Landscape Lighting Tips-How To Brighten Your Outdoors With The Right Fixtures

Even if it’s just in your backyard, there are so many reasons to stay outdoors. Especially as summer approaches, it’s always a good idea to invite friends over and enjoy each other’s company over a good talk and barbecue. 

However, when night time comes you’ll need a bit more effort to make your outdoor venue still functional and pleasing. Don’t let poor lighting break up the mood. In order to maintain the perfect ambiance in your backyard, even at night, you’ll need to invest in good lighting. Great lighting can facilitate great conversations and create good memories.

To get the right quality and style that suits your yard, landscape lighting needs thorough planning and envisioning. If you’re new to this, it might get a little confusing and difficult to choose the perfect setup and materials. 

Lighting colors can be tricky. Without proper training and experience, you’ll have no idea how to make a specific area illuminate. There are plenty of sources on the internet for your reference, but it’s always best to consult the experts, see the recommendation below for example:



To get you started, here are some tips to give you an idea on how to brighten your outdoors: 

• Know The Basics of Landscape Lighting

To be able to achieve a simple yet elegant effect to your yard lighting, it’s good to know how these types of lights work and how they’re being set up. To avoid overdoing the outcome, it’s safe not to try mixing and matching them on your own. 

When in doubt, consult a professional since they’ve been trained to aid you in these types of things. 

Generally, landscape lighting has three types: 

• Ambient or Overall: These lights are what you usually see in a living or dining room. Their main purpose is to illuminate an entire area so that you’ll be able to see better. 

• Specific: This type, as its name suggests, is used to serve a specific purpose. For example, people use a path light simply for the purpose of giving light to a pathway. 

For this type of lighting, you’ll no longer worry about finding the doors in dark hallways or places since this type of lighting will guide you to that specific area. 

• Accent: This type of light gives emphasis on a certain area or object. Like when you put a spotlight on a mini garden waterfall. These are the ones that are largely used for decorative purposes. Thus, accent lights add beauty to your landscape or they highlight certain things in your garden that you want to attract attention to. 
• The Right Light Bulbs

To help you understand and choose the right materials and design for your landscape lighting, here are the most common types of light-bulbs that you should know about: 

• Halogen Bulbs: This kind of lightbulb emits a pleasing brightness in white. Usually, workplaces, like offices, use this type of light-bulb, especially if the area is warm-colored. 

Another advantage of halogen bulbs is its efficiency to consume less energy. Not only do they help lower your bills, but they’re said to last longer than other bulbs.

• Incandescent Bulbs: These are the traditional light bulbs that have been used by so many households. It’s similar to the halogen bulb in a way that gives off a pleasant illumination. 

However, incandescent bulbs can be a burden for your budget. Unlike the halogen bulbs, it uses too much electricity and you may need to change it more often. 

• Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs: CFLs are cost-effective, long-lasting, and come in a variety of color ranges and bulb designs. Because of this efficiency, more people turn to compact fluorescent bulbs than the other types. 

• LED Lights: LED lights are very famous for landscape designing because of its pleasant and consistent brightness. Although it can be expensive, it actually uses less energy, allowing you to save more money. Additionally, it doesn’t need much maintenance as well, which means that you won’t have to change as often.
• Focus On The Most Important Feature

When you consider landscape lighting, you immediately imagine what type of lightbulbs to buy and where you should be putting them throughout the area. That’s not entirely wrong. However, you should be focusing on the most important feature, which is your house. 

Without giving accent to the architectural features of your house, people will notice the lighting more than the landscape. When that happens, it defeats the purpose of your project. 

The lighting should complement your house and not draw attention to itself. Everything in your house has to paint an overall beautiful picture to your guest and no furniture should compete for attention. 

• Ensure Safety and Security

Styling your home gives you that feeling of excitement. Because of this, sometimes, it’ll only lead you to forget essential details. Take note that although yard lighting sounds like an easy task, there are actually plenty of things to consider. 

Since all of these fixtures need to be positioned outside your house, you should know how to keep the bulbs safe and secure from outdoor elements, such as heat and rain. Also, since it involves electrical work, it’s best to have a professional do the job for you. But, as of today, you already have the option to use solar landscape lighting to worry less about electrical hazards. 

• Space and Positioning

Space and positioning should also be considered. Don’t hesitate to measure everything as to where your lighting could provide the best illumination. 

Grouping the lightbulbs close to each other will not give off a great ambiance, so learn how to distance them. Again, the goal is to accent the landscape view and not the lights themselves.

• Size Matters

Also, make sure that the size of the fixture is suitable. For instance, don’t use an outdoor wall light that’s almost as big as half of your patio door. Instead, it should be at most ⅓ of the door’s height.   

If you’re hesitant, you can always ask others for advice. Not all people are gifted in this area and there’s wisdom in the counsel of another. Ask them what works best for the current design of your outdoors.

• Alternating Is More Interesting

Don’t position your lighting in a straight line, especially for a pathway. This creates a bland impression, making it less inviting. 

Instead, you want to entice people to walk along this illuminated path feeling warm and welcome. You can either place them alternately or face them down to create a unique effect. 

Remember that the effect that your outside lights have on people will serve as the first impression that they’ll have on your house so make sure that it’s a great one. 

• Have Fun With Multiple Layers 

Have you ever seen garden topiary or statues at night and wonder how they have this dramatic aura because of the silhouette and shadows? The secret is to face it with multiple layers of lighting at certain angles and distances. 

• Striking Or Subtlety 

Every corner of your property gives off different vibes from each other. Sometimes, it’s brighter in the bathroom than in the bedroom. The reason for this is because you need to see clearly once you’re in the restroom, but you need to feel relaxed in a room where you sleep. 

Similar in your backyard, it’s nice to install lighting that could either be festive or warm, depending on the occasion. This way, different occasions can give off different vibes that can help add to the overall atmosphere of the event that you’re hosting. 

You may not be aware of this, but lighting actually adds energy to the conversation. Dull lighting makes people sleepy, which affects the conversation. But, good lighting can add more spirit to keep the party going. 

• Control The Light

With innovative technology, you can now control your lighting. For instance, with motion sensors and timers, you can control your lights to only turn on when needed. There are also lightings that are installed with dimmers so you can adjust its brightness, depending on the ambiance you want to achieve. 

Also, consider where you light lands or bounces off. Don’t wait for your neighbor or kid to come up to you one day and tell you how they can’t sleep properly because your backyard lighting shines directly to their bedroom windows. 

Conclusion

There’s no limit as to how you can achieve that perfect glow up for your landscape. If you’re inexperienced and need help, ask the professionals. However, if you’re a fast learner and have the passion, researching skills, and studying articles, then you can do it yourself. 

Some tips to remember when doing landscape lighting is to first know the basics, then focus on the most important feature which is your house. It’s important to envision and plan ahead as well, harnessing creativity as the key to a great overall look. Lastly, find the right light bulbs that will work best with your house.

Remember that lightning doesn’t simply illuminate a house, it adds so much more to it. Finding the perfect lighting can turn your house into a home. 

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