Outdoor lighting for your home is the perfect way to welcome guests, increase safety, and show-off your hard work, but creating the perfect lighting scheme takes knowledge and expertise. Here are some Do’s and Don’ts for getting your landscape lighting right.
Do focus on lighting your home first. This is the most prized possession of your property and should be the primary focus of your landscape lighting. Put your initial efforts toward illuminating your house to create a warm welcome while increasing safety and security.
Don’t forget corners and out-of-sight spaces. While you may not think these are areas you want to highlight, illuminating these nooks will keep your home safer. Accent lights are great for these tough areas.
Do use plenty of fixtures to light your property. Many homeowners try to save money by skimping on the number of fixtures, resulting in alternating areas of extreme bright and dark. If you need to save money, install your system in phases.
Don’t put your lights too close to the features you wish to highlight. Placing distance between them allows a great area of light to be cast.
Do get creative. You can layer and stagger lights for beautiful effects and vary the intensity of lighting. You can also shine lights down on a pathway rather than line the edges.
Don’t put too many lights in one place. Most homeowners are surprised to learn that too many lights on one piece of architecture of landscape feature will only draw attention to the lights themselves.
Don’t under-light landscaping features either. Using one light to illuminate trees, statues or water features can create hard shadows.
Do use LED bulbs. LED lights with a warm tone use far less energy and last longer than incandescent bulbs.
Don’t use solar lights. Solar lights are weather-dependent and lack quality. Low-voltage LED is the best option and environmentally-conscious.
Landscape lighting is an art of its own. Contact the experienced lighting professionals at Coastal Virginia Lighting for a no-obligation consultation and leave the Do’s and Don’ts of landscape lighting to us.
