Outdoor Lighting Orlando is more than just a curb appeal feature. Illuminating your home’s exterior creates a safe, inviting environment and can add value when it comes time to sell.
Landscape lights can also illuminate walkways for increased visibility and safety, highlighting features along the way. They can highlight water features and yard sculptures or bathe a plant bed with a moonlight effect.
Lighting paths along walkways provide night safety and highlight the details of a home’s landscape. Path lights are available in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can be freestanding or built into structures like steps and walls. Generally, path lights are low-voltage fixtures that can be installed as a DIY project. However, professional installation is recommended to prevent electrical shock and ensure the fixture meets state codes.
For homeowners who want to add more dramatic lighting to their outdoor spaces, sconces and front porch lanterns are popular choices that provide high-end visual impact. They can highlight a front door, water feature, or ornamental landscaping. Many of these fixtures are made from solid brass or copper, which will patina and age beautifully over time. Unlike the cheap aluminum fixtures commonly found at big box stores, high-end options will not rust or need replacement in a few years.
The use of lighting in a garden dates back thousands of years. Early forms of landscape lighting were torches and lanterns, which were usually placed on a pedestal or in the center of a table. The modern incarnation of landscape lighting is more subtle, using small ground-level lights with a lens or glass to focus the light downward. The light illuminates a path or walkway, while the shadowing effect highlights statues and other decorative wall features.
One of the most important things to remember when planning a lighting scheme is the amount of natural light in the space. This can come from street lights, lights from the house, sky glow (from natural light reflecting clouds and mist), moonlight, or starlight. Depending on the ambient light level, you may get away with using less path lighting or installing smaller fixtures.
Another way to save on cost is by using solar landscape lights. These are usually located in the corners of a yard or along the edges of a hardscape element such as a deck. They are easy to install and run off the sun’s energy throughout the day without requiring any additional power sources at night.
In addition to path lighting, accent lights highlight plants, trees, and other landscape features for a more refined and professional look. The types of accent lights vary from spotlights to low-voltage flood lights, which can be installed in a variety of ways to complement the design scheme. Using different lighting techniques also creates the right level of drama in the yard.
For instance, silhouetting is a technique that places the light fixture at the base of the feature and aims it toward an adjacent wall to cast a dark silhouette of the object. It looks great on a large mature tree with branches, foliage, and a wall or other structure. Another great use of this technique is to accent the texture and height differences in a plant bed, highlighting its interesting shape.
A grazing effect is similar, but instead of casting shadows on a surface, it provides a more even wash of illumination. Spotlights, well-lights, and low-voltage floodlights are commonly used for this type of effect to illuminate stone walls, stucco, or brick. Wall washing can also be done with string lights or a row hanging along a fence.
This type of lighting is perfect for highlighting architectural designs in the garden or home exterior, flagpoles, large mature trees, and walls. It adds a subtle yet dramatic element to your property, making it stand out from others in the neighborhood.
Landscape lighting not only enhances the beauty of a property but can make it more functional and safer as well. If you have a walkway or steps that are difficult to see after dark, or your house’s entrance is obscured by trees and shrubbery, installing a well-designed lighting system can help make them safer for your family and guests.
Properly installed outdoor lighting can also increase your property’s value, making it more attractive to potential buyers. A professional lighting installation also gives your home a cared-for, well-maintained appearance that neighbors will notice and envy. It’s an investment that will pay off for years to come!
A well-lit home and yard is a powerful deterrent against criminal activity. Landscape lighting can illuminate walkways, stairs, and other hazards to help prevent trips and falls, making your property safer for you and your guests. Plenty of landscape lights can also keep you from feeling nervous at night, wondering if every creak or squeak is an intruder trying to break in.
The right landscape lighting system can highlight a fountain, pond, flower garden, patio, pergola, or anything else you want to make stand out. It can make your yard a bold, illuminated showcase and give you another reason to spend more time outdoors. And if you connect your landscape lighting to a smart home platform like Haven, you can schedule and control your lights from anywhere on the planet with an easy-to-use app.
It’s important to know your purpose for landscape lighting before you decide on a particular style or type of fixture. For example, spotlights are great for highlighting certain features, while floodlights work best for illuminating dark corners of your property or areas that could be hiding spots for prowlers. You can even use landscape lighting to highlight a special tree or plant, which may add just the amount of drama you need to your outdoor space.
You can also use landscape lighting to deter burglars by illuminating doorways and windows. Most burglars enter through the front door, so highlighting this area of your home can help keep you safe. If you have trees with branches that hang close to your windows, you can also light those. This lets first responders and neighbors find your home in an emergency and lets potential thieves know you’re a hard target.
Landscape lighting can help deter trespassers and unwanted animals, too. Strategically lighting dark corners of your property can help eliminate hiding spots for wildlife that might otherwise be attracted to your home or yard. Depending on the area of your property, you can also use landscaping lights to deter animals by shining them in their direction. This will cause the animals to move in a different direction, keeping them away from your property.
When done right, landscape lighting brings nighttime beauty to your home and helps you see what makes it special. It illuminates paths, draws attention to gardens and yard arrangements, and shows off prized trees and shrubs. It’s also practical, guiding guests through your property and illuminating potential safety hazards such as steps or uneven pathways.
There are many landscape lighting fixture options, so it’s important to consider the style and finish that fits your design scheme. The main fixture classes are spotlights, bollard lights, path lights, and deck/stair/patio lights. Spotlights (or uplights) are versatile and come in various beam widths and wattages. They are the most popular landscape lighting fixtures for highlighting, silhouetting, shadowing, grazing moonlighting, and other common lighting techniques.
Bollards, on the other hand, are designed to light up a specific area of your yard. They can highlight a feature such as a water fountain or tree swing and are often used as pathway markers. They come in various heights and styles to fit your design and are available with different lens and mount types. On the other hand, path lights are meant to illuminate a pathway and can be installed along sidewalks or tucked into garden beds to guide visitors to entryways. They come in various styles and colors to match your design and are available with multiple mounting options to help you create the best effect.
If you want to highlight something specific, such as a sculpture or fountain, using multiple lights rather than just one is best. This will prevent the pool of light from overlapping and causing unsightly shadows. Aiming two lights at the same object will also reduce the number of shadows cast by a single light and make it easier to see where to step.
Whether you’re installing a new lighting system or re-designing your existing one, we can help. From determining the best placement of your fixtures to ensuring your control system is set up properly, our expert team will be with you every step of the way. Our simple-to-use Haven Lighting App makes it easy to schedule and control your smart classic white landscape lights from anywhere in the world.