Types of Landscape Lighting: A Comprehensive Guide

FACTS CHECKED BY  Bob Smith

Lighting up the exterior of your home is just as crucial as the inside. We often forget that most people can only see our home from the outside. So why let the show end at sundown when you use the different types of landscape lighting to highlight the best features of your home? Scouting for the right outdoor lighting for your home is a complex process. This blog will guide you on the best lighting to make your home stand out.

Types of Landscape Lighting

Landscape lighting in a garden

Landscape lighting in a garden

Here are some landscape lighting types you can settle on to highlight the best of your landscape.

Floodlights

Floodlights are one of the best landscape lighting types for large swathes of space. They’re large spotlights mounted on stands on the ground or the side of a wall. Floodlights produce wide beams that are perfect for securing your front and backyard. This lighting effectively reduces vandalism while simultaneously showing off your landscaping in the night glow.

Spotlight

They highlight specific features in the yard, such as statues, trees, and shrubs. Spotlights differ from floodlights as they only point in one specific direction. Before choosing between a floodlight and a spotlight, determine the beam width you need. Floodlights give more width, and spotlights provide more accuracy.

Deck and Step Lights

As a crucial part of architectural landscape lighting, you can build them into the staircase to increase visibility and lower the chances of stumbling while going up and down. Architects and interior designers also use them to wash down exterior stone walls and to warm up the scene whenever you’re entertaining.

Path Lighting

Path lighting

The Path lighting

Path lighting illuminates pathways in your yard or garden. This type of lighting is also a safety feature since it lights up anything you may stumble upon in our yard. One of the best ways to use path lighting is by placing them around your garden pond. They’re generally shorter than post-lights.

Bollard Lights

Bollard lights are perfect for creating your ambiance of choice in the garden. You can mount bollard lights on posts of up to four feet at different positions in the yard. These lights are not covered and therefore illuminate all sights and also downwards. Consequently, you can use bollard lights to light up a pathway.

Post Lights

Just like bollard lights, you also have these lights on posts. However, post lights stand higher as their mounts are as high as 8 feet. You can also install them on architectural structures such as fences and gates. You can use post lights to set the tone for your home, from the entrance with its soft hue to your yard with free-standing post lights.

String lights

String lights

String lights

These are miniature LED bulbs wired onto strings, just like Christmas lights. They are subtle and are almost unnoticeable once you settle into your evening in the garden. You can use string lights to set the ambiance for an evening garden party by blending them with nature and attaching them to trees.

How to light up your landscape

Let’s look at the vital lighting techniques and how they affect your yard.

Uplighting

To utilize this technique, place spotlights or floodlights on the ground facing upwards. Uplighting solutions create dramatic shadows, especially when they light up against a tree. If you have a large tree in the garden, face the spotlight up the tree trunk, so the rays spread outwards to the branches and leaves. This will portray an image of the light’ growing’ with the tree.

Silhouetting

Place spotlights behind statues or bushes in your yard to achieve this landscape lighting technique. This highlights these unique features in your landscape while creating ghostly shadows in your yard. Silhouetting is the perfect lighting technique for Halloween.

Shadowing

This technique is almost similar to silhouetting. However, shadowing uses lights with a softer glow. Shadowing also differs from silhouetting as you place the floodlight or spotlight between the viewing position and the feature you want to light. The light source creates shadows on a wall in the background, making for an amazing viewing experience.

Moonlighting

This landscape lighting technique borrows more than its name from the solar system. You can recreate the moonlight by mounting downlights on large trees in your garden. The lights illuminate the tree washing the branches in a beam that extends to parts of your garden.

Benefits of landscape lighting

Floodlights on a brick wall

Floodlights on a brick wall

Here are the pros of landscape lighting:

Security

Landscape lighting helps secure your home. A well-lit yard is a serious turnoff to vandals who might be interested in what lies behind your garage door. You can also opt for motion sensor landscape lights that light up when they sense movement. With landscape lighting backyard, you can enjoy a good night’s sleep knowing you have an extra layer of security.

Increase property value

A well-lit landscape may add another zero to the value of your home. Outdoor lights portray the image of a well-kept home. A house with landscape lighting is, without a doubt, more attractive than one clothed in darkness.

Make your centerpieces stand out.

Whether it’s a statue or a tree that has survived generations, you can use landscape lighting to showcase the centerpiece of your garden stands out. The proper lighting will make other features in the yard fall in the background, and the element you want to show pop.

Creating a peaceful ambiance

A smart choice from the different types of landscape lighting will create a whole new ambiance for your yard or garden. You could even turn the backyard into a cool location for hosting garden parties for your friends.

Can I install my landscape lighting?

The answer to this is both yes and no. We all know the dangers of dabbling with electricity, especially if you’re a newbie. Installing your landscape lighting carries the risk of electrocution. 

However, you can install your landscape lighting if you have done electrical work. Solar landscape lights are the easiest to set up as they only need a convenient place to mount. Replacing old landscape lights is also a relatively simple task. You may face a challenge when it comes to gas lights. These require professional landscape lighting experts to handle highly flammable devices.

Summary

Landscape lighting is a must-have for your home. They will help you accentuate the best features while simultaneously hiding the parts of your home you’re yet to perfect. The different types of landscape lighting available means you can modify your setup according to your needs and budget. These lights will help protect your home while ensuring its value stays on track. You can never go wrong with landscape lighting. 

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