Contact Louisville’s trusted landscaping experts for outdoor lighting design and installation services.
You know your yard looks incredible during the day, but what about when the sun goes down? Every homeowner needs lighting solutions that make it safe to navigate the space at night as well as highlight key landscaping features. In this landscape lighting placement guide, the professionals at Taylor Landscaping explain everything you need to know about installing outdoor lights.
We’re the company locals trust for residential landscaping in Louisville, KY. Reach out to our team if your yard could benefit from professional landscape or hardscape design and installation.
Common Types of Outdoor Lighting Fixtures
Landscaping professionals work with a variety of outdoor lights that illuminate outdoor spaces at night. Before we dive into strategies for installing landscape lighting, it’s important to understand the different types of fixtures available. Your project might require all of these options or only a few, but experts will steer you in the right direction with professional tips for landscaping.
Floodlights or Spotlights
Imagine going to a concert or stage performance and seeing a large spotlight shine on the performer. The main purpose of this type of lighting is to show off certain focal points that people should bring their attention to. The same concept applies to outdoor spotlights.
You can place the spotlight around key features of your yard that you want others to focus on, such as:
- Statues
- Fountains
- Trees
- Shrubs
- Flagpoles
Floodlights serve a similar purpose but they have a wider beam spread than spotlights. If you wish to illuminate a larger area, such as a pool, this fixture will come in handy over a spotlight.
Post Lights
Any landscape lighting placement guide should mention post lights, which help with path lighting and brightening up smaller spaces. They’re slightly taller than standard path lights and add ambient brightness for a safe, relaxing environment.
Well-Lights
Landscapers recommend well-lights for a sophisticated form of uplighting. These lights don’t have any bulky hardware but rather go directly into the ground so you can light up driveways, walkways, patios, and more.
Deck Lights and Post Cap Lights
Countless Louisville homeowners like to sit outside on their decks after the sun goes down, but they need the proper lighting for navigating this space and seeing their surroundings. Experts can install deck lights directly into the stairs of your deck and along the hardscape for safer movement. Post cap lights brighten the space even more since they stick out from the wooden posts of your deck.
Strategies for Installing Landscape Lighting Fixtures
Use this landscape lighting placement guide to figure out which types of outdoor lighting your space needs. Below is a breakdown of popular strategies experts use when crafting effective landscape lighting designs.
Focus on Shadows, Angles, and Shapes
Louisville homeowners usually have one goal when they install a new light fixture inside the house, and that’s to brighten a room as much as possible. While outdoor lighting ultimately brightens dark spaces, you should consider other factors, such as lighting angles and the shape of outdoor features. Professionals use several techniques for creating the perfect nighttime landscape, including:
- Moon lighting: Even when the moon isn’t visible, you’ll recreate the soft beams that come from it by perching a spotlight along treetops and casting the light down toward the branches.
- Shadow casting: Also known as silhouetting, shadow casting involves placing a light fixture behind objects like plants or statues. The hidden fixture creates a noticeable shadow on your yard or hardscape for dramatic effect.
- Uplighting: Show off a large object by placing a spotlight directly up from the ground to highlight the base of that item until the beam tapers off near the top. This technique works especially well with trees and flag poles that you want to accent.
Consult with an experienced contractor who can review all of your options and come up with a landscape lighting placement guide that suits your home. A carefully-crafted design will showcase all of your yard’s most important features and impress the neighborhood.
Prioritize Safety
When placing outdoor lights around your home, safety plays an even bigger role than aesthetics. You want lighting features that meet the following criteria:
- Brighten dark spaces to deter intruders
- Make pathways and stairs visible
- Hide wires and electrical components
You might need to install different fixtures to achieve the result you want. For example, path lights can stay on all night so you can safely walk from your driveway to the front door without tripping over objects. To keep trespassers and potential intruders away, a motion-activated floodlight can brighten your home’s entryways as soon as it senses movement nearby.
Highlight Certain Landscaping Features
Investing in your home’s landscaping takes plenty of effort and maintenance. Why let your yard’s features only be visible during the day? Utilize accent lighting to make certain features stand out at night too.
You can prop fixtures near newly trimmed trees, show off the shrubs that border your home, or bring attention to flower beds that add color to the space. Tailored lighting solutions also make it possible for you to enjoy outdoor spaces like decks, patios, and outdoor kitchens well into the night.
Avoid Overlapping
Rely on experts to map out a lighting design for your landscaping. Homeowners without prior knowledge of this topic tend to place light fixtures too close together. Professionals know how to properly space each fixture so they create ambient light instead of making the property excessively bright.
Illuminate Your Yard With Landscape Design Services in Louisville, KY
Using the tips from this landscape lighting placement guide can make your front yard a marvel even after the sun sets. For other landscaping ideas, reach out to Taylor Landscaping and let our specialists design a custom outline for your outdoor space. We offer unbeatable landscaping services, including tree care, hardscape installation, and more.
See how we can transform your Louisville home. Submit our online form or call (502) 709-3708 to receive a quote and learn more.
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