Adding landscape lighting is one of the best ways to enhance your home’s nighttime beauty and add value. With proper light placement, you can avoid the “runway effect” and highlight features from a variety of perspectives.
Smart landscape lights let you control your lighting from a centralized hub. They also make it easier to keep your fixtures clean from dust, dirt and other gunk. Contact Landscape Lighting Harrisburg PA now!
When guests arrive at your home, the exterior landscape provides their first impression. A well-manicured lawn, lush gardens, and a clean home all add up to give your home a beautiful, polished appearance that can make it look inviting and welcoming. Landscape lighting is the perfect way to keep this visual appeal going even after the sun goes down, allowing you to highlight the beauty of your landscaping and home for all to see.
Landscape lighting is a versatile option that can be customized for your unique property. Start by drawing a map of your outdoor space, including pathways, trees, and other key features. This will help you to map out where your lights should go for maximum effect. Then, consider if you want to focus on an aesthetic or functional purpose. For example, you may want to accent certain areas with uplighting effects for a decorative purpose, while using path lights to create safety markers along walkways and stairs.
A common choice is to highlight entryways to your home and patios, porches, or decks with wash or spotlight lighting. This helps to increase visibility for guests, and deter trespassing after dark. If you’re planning to sell your home in the future, this type of landscape lighting can also help to elevate your property’s curb appeal.
Other architectural features that are worth highlighting include the silhouette of a tree against the skyline or a symmetrical detail on your home’s façade. Lighting up these features at night can enhance their aesthetic and give them a sense of prominence that can increase your home’s value.
To highlight your garden, choose from several fixture classes — integrated fixtures that have LED boards built in or lamp-ready fixtures that accept standard bulbs. Integrated fixtures are often cheaper to purchase and install, but they have the disadvantage of not being customizable in terms of brightness (lumens), color temperature, or beam spread. Lamp-ready fixtures allow you to switch out bulbs, which gives you a greater degree of control. Regardless of the type of fixture you choose, always use low-voltage wires to avoid overcharging and burning out your bulbs.
Lighting for Safety
In addition to showcasing gardens and structures, landscape lighting serves practical purposes, improving safety and security. It helps to illuminate walkways and other areas where potential hazards exist, such as a patch of uneven ground or a tree root sticking out from the sidewalk. Incorporating these lights can help reduce accidents and prevent injuries, making the property more usable after dark. In turn, this enhances the property’s value and makes it more appealing to prospective buyers.
Less is more when it comes to landscape lighting, though, as too many fixtures can detract from the visual appeal of a home’s exterior. When planning a light system, homeowners should take the time to map out their property and create a blueprint for placing each fixture. A map should include the location of the home, pathways, key features, and other important areas that require illumination.
There are many different types of landscape lighting, and each one is suitable for specific environments and effects. Spotlights, for example, highlight individual objects like trees or statues. These fixtures are also useful for illuminating walls or other structures, and they come in a variety of shapes and sizes to suit the environment. Well lights, on the other hand, use large pools of light to illuminate larger spaces and create dramatic visuals.
Another common type of landscape lighting is the flood light, which illuminates a wide area using a single fixture. These lights are ideal for large areas like house facades and lawns, and they often feature a collar to minimize side glare. When selecting a light for an outdoor space, it’s important to choose one that will withstand the elements and be durable enough to last. It’s also a good idea to inspect and maintain your lighting system regularly, especially after severe weather events. This can help ensure that the lights remain bright and functioning properly and minimize downtime due to maintenance or repairs.
Lighting for Security
Landscape lighting can make it harder for burglars to sneak around your property undetected by illuminating areas that they might hide in or try to enter. When you use timer systems for simulated occupancy, the lights turn on and off at random intervals to deter criminals and keep your family or guests safe.
When designing your landscape lighting system, it’s important to balance security with aesthetics. Using the right fixtures in the right places will ensure that your home and yard are both well-lit and beautiful. When selecting your lights, choose bulbs that provide the appropriate brightness for each area you want to illuminate. Spotlights with a tighter beam spread will highlight specific objects, while flood lights with a wider pool of light are ideal for lighting up large areas.
It’s also crucial to map out your landscape and highlight areas that need illumination for practical reasons, like pathways or stairs. By illuminating these features, you’ll help keep your family and guests safe from falls or injuries.
Another important factor to consider when choosing your landscape lighting is its power source. Electrical systems offer consistent brightness and require professional installation, while solar-powered options are eco-friendly and easy to set up but have limitations due to sunlight availability.
To ensure your landscape lighting is working properly, it’s important to check for signs of voltage drop, such as dimmer lights or flickering. These can be a sign that you have too many lights on a single line or that the wire gauge is too small. In these cases, a simple re-configure of your wiring will help restore brightness and efficiency to your system.
Lighting for Mood
Well-designed landscape lighting transforms your outdoor spaces into a place to entertain, relax, and connect with nature after the sun goes down. The key to achieving this is to create layers of light using ambient, task, and accent lights. The right mix of fixtures will help you elevate the look and feel of your space while ensuring functionality and safety.
To begin, identify what you want to accomplish with your lighting. Do you want to showcase a special architectural feature, highlight trees or plant species, or simply create a soft, inviting glow that beckons people to spend time outdoors? Once you’ve identified your main goals, you can begin designing the lighting for your landscape.
Pathway lights, for example, are ideal for illuminating pathways and creating a sense of security and safety. They are also great for guiding visitors to your home and other outdoor amenities like water features or seating areas.
Spotlights, on the other hand, are a wonderful way to highlight objects in your landscape like statues, flowers, or trees. They are also great for creating dramatic effects and highlighting focal points in your design. Deck and step lights are another common type of landscape lighting, as they illuminate steps and other hard-to-light areas while promoting safety and providing a warm, welcoming ambiance.
The color of your lights and their brightness will also impact the mood they create. For example, cooler-color bulbs with a white or blue hue tend to create more of a bright, energetic mood, while warmer-toned bulbs have a moonlit or natural appearance that is soothing and relaxing.
To maintain your landscape lighting and ensure that it continues to deliver the intended effect, make sure to keep up with routine maintenance. This includes cleaning the fixtures to remove dirt and debris, ensuring that all connections are secure, and replacing any burned out bulbs. By staying proactive with maintenance, you’ll be able to enjoy your landscape lighting for years to come.
