A high-quality landscape design can improve curb appeal and increase your home’s value by 20-30%. An essential element of your home’s curb appeal is landscape lighting. Adding lights to your property increases safety and improves nighttime curb appeal by adding visibility after the sun sets.
However, you can’t throw a few lights in the yard and call it a day. You need to consider fixture type, light created, and overall design. Follow this guide to choose the right landscape lighting for your home.
Types of Lighting
The type of lighting that you choose will depend on what you want to illuminate. Most outdoor lighting designs use a combination of lighting types. For example, you could have uplights bordering the driveway, string lights in the tree branches, floodlights on the house, and garden lights in the flower bed.
These are some of the most popular types of lights used in outdoor lighting.
- Floodlights
- Spotlights
- Uplights
- Downlights
- Step lights
- Garden lights
- Bollard lights
- String lights
Outdoor Lighting Styles
The style of your outdoor lighting will depend on your goals. There is no single “best lighting” that will work for everyone. Instead, lighting style is about the impression or mood the lighting creates.
Safety
One of the most popular reasons for adding outdoor lighting is to increase safety. This type of landscape lighting focuses on the areas that people navigate, such as the driveway, walkway, or door. The light is typically bright and broad to illuminate the ground around them.
Accent
This type of lighting is on the minimal side with strategic placement. Each light has the purpose of highlighting a specific feature. A light could illuminate a large tree or hearty shrub full of blooms.
In addition to the landscaping, accent lighting can highlight the home’s architectural features. Depending on the use and placement, accent lights could be bright or dim and focused or broad.
Bold Statement
If you want to make a statement with your landscape lighting, you want a bold style. This is lighting that makes people stop and look.
The light is typically brighter and stronger than other styles. You may also see unique colors and placement.
Natural
This lighting style tries to mimic the lighting that occurs naturally in nature. The lights are soft and hidden, creating gentle illumination. The final effect is similar to the illumination produced during a full moon.
Long-Term Maintenance Requirements
Consider how much time, money, and effort you are willing to put into the long-term maintenance of your outdoor lighting system.
For example, LED bulbs last for tens of thousands of hours. That way, you will rarely need to replace them. Likewise, hardwiring your outdoor lights or installing solar panels will eliminate the need to replace batteries.
Add Landscape Lighting
As you can see, there are plenty of landscape lighting options available. This allows you to create a design that suits the home’s architecture and landscape design. Our experienced team is happy to help owners create designs that suit the homeowner’s style and budget.
Let our expert designers help you create an exterior lighting design.
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