Outdoor Lighting, An Easy Way to Improve your Landscape

Outdoor lighting is one of the simplest upgrades you can add to your landscape, but it brings a dramatic improvement to any landscape. Regardless of whether you’re planning out a new landscape, a major renovation, or just looking for a weekend project, low voltage outdoor lighting is sure to enhance your landscape in a big way that just might surprise you. Read on to learn more about lighting up your landscape.

Outdoor lighting on a path to the backyard patio. — *These path lights create a safe and welcoming approach to the backyard patio.*

Add Night Life to Your Landscape!

There’s no reason to stop enjoying your landscape after sundown, and good outdoor lighting will ensure there’s no need to move the party indoors once it gets dark. Outdoor lighting will make sure everyone can still see what they are doing, and make sure they’re having a good time. Low volt lighting is going to be much more subtle than turning on the porch light, providing a nice ambiance.

Low voltage outdoor lighting in the patio wall. — *This courtyard has low voltage LED lighting built right into the wall, ensuring the party doesn’t have to stop once the sun goes down.*

Outdoor Lighting Adds Beauty

The look is the main appeal of landscape lighting, and it can have a dramatic effect on your landscape. We can light up some beautiful stone on the exterior of a home, or we can place recessed lighting fixtures in the ground and up-light a home’s structure, which washes the home with light and gives it a beautiful, warm presence. We can also add that same type of up lighting on trees. Adding path lighting is an effective and aesthetically pleasing way to define and light up paths, driveways, and patios. String lighting and recessed lighting are both really nice ways to light up your patio space.

*This water feature utilizes submersible outdoor lighting to illuminate its waterfalls.*

Outdoor Lighting Adds Safety

One of the most important aspects of landscape lighting in the enhanced safety it provides. Outdoor lighting can illuminate paths, steps, and patios, increasing visibility and reducing the chance of slips and falls after dark. It can light up your backyard, so you can be more aware of local wildlife that might harass your dog on its nightly trip outside. Increased lighting also makes your home feel brighter and more secure. Outdoor lighting is also really helpful in the winter months, when the days are shorter, and sunlight is in short supply.

This outdoor kitchen is lit up with two standard 120v light fixtures hanging from the pine trees. — This outdoor kitchen is lit up with two standard 120v light fixtures, but the bulbs have been replaced with low voltage LED bulbs so it can safely operate off a low voltage outdoor lighting transformer.

Selecting your Outdoor Lighting

There is a huge amount of outdoor lighting options. Kichler makes a lot of nice fixtures that we enjoy working with. Vista makes a very good lighting transformer, and their website has all the information you need if you’d like to do it yourself. If you’re looking for smart lighting features that change colors and work off your smartphone FX Luminaire has some exciting new technology available. When you’re looking at your lighting, make sure you’re looking at a fixture that utilizes an LED bulb, as they are much more energy efficient and easy to install.

These low voltage LED string lights hang from the trellis and illuminate this outdoor living area while providing their own distinct ambiance. — *These low voltage LED string lights illuminate this outdoor living area while providing their own distinct ambiance.*

If you’re looking for that little extra that can really make a landscape outstanding, landscape lighting is the perfect addition to any landscape. It increases the functionality, appearance, and safety of your outdoor space.