Whether you’re illuminating your garden, patio, deck or water feature, landscape lighting can transform any outdoor space into an impressive showcase.
To ensure that your lighting design is successful, it’s important to plan it carefully. That means taking measurements of trees, shrubs and other objects on your property. Read next.
What You Want
When designing a landscape lighting plan, it’s important to understand your goals. Your primary goal is probably safety, but you also want to consider the beauty and ambiance of your property.
You can achieve these objectives by carefully lighting pathways, walkways, patios and entertaining nooks. It’s also a great way to highlight your home’s architectural features and draw attention to prized plants and trees.
The first step to creating a landscape lighting design is sketching your yard. This will help you determine the best ways to illuminate your landscape, as well as where to place fixtures.
What You Need
Landscape lighting design can create a warm, inviting ambiance to your home and enhance architectural details. It can also help you increase the value of your property.
When designing a landscape lighting scheme, start by sketching out your yard and taking into account the type of lights you’d like to add. Some common types of fixtures include path lights, floodlights and spotlights.
Spotlights are commonly used to highlight a feature like a tree, while floodlights can be placed to illuminate pathways or driveways.
Uplights are another popular technique for highlighting garden structures and architectural features. These lights focus on the trunks or undersides of trees and other taller objects, creating drama.
Typically, uplights should be placed on either side of a structure or path for maximum visibility. Generally, they should be spaced about 6 feet apart to provide adequate coverage for the desired effect.
Layout
One of the most important steps in any landscape lighting design is the layout. The correct lighting plan can make or break a beautiful outdoor space, so it’s worth taking the time to consider the possibilities before jumping in with both feet.
In addition to deciding what lights will be placed where, it’s also critical to consider the function of each fixture. For example, a well-designed path light can do the hard work of highlighting the edges of a pathway and revealing any hazards along the way.
Luckily, your local Lighting One-affiliated showroom is filled with design experts who can help you create the perfect landscape lighting plan for your home or business. To get the ball rolling, start by drawing up a rough plan that includes all the essentials, from directional to ambient and everything in between. From there, it’s a matter of choosing the right fixtures and figuring out the best route for installation.
Lighting Techniques
Landscape lighting is a great way to highlight the beauty of your yard and create intrigue in your outdoor living space. It’s also an effective way to make your home more attractive and safe for guests.
One of the most popular techniques in landscape lighting design is uplighting. This technique involves placing lights at the base of a landscape feature such as trees, statues, fountains and your favorite plants to show them off in the evening.
Another way to light up a landscape feature is by using diffuse downlighting. This technique uses fully shielded bullet fixtures that are placed high in a tree and then aim down through leaves and branches to produce soft shadow patterns on the ground similar to moonlighting.
Spread lighting can also be used to accent stone features, retaining walls, outdoor kitchens, steps, handrails and other vertical features in your landscaping. This technique also adds ambiance and depth to your plant beds by directing the eye to the textures, shapes and height differences of these items. Check out this webpage.
Recent Comments