Garden landscape lighting is a great way to bring dramatic and engaging illumination to the exterior of your home. But there’s more to it than just plopping down a few lights here, hanging some others there, and calling it a day. You need to design, plan, and position carefully for the best results. Putting the initial time into creating your outdoor lighting scheme now will save you a lot of headache for repositioning or installing additional fixtures later.
So here are some landscape lighting tips for getting the most effective lighting plan in place to provide your home with the safety, security, and curb appeal you really want. These five things to consider will be absolutely imperative in giving you the best garden landscape lighting on your block.
Brainstorm
Take a good long walk around your garden area during the days and at night. Make a note of all the key elements that you may want to train your lighting upon when your system is fully installed. Whether it’s a gorgeous oak tree, some lemon groves, or perhaps you have some rhododendrons that you want to show off, make a note of all the highlights of your garden that should bathed in light. Once you determine where you want your key lighting you can begin thinking about where your secondary and tertiary layers will be placed.
Functional Lighting
Now that you’ve figured out which parts of the exterior should be displayed for view; you want to think about lighting those areas in and around your garden where you and your family and guests will be spending a lot of time outdoors. During the evening, walk around the exterior of the house and consider which areas are the darkest, concentrating on walkways, stairs, and corners that you want lit up for safety and security. Whether it’s a porch or patio where you plan to hang out at night or a walk that needs to be lit up so no one trips and falls, don’t forget these important aspects of your lighting plan.
Lighting Fixtures
Now you need to decide what types of fixtures you plan to install so you can bring the right amount of lighting to those areas of the garden that need it most. But you also want to be mindful of your home’s exterior décor and architectural style so the lights only enhance and complement instead of clash with the outside of the house.
Bulbs
Your fixtures aren’t doing you much good if you don’t have the right bulbs installed inside of them.
Too many homeowners overlook this all too crucial component of their landscape lighting cranberry township and it can often be a detriment to the entire lighting scheme of your garden. The most popular option as of late is LED bulbs because they are very bright and they are far more energy efficient than most conventional bulbs. Picking the right bulb is very important and while many fixtures may have bulbs already installed, you want to be sure you have something that’s going to beautify your backyard and not make it look flat and uninteresting.
