When you look into your backyard, what do you see? A place where your kids will want to play and hang out with their friends? A place where you’ll enjoy spending summer evenings cooking out with family and your friends? Or-like so many people-do you see a space that, frankly, could use some work? If your answer’s needs work then it might be time to consider a redo of your outdoor space.
When renovating landscaping, one area that is often somewhat overlooked is the importance of outdoor lights. The right lighting can take a space that’s just OK and turn it into something really fantastic. And with new solar landscape lighting fixtures, or low voltage landscape bulb, your options are nearly endless.
Walkways should be well illuminated, both to delineate them for family and guests, and for safety. Whether you use solar lighting walk-on pavers or more traditional staked lights, you want to make sure there’s enough light to see clearly, but not so much light that it overwhelms your design. In fact, all of your outdoor landscape lights should abide by that philosophy. They should be in keeping with your aesthetic, while filling a functional need.
The advantages of solar landscape lighting are plain-there are no wires to hide, so you can put them almost anywhere. They’re also extremely environmentally friendly. But what about areas that are in deep shade, or that require more light output than solar can create? In those cases, low voltage landscape lighting is a solid choice. It can be installed with little mess, since the cable can be run with or without conduit and doesn’t require junction boxes. That means it’s also relatively easy to relocate, should the need arise. And with the proper transformer, there’s little to no risk of electrical shock.
As you make a general lighting plan for your outdoor space, you should think of your space as a whole. You want common areas to be well lit for your family’s and guests’ enjoyment into the evening hours. But beyond that, be sure to consider the different ways in which you can use accent lights to highlight special features. For example, are there unique plants or trees that you want to spotlight at night? Maybe you have some outdoor sculptures that would look like a million bucks with just the right outdoor landscape lights. A mix of functional and feature lighting will create an overall feel that will have you spending more time outside!
