These days, homeowners are increasingly investing in outdoor lighting, whether it’s to showcase their home’s architecture and landscaping, or to make an outdoor space more comfortable. Lighting up your yard can set the mood for an outdoor soiree, deter prowlers, illuminate a driveway or walkway, or let you showcase your favorite parts of your home and yard.
While you might need the help of a professional to install new outdoor electrical fixtures, there are also plenty of outdoor lighting options you can install yourself. Make sure your outdoor walking paths and driveway are adequately illuminated, and light up any dark corners around your home with floodlights to keep away prowlers. Use layered lighting solutions to create cozy outdoor spaces for entertaining or just hanging out in the evening.
Illuminate Walking Paths and Driveways
Walking paths and driveways can be dangerous to navigate in the dark. It’s a good idea to install a motion-activated flood light above your garage door to illuminate your driveway, and place stake lights along your walkways to adequately illuminate them in the dark. You should have a professional install new electrical fixtures, especially if you need to run new wiring to them.
One of the most common mistakes homeowners make when placing stake lights is to place lights directly across from each other along the path. Instead, you should stagger your walkway lights, so that they shed alternating pools of light. It looks better, and you’ll lose fewer lights, so you’ll save money. Solar-powered stake lights are the easiest to set up – many solar lights require no wiring at all, and can absorb enough sunlight to shine all night long even if they’re in partial shade.
Spotlight Your Home and Landscaping
Spotlights can illuminate your home and landscaping, allowing you to both show off your home’s best features and keep prowlers at bay. You can choose lights that shine all night, or motion-activated lights to scare away large animals (like deer that might eat your landscaping) or humans with nefarious intentions. Spotlights should be arranged to shine across your home, not directly on it, so that the light falls softly on your home’s architectural features and your landscaping.
Check to make sure your new lights are compliant with local ordinances – many municipalities are tackling the problem of light pollution by regulating what kinds of outdoor lights homeowners can put up. These local ordinances are new in many areas, so don’t assume you know what the law is – look it up. More and more municipalities are putting rules in place requiring outdoor lights to be shielded, so the light is directed downward. Other strategies to combat light pollution include using warmer lights – avoid blue lights or lights with a color temperature above 3,000 Kelvins. Choose outdoor light fixtures with frosted glass covers – they don’t show dirt as easily so you don’t have to clean them as often. You can buy low-voltage outdoor lights that can be plugged into an outdoor outlet – they’re safe and require no additional electrical wiring, unless you have to have an outdoor outlet installed.
Light Up Your Outdoor Entertaining Spaces
You have so many options when it comes to installing landscape & deck lighting in your outdoor entertaining spaces. Many people like to install extra outdoor lighting on a deck, porch, or pergola so that these spaces can remain functional after night falls. Go for a layered lighting scheme with task lighting, ambient lighting, and accent lighting. For example, on a deck or porch, a wall sconce or overhead light can provide ambient lighting that illuminates the whole space. You can use portable lamps for task lighting on tables and next to chairs, so that you have the light you need to read, play games, eat, or perform other tasks outside. You can also use task lighting to illuminate steps and walkways in the backyard.
Accent lighting, on the other hand, is used to set a mood and can really take your outdoor entertaining space to the next level. Accent lighting can include candles, portable lamps, and outdoor string lights. Run rope lighting around your porch or deck railing, or place candles or lanterns around the perimeter of the space. Accent lighting can be a beautiful and affordable way to set the mood in your outdoor space.
Outdoor lighting has become an indispensable part of most new homes. Lighting up your home’s exterior can scare off prowlers and keep you from tripping on a dark walkway at night. The right exterior illumination will make your home a more comfortable place to live, and can even boost its curb appeal.
