luxury feature that only adds visual appeal. However, this type of outdoor lighting is not only functional but also helps to deter crime. The human eye is a wonderful tool but could be better at seeing in the dark. The slightest misstep or unforeseen obstacle in the darkness can lead to serious injury. Landscape lighting will help prevent accidents by illuminating walkways, paths, and pools. This means that family members and guests can safely move about the property at night without fear of tripping or falling.
Landscape lighting will provide a sense of safety for families and guests and deter burglars by giving a clear view of the property’s nighttime surroundings. Light is also an effective deterrent to trespassers because it can make them feel exposed and vulnerable, thus dissuading them from trying to enter the property.
For commercial properties, landscape lighting can improve the safety of employees and visitors by allowing them to navigate the premises at night. This is especially important in the winter when sidewalks may be covered in ice and snow. In addition, highlighting signs and parking areas will ensure that people know where they are on the property and can avoid running into one another.
In some cases, landscape lighting can be integrated with security systems, further enhancing a property’s safety. This involves using sensors that connect to lights and can trigger them when an alarm or camera detects movement. This combination of lighting and surveillance will provide a much more comprehensive security solution than any standalone system.
Regardless of the type of landscape lighting installed, proper maintenance is critical. This includes keeping leaves and other debris clear of the fixtures to prevent overheating and ensuring that bulbs are not burned out or about to expire. The wattage of each fixture should also be carefully calculated to avoid over-using the transformer and creating an electrical overload. Enjoy your home’s landscape lighting system for years by keeping up with this simple maintenance.
Creating ambiance in landscape lighting is the heart of the lighting designer’s craft. There are two ways to make a space more beautiful through landscape lighting: by revealing already present beauty and by creating new beauty through light and shadow.
The first way to enhance the beauty of your yard is by calling attention to hardscape or architectural features with decorative area lights. These are bollards, path lights, or spotlights and come in various design styles, from chic to classic. Many feature LED bulbs for energy efficiency and long life spans. Many homeowners also choose high-end fixtures that look like fancy indoor lighting, such as lanterns and sconces.
Another way to add ambiance to your landscaping is by lighting it from above, which can call more attention to trees, tall structures, or other unique yard elements. This technique can create dramatic shadows that contrast brightly lit areas and is especially effective when highlighting non-uniform shapes that might otherwise be obscured in the dark.
You can create a sense of safety and security for your family and guests by illuminating walkways and entryways. Path lighting can help to guide them safely through difficult or treacherous areas of your yard while uplighting on stairs and steps help to prevent slips and fall. For a more subtle effect, low-level lighting around the tops of fence posts or the bases of trees is an attractive and functional option.
Using light to accentuate landscaping outlines, textures, and colors is the best way to draw attention to your outdoor living spaces at night. Several specific techniques can be used in your landscape lighting to achieve a desired aesthetic, including uplighting to illuminate tree trunks and highlights, downlighting to bathe the ground in a gentle glow, and cross-lighting to mimic gradual daylight shifts as sun beams overlap from varying trajectories.
Once you’ve determined your landscape’s overall look and function, you can plan out individual elements in more detail. Developing a layout will save you time during the installation process and ensure that your vision is executed exactly how you want it to be.
Whether it’s your patio, pool, outdoor kitchen, or other entertainment spaces, landscape lighting brings life to these areas after dark. This allows you to get the most use out of your Memphis property and transforms these areas into a place that can be enjoyed all day and night.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) notes that landscape lighting is among the top 10 upgrades that add resale value to your home. Illuminating a well-manicured lawn, unique architectural features, or ornamental landscaping makes your home more appealing to potential buyers and helps the sales process go faster.
When you have guests over for dinner parties or a barbecue, you want your landscape to be well-lit so everyone can move around safely and easily. Pathway lights and other landscape lighting options can highlight steps, walkways, and other elements that could otherwise be a safety hazard at night. Well-lit areas are also proven to deter crime, so having timers and motion-activated lighting for your landscape is a great way to keep your family safe in your backyard.
You can create a more festive feel with the right landscape lighting design. Many different lighting styles are available today, from chic, classic lanterns to glowing orbs. Choose the lighting that best suits your unique style and the mood you want to set for entertaining and relaxing in your yard.
The right landscape lighting can also accent your property’s interesting plant life, water features, and other eye-catching landscape elements. Using a wide-beam light to wash the area with light is a simple but effective technique to draw attention to something that may need to be more visually compelling during the day. Alternatively, spotlights can highlight the shape, color, and form of something in your landscape, such as a statue or unique architecture.
The options for adding beauty and functionality to your outdoor space with landscape lighting are endless. The key is to work with a professional landscaping company that can provide your home’s design, installation, and ongoing maintenance services. This ensures that your landscape lighting plan is successful and properly maintained for years to come.