Have you gone for a night drive and your eye is instantly pulled toward a beautiful home? What drew your eye? Was it that the home was lit up to bring focus to a stunning stone pathway, a paved driveway, or an amazing entryway?
Outdoor lighting strategically placed to highlight your home or landscape instantly adds curb appeal and functionality to your yard. It is also important for safety. Our key piece of advice when planning your nightscape is that you want to see the effects of the lighting, not the lights themselves.
However, if you’ve Googled or searched Pinterest for outdoor lighting options, you’ve likely gotten lost in the myriad of styles and options. That’s where a Rock Solid expert can help. We can recommended what lighting would best fit your home. Give us a call!
Outdoor Lighting Enhances Safety
What’s the first thought that crosses your mind when we bring up safety lighting? My guess is you’re thinking about unsightly flood lights or motion lights. The kind that shout security lighting.
However, this isn’t always the case when it comes down to adding outdoor lighting to your yard this year. There are many stylish low-voltage and LED lighting options that will match your décor and architecture. Lighting that will subtly add safety to your outdoor space, so you can move away from the garish halogen flood lights and create a more intricate lighting system.
Safety also includes making sure your pathways are well lit to avoid tripping hazards. Proper lighting also ensures that your outdoor living space is illuminated enough to avoid firepit or barbeque mishaps.
Stylish Outdoor Lighting Options
1. Low-Voltage and LED fixtures
Low voltage outdoor lighting offers a high-quality brilliant luminance around your yard. There are many unique options and low voltage is cost-effective. The light emitted from these outdoor lights is more aesthetically pleasing than traditional light fixtures such as flood lights or solar lighting.
LED lights have the added benefit of being the energy efficient and more environmentally friendly resulting in savings on your energy bill each month. They are also more versatile and have a longer life-span.
There are also many more style options available in low-voltage outdoor lighting which allows you to be more creative in designing the effect of the lights.
For on your home, look for sleek light fixtures in black, white, or other natural shades. With today’s lighting sources, even small, less obtrusive fixtures can emit a swath of light that adds security and beauty to your surroundings.
For your landscape and even your exterior lighting, a common goal is to simulate moonlight. The ambiance that moonlight provides is a calm, welcoming outdoor space that can be enjoyed long into the night.
2. Illuminate Your Outdoor Living Spaces
As mentioned above, simulating moonlight in your outdoor space is a huge trend in 2022. Recessed lighting above your patio or deck maintains the natural feel of your outdoor space. This creates a timeless look that you’ll never grow tired of.
To add interest and texture to your surrounding landscaping, downlights hung at 20 feet above ground simulate moonlight coming from above. To really get a natural look, you must be aware of the glare and ensure proper beam spread. To achieve this, you will most likely want to hire a professional lighting designer or installer for assistance.
3. Landscape Focal Lighting
Another way to highlight your landscape is to use uplighting. Trees are visually appeal and cast interesting shadows when focus with an uplight. The goal is to create a soft, subtle glow that’s natural and provides ambiance, rather than a bright, menacing light.
Your landscape can also benefit from bringing this same uplighting to bushes, shrubs and other architecture that you wish to highlight.
4. Pathway Lighting
Preventing falls or if you’ve ever stubbed your toe on the stairs is reason enough to start thinking about how to light up your pathways at night. Recessed step lighting or lights built into your wood or stone stairs is effective and elegant.
For the pathways around your home, in-ground path lighting is enchanting and tasteful. It has the added safety of this light sources is that it prevents tripping over the fixture themselves.
5. Underlighting Hardscapes and Outdoor Kitchens
Underlighting hardscapes or placing lighting under the ledge of counters, outdoor cabinets is a trend that results in lighting that is both attractive and functional. It improves your patio kitchen’s visual appeal.
Similarly, adding light under benches, within walls, or firepits can add beauty and brings us back to increasing safety.
Smart Outdoor Lighting
Smart LED lighting goes beyond motion-detection when it comes to outdoor lighting safety. With smart lighting installed, it gives you the ability to activate your lights from your phone miles away. Or you can set-up on/off schedules in your app.
As an added bonus, some smart lighting allows you to choose the brightness and color to suite your mood or entertainment choice for the evening.
Style Tips For Choosing Your Outdoor Lighting
Our number one tip when choosing and planning your outdoor lighting is keep it simple.
This means strategically placing your light fixtures so that the light adds texture and beauty to your home. The emitted light highlights areas of your home almost magically. Tasteful fixtures are meant to draw your eye to the focal point of the light, not the fixture itself.
Our second tip is plan ahead. If you’re renovating your landscape or creating a new outdoor living space, lighting shouldn’t be an afterthought. Include your lighting in your planning process so that they can placed in the ideal locations.
Ask yourself, “What are my yard’s focal points and how is the lighting going to add to them?”
Need some help figuring out which outdoor lighting options are ideal for your home and landscaping? We’d love to provide guidance and ideas. Book your free estimate before planning your next project.
