Forecasters predict the outdoor landscaping market will expand at a CAGR of almost 6% between now and 2025. This shows increasing interest among homeowners to boost their properties with this type of home improvement.
Are you one of those who’d like to light up the night with attractive outdoor landscape lighting?
These are your options when it comes to the best landscape lighting to make the most of your outdoor entertainment areas, increase your home’s curb appeal, and add another layer of security.
String Lights
String lights add fairyland appeal to any outdoor space. You can attach them to the top of your patio awning with cable ties, or drape them on shrubbery and trees for a festive look.
These lights are like Christmas tree lights, and consist of numerous tiny white or multicolored lightbulbs attached to a string.
If you don’t have an outdoor power source nearby, you can use a waterproof extension cord to plug them into a wall socket inside your home. Alternatively, choose battery- or solar-powered versions of these lights.
Bollard Lights
These lights consist of short, sturdy posts with lights at the top. They can shine in any direction and work well for lighting pathways or driveways.
It’s important to maximize the spacing of your bollard lights, so you don’t create a cramped feel along your walkway.
You can also place bollard lights at the top and bottom of garden stairs for nighttime visibility. Although they boast a simple design, these lights create a magical glow when you place them strategically among taller shrubs in your garden beds.
Garden Lights
Like bollard lights, garden lights consist of posts with lights on top of them. They have a hood on top that directs the light downward and slightly outward to create a gentle glow.
You can use them to highlight pretty low shrubs or to line walkways and driveways. Tall garden lamps have luxury appeal when used alongside a driveway to create a grand entrance.
Step Lights
As suggested by the name, you use these types of landscaping lights to illuminate stairs in between garden terraces, on entrance stairs leading up to your home, or on outdoor deck steps.
They’re small, flat, strip lights, and you can attach them to the vertical front face of each step or place them on an adjoining wall.
Uplights
These are highly decorative lights that add enormous appeal to your home’s nighttime visage. They’re usually ground mounted using a spike and have an adjustable lamp that you can direct in any upward direction.
You can place them among shrubbery or hedges alongside the front of your home, direct them upward at focal points like statues and feature trees, or use them to emphasize an eye-catching feature on the wall of your home.
For extra versatility, you can buy solar-powered uplights that eliminate the need for a power source. These independently powered lights are relatively affordable, and you can move them around whenever you want to change the look of your yard.
Spotlights
Spotlights include any kind of light that points in only one direction, like uplights. They’re available in different strengths and sizes to suit your landscape design.
Spotlights are the best landscape lights for illuminating focal points in your yard, like statues, plants, patios, and water features.
Floodlights
Floodlights work like spotlights, except they cover a much wider area and disperse light outward as well as forward.
They’re an excellent option for security-conscious homeowners since you can use them to highlight hidden corners of your garden that provide the cover burglars crave.
When you place a wide-beamed floodlight between the main vantage point and a surface, it will wash a large area of your yard in soft, even, light.
You can choose colored spotlights if these suit your style and some even offer RGB color-changing options.
If you’re worried about spending a lot of extra money on electricity to power these large lights, you can opt for LED versions.
According to this landscape lighting company, LED lights use as little as 10% of the power used by conventional lights. That makes them ideal for the smart homeowner who doesn’t want to blow their budget on garden decor.
Submersible Lights
These underwater lights are a gorgeous addition to any pool or water feature. You can also opt for color-changing versions of these lights for added appeal.
You can set different colors and modes on these lights using a smart controller, or a phone app.
Placing Your Outdoor Landscape Lighting
There are many ways to get creative without outdoor lighting. These are some of the most popular options:
Silhouetting
Add a dramatic effect to focal points in your yard by hiding a light source behind the item. This is an effective way to highlight interesting shapes that don’t stand out much in daylight.
Spotlights work best to create this effect.
Shadowing
Shadowing is the opposite of silhouetting. It creates a softer effect with a moody feel. To create this impression, you place the light between the main vantage point and the item you want to emphasize, with the light focussed toward the item.
This works best when there’s a wall behind the thing you’re highlighting. You can achieve this look with spotlights and floodlights.
Moonlighting
Moonlighting involves mounting downlights in the branches of an open-branched tree located close to your house. The light can create an attractive and impressive effect filtering through the branches of the tree.
Grazing
Grazing means aiming a light along a flat surface to create dramatic shadow and light effects. You can use this technique to emphasize unusually-textured walls or highlight a design on your home’s facade.
More Bright Ideas
Outdoor lights are the ultimate solution when you’re looking to add the final touches to your carefully designed and landscaped yard.
Are you selling your home soon? From a security perspective, outdoor landscape lighting can help increase your home appraisal value. They’ll certainly work wonders to make your home more appealing to prospective buyers.
Are you inspired to extend your efforts to your home’s exteriors? Browse our blog for more home improvement tips and news.