You love spending time in your backyard. You’ve invested in a space you can use to relax with family and friends. Once that warmer weather kicks in, you want to be out there, enjoying nature and good times.
Darkness definitely puts a bit of a damper on backyard fun -- from swimming to barbecuing to a patio party.
Enter landscape lighting. It enables you to keep the entertainment rolling, while boosting safety, as well as a more chill outdoor vibe.
There are many landscape lighting ideas that can create these extended hours and the magical backyard feeling you’re looking for.
Landscape Lighting Design Tips
There are so many places on your property where you can put landscape lighting and so many ways outdoor illumination can work for you. "Where to place landscape lighting" is a common question.
It’s a multifunctional backyard accessory that can do a lot with very little.
Use these best landscape lighting tips when you’re looking at adding some ambiance to your outdoor space.
Light Up Outdoor Pathways
Path lighting is essential as part of your best landscaping lighting design because it guides you and your visitors from place to place. It’s a navigational tool to keep you moving in the right direction.
When adding landscape lighting to paths, you don’t want a constant stream of light. You want to avoid that runway look. Instead, you want to stagger lights on both sides of the path to create balanced lighting.
Accentuate Garden Features With Lights
You might have a majestic fountain or a grand entryway sculpture that you love. Maybe you have neat stone on your home or even a great old tree with twisting branches.
All of these unique architectural and landscape features should be on your list when you’re thinking about where to place landscape lighting. You can enhance these places and give them a new interest during evening and nighttime hours.
Moonlighting
Conventional light sources like spotlights can create harsh glares in your suburban Chicago landscape. But moonlighting is a landscape lighting design you’ll love for the soft glow it creates in your outdoor space.
With this type of landscape lighting, you place lights high in trees or structures to cast light down that mimics the gentle silvery glow of moonlight. Moonlighting enhances your property’s natural beauty without blinding you or irritating your neighbors.
Deck & Hardscape Lighting
Another important landscape lighting idea is deck and hardscape lighting. When you want to enjoy your deck, you don’t want to let something like sunset get in the way of dinner al fresco.
There are many options to include light fixtures on decks to bring safety and illuminate the space without these components staring you in the face or ruining your design. They can even be customized to match the finish of your deck and blend in seamlessly.
Railing and post lights tuck in unnoticed but cast a nice beam of light to ensure even coverage. Step lights also hide away to cast a glow on stairs to enable smoother passage and prevent trips and falls. These lighting techniques can be used on any hardscape in your yard.
Uplighting Design
To create drama in your best landscape lighting design, you need to give some places an extra bit of attention. Uplighting is one way to bring this impact.
Installing an uplight at ground level can enable you to highlight a lawn ornament, tree, or home architectural feature and make them look more statuesque. Uplighting can even create shadows or silhouettes if placed behind trees, for instance, to add dimension and intrigue.
Ready to Bring the Light to Your Favorite Outdoor Spaces?
You’ve done your best to make your Greater Chicago home and landscape look first-rate. But you don’t want that hard work to disappear come nightfall.
These ideas for landscape lighting can enable you to roll back that darkness and put your favorite landscape spaces on display.
When you look at all of the ideas you can find by Googling best landscape lighting tips, you’ll find endless photos of amazing lighting designs. If trying to recreate these images seems overwhelming when you look at the endless fixtures available and wiring involved, let KD Landscape take that worry off of your plate. We are experts at installing high-end landscape lighting in Greater Chicago area homes and can give your space just the right amount of glamour and glow that fits into your unique yard and budget.
Ready to see how KD Landscape can keep you entertaining outdoors into the evening hours? We’d love to share our design and installation expertise with you. Get started today with a free consultation. Together, we can prepare a plan that works best for you.
