2021 Lighting Enhancements

How to add lighting fixtures to beautify your outdoor landscape.

Lighting is one of the breathtaking elements of landscaping design. “Night scaping”, creates a warm inviting ambience that draws us outdoors inviting us to relax long after the dark. Besides the romantic appeal, lighting has a practical side when positioned in the right places. It enhances security, guides traffic into your backyard and improves safety. Strategic lighting can draw attention to a focal point of your landscaping like foundations, trees or an architectural element of your home. Outdoor lights with sensors are a proven way of deterring unwanted intruders and reducing crime.

Despite the enhancement and value lighting brings to your landscape most people only consider lighting as an after thought. And its no wonder. Getting the right light fixtures, calculating the right positioning that enhances and flatters your landscape can be daunting. Sometimes expenses can be a hinderance.  But to fully maximize your landscape and truly create a breathtaking backyard that you and your family can enjoy, the little things such as lighting must be considered.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Here are some secret tips and tricks to achieving your dream backyard with some affordable lighting enhancements.

1. The first thing to do is take an evaluation of what you are working with. You can compile a list of the walkways, dark corners and anywhere lighting is needed for safety reasons. Imagine the upgrades you would like for example, fire features, patio, pool deck where you hope to cool off in the sun.
2. Next think about the most important lighting requirement you need to prioritize and focus on. As mentioned above, a good place to begin is with the safety requirements. You may want to invest in front entrance lighting, driveways and walkways. One easy and budget friendly tip is to use temporary fixes like light strings and candles on your patio. This also creates ambiance and a romantic feel to your outdoor space. Outdoor walkway lighting is a great enhancement to your outdoor space both for safety and direction. It will help your friends and guests find their way around your garden. If you have a pool and deck, lighting can lead guests towards or away from your entrance at night.
3. Another tip/trick to lighting your path is to stagger your lights from side to side. Offsetting the lights is the best way to create a sense of comfort and balance.

DO’S AND DON’T’S

1. Positioning

An important tip when planning your path lighting is to make sure you lighting is not placed too close together (this gives an unwanted runway feel). Secondly, installing harsh, bright lights or angling lights upwards creates an industrial tone to the space. The key is to keep the light out of the eyes of your guests and focused on the path. This will add tons of value to your property without needing to break the bank.

2. Lighting Options

For your convenience and easy installation, walkway lights are available in LED and solar models that don’t require wiring. There is also an array of styles such as lamps, posts and lanterns. If your landscaped walkway is lacking illumination, you can install recessed lights along the edges of your paving. If it not apparent where the path starts, install lantern-topped pillars as a focal starting point.

3. Do Step Lighting

At Lomah ™ we know that step lighting is an important safety feature, but have you considered that stairs can be used to create a sense of drama?  A great enhancement is using louvered lights on the face of each step to subtly light the way upwards. The future of landscaping design is the use of “night scaping” techniques to enhance your guests’ intrigue and interest in the outdoor space. Why not create a dramatic focal point in your backyard through directing the light to underneath an element of the landscape such as a sprawling tree. This will also illuminate elements that will be seen from multiple sides.

4. Placements

For a romantic ‘moonlight’ effect place light fixtures within the branches of a mature tree or large shrub to create shadow play in your landscaping. If you would like your landscape to exemplify your creative streak, aim light at a large planter or statue. This will cast edgy shadows on the walls behind for an artistic “silhouette” effect.

5. Spotlighting & Lanterns

Spotlighting can also be used to add further intrigue by mounting light fixtures high on walls to  certain areas such as a pool, water feature or arbor. This will bring the added benefit of safety to darker or more hazardous areas. To add further visual appeal and value to your property you could try fixing lanterns to pillars and under mount lighting to seat walls. Guests will also easily be able to find your landscaping features in the dark through the added illumination.

Landscape lighting is the future of outdoor architectural design. It delivers ambiance and practicality to your outdoor living space even as the daylight fades into night. For professional recommendations on of illuminating your property with modern lighting, speak to a Lomah ™ Lighting specialist.

In the next blog article find out why artificial grass in 2021 is exploding in popularity.

LOMAH CONTRACTING