Everyone loves gathering with their friends and family and enjoying time together. You tell jokes, reminisce on special memories, share experiences, play games, and just enjoy each other’s company.
Hanging together outside in your backyard oasis makes the time even more memorable. Your new patio makes al fresco dining on grilled meats and veggies ideal. Your pool is the best place for fun in the sun. And your outdoor fireplace creates the ultimate ambiance and place to congregate.
But there are always those times of the year when you realize that your evenings are short … or the party is lasting longer, and you don’t want it to end. Yet, the darkness may spoil some of your fun.
The solution: landscape lighting.
Landscape lighting installation can change the game on those Greater Chicago evenings and deliver some next-level sunset entertainment and enjoyment.
Let’s dive into the perks and techniques of landscape lighting, as well as the costs and some tips on hiring the right company to do the job correctly, so you can benefit from this illumination in your outdoor oasis.
You’ve done your best to make your house and backyard appear like it came from the pages of your favorite home improvement magazine. But you don’t want all of those great areas and additions to fade away with the Chicagoland sun.
Landscape lighting is one of those upgrades that can do a lot with a small amount of investment and work.
In fact, the benefits of outdoor landscape lighting extend past just adding a little glow. Check out these perks:
As you’re considering adding landscape lighting to your Greater Chicago home landscape, you are probably also wondering where those lights go and how they should be placed for optimum safety, glow, illumination, and visibility.
And this is a good question to ask yourself because there is definitely a right and wrong way to light up your yard. While the right way brings many benefits, the wrong way can create dark pockets and bright spots that blind your guests. The wrong way can also lack the right security and navigation, defeating the purpose of lighting’s goals.
These landscape lighting techniques will steer you in the right direction.
A common part of landscape lighting installation that can help spotlight key features near your home or in your landscape by illuminating it from below is called uplighting landscape lighting.
The technique places lights closer to each object you want to light up from below to create a bold, dramatic impact.
As the opposite type of landscaping lighting design technique to uplighting, landscape downlighting is when you place a light fixture high in an object, such as a tree, and cast it in a downward direction.
The higher the light fixture is placed on your house or in a tree, the wider the light will be.
Similar to downlighting, moonlight landscape lighting casts light downward, giving the effect of the moonlight beaming down on your Chicagoland backyard.
This technique can cause unique shadow patterns, as well as provide a very natural lighting impact.
Any lighting that draws special attention to a specific feature in your yard, such as a statue, tree, or unique home architecture, is called accent landscape lighting.
Usually, this technique uses a narrow beam to highlight a hidden feature to add some mystery and intrigue.
Highlighting is a common and useful landscape lighting technique that uses varying distances and angles of lights placed below an object to provide unique focus.
Larger objects like big trees may require more than one lighting fixture to provide enough illumination for a highlighting technique.
If you want to create a silhouette of a unique landscape plant or urn or anything in your yard with an attractive shape, silhouette lighting can be a great technique to try.
By illuminating the backdrop behind the object, you create a dark outline of the object, giving it new life at night.
As a similar landscaping lighting technique to silhouetting, shadowing places light toward the base of a specific feature you want to bring to life.
Instead of creating a silhouette, though, this design creates a soft shadow. If you have a tree with delicate leaves, shadowing can add some drama to your home facade, especially when the wind is blowing.
For a soothing and steady glow that reflects off of a landscape retaining wall or home facade, try wall-wash landscape lighting.
With this technique, a landscape lighting designer places a light fixture a few feet away from an object, lighting it with a sideways angle to create that subtle ambiance.
For walkways, backyard paths, and front yard entryways, try outdoor path lighting.
This effect should not look like you’re landing a plane in your yard. You don’t want lights that are perfectly aligned in a straight row. Instead, you want a natural, alternating pattern that moves from side to side and follows curves on walkways. This technique aims the light down, ensuring you can see as you move down a path versus becoming blinded by light pointing into your face.
The backyard is where you spend most of your free time outdoors, so naturally you want to extend your hours of enjoyment there.
Depending on your personal preferences and tastes, there are backyard landscape lighting ideas that can fit your style and the activities you most enjoy. This way, you can have both beauty and function.
Try some of these landscape lighting strategies to get a backyard you can enjoy for not only daylight hours, but also sunrise, sunset, and twilight hours as well.
Entertaining outdoors pairs naturally with food options, and an outdoor kitchen can give you what you’re looking for with cooking options, as well as opportunities to dine al fresco.
But you can’t cook and eat what you can’t see. That’s why backyard landscape lighting can come in handy when you have a chef’s touch in your Chicagoland landscape. You not only want to see the progress of your meal or see your guests' faces as you dine, but you also want to be able to seamlessly move from indoor to outdoor spaces with ease – and without spilling all of your food or breaking glasses or plates.
Landscape lighting can make your outdoor kitchen more enjoyable and easier to work with for longer periods of time.
When it comes to backyard landscape lighting, illumination can come from light fixtures, but they can also come from fire. Fire features are a hot addition to Naperville, Elmhurst, and Hinsdale, IL backyards because they add ambiance and warmth to cooler evenings.
Fire features incorporated into your landscape lighting scheme can create a gathering spot, as well as a place for fun activities like roasting marshmallows for s’mores. The dancing, flickering flames add a unique touch.
Your trees are architectural masterpieces in your landscape – and they are natural additions. They thrive and grow and change with the seasons, and their trunks are like sculptures.
So, naturally, you want to give your trees extended life with light.
Try one of these great landscape tree lighting ideas:
Illuminating your pool area adds functionality, as well as beauty. Your aesthetics can get a nice boost, and you can also enjoy your space in the evenings.
Try some of these pool landscape lighting concepts to get the best of both worlds:
Your front yard may not be where you spend all of your outside time, but it speaks volumes when it comes to increasing your curb appeal and home value.
As such, you don’t want to neglect it when it comes to landscape lighting. Not only does front yard landscape lighting add safety and security for visitors and guests, as well as your own family, when coming and going, but lighting also gives your front-facing facade a big aesthetic boost.
Embrace these front yard landscape lighting ideas when thinking about concepts for accentuating this side of your Chicagoland landscape.
While beauty is a key goal in landscape lighting installation, so is functionality. Professionally and properly lighting up your entryways and walkways ensures safe passage for anyone on your property and provides a welcoming feel.
Remember, avoid the runway effect and blinding people by pointing light upward. Instead, you want to stagger lights and make sure they face downward, illuminating the path in a balanced and usable way.
If you have a grand tree, soothing water feature, or unique sculpture, you have an incredible opportunity to accentuate it as part of your front yard landscape lighting and give it new life after sunset.
Use accent lighting to give these focal points some extra attention during evening hours.
Uplighting is a way to add some light at the bases of trees, statues, or home architecture to encourage mystery and intrigue.
This type of lighting technique adds light levels that can bring unique darks and lights to your space.
Landscape path lighting is essential as part of your Greater Chicago landscaping lighting design because it guides you and your visitors from place to place. It’s a navigational tool to keep you moving safely in the right direction.
There are many techniques and designs you can choose to help illuminate your paths. Take inspiration from one of these outdoor path lighting and driveway landscape lighting ideas.
If your driveway is only lit by a single post light or garage-mounted floodlight, never fear, you have more options beyond these boring basics. Remember, options will differ based on your specific driveway design.
For any landscape with a pathway or walkway, landscape path lighting is an important addition. This is true not only for safety and to limit trips and falls, but also to create that beautiful guide when the daylight isn’t helping you see clearly.
After all, no one wants to trip over stepping stones or crush delicate flowers. Adding light the right way can do wonders in keeping feet on the path and out of your landscape beds.
Try these outdoor path lighting design suggestions for the ultimate walkway illumination.
Your Greater Chicago landscape should slowly come to life as the sun sets in an even and engaging way.
You certainly don’t want lights that only work for a month, fixtures that stand out like sore thumbs, or a worthless investment that doesn’t do the job of adding safety, visibility, and aesthetics to your space.
That’s what can make do-it-yourself landscape lighting tricky. If done incorrectly, your investment might be wasted. But if you choose the wrong landscape lighting professional, you could feel the same way. Let’s look at things for you to think about when choosing your landscaping lighting installation options.
When you stop at a hardware store, you’re going to find a lot of options when it comes to landscape lighting. And while they look attractive, and you may be tempted to try them, they may not be commercial grade, meaning they could have a shorter lifespan in your landscape.
Also, there is a big trend toward solar options today for DIY landscape lighting. But solar lighting effectiveness depends on the fixtures receiving adequate sunlight. This means ideal placement is crucial. If you have a lot of shade in your yard, your lights may be weak or not work at all during certain times of the year when sun is limited, such as winter.
When going with this option, you want to make sure you factor in additional costs for ongoing upkeep and replacement.
When professionals choose and install light fixtures, however, they are designed for reliable, long-term use. This reliability might be worth the initial higher cost for a focused design with sturdy fixtures that can stand up to Chicagoland’s bitter winters.
Landscape lighting requires wiring, and if you have light fixtures that are placed further away from your transformer, they need adequate voltage to work properly. Additionally, your outdoor wiring must survive temperature changes, rain, humidity, and even potential animal damage.
Compared to do-it-yourself options, professional landscape lighting companies have years of electrical experience and use thicker wire to enable electricity to flow properly and to ensure all the lights around your home work sufficiently.
Once you have the right fixtures and the right knowledge, you need some design skills for do-it-yourself landscape lighting to work.
The reason? A lot of landscape lighting mistakes can be made by incorporating the wrong design. Everything from blinding people’s eyes with lights that point in the wrong directions to overlighting to underlighting can happen – not to mention others. All of these errors will only detract from your overall landscape lighting aesthetics instead of improve them.
To get the most out of your Greater Chicago landscape, you want to extend your options for enjoying outside time. And landscape lighting can certainly help you do that.
But as you look at your extensive landscape and all the spaces you want to bring to life with light, you might be wondering what you should budget to make this final look happen.
But understanding the costs of landscape lighting can help you better plan your outdoor illumination.
While there are many factors that can impact landscape lighting costs, installation prices usually range from $335 per fixture to $500 per fixture.
Keep your costs in check by:
When you decide to hire a landscape lighting professional in Naperville, Elmhurst, and Hinsdale, IL, you might wonder how you can choose the best company that will do the job right and meet your specific needs.
You might be wondering what questions to ask to adequately compare each company and how to assess the company’s skill level and design expertise.
Use this advice to determine how you can best assess which company you should hire.
Ultimately, you have your own style and your own type of home and landscape. You’re certainly not looking for a cookie-cutter concept.
As such, you want a landscape lighting designer who listens to your concerns and your needs and takes your preferences into account.
They should ask you questions to determine how you utilize your space and the styles you prefer to ensure your needs are considered in the final look. This will ensure you enjoy it longer.
Wiring knowledge and design capability are crucial in getting the right landscape lighting installation.
So you’re seeking a landscape lighting company that can offer innovative design using multiple techniques for boosting visibility and safety, as well as skills in wiring to keep a level and steady flow of illumination during those darker hours when you need it.
Read company reviews and look at photos of their finishing lighting projects to see how they work. This can give you a better sense of their skill level.
As you’re considering landscape lighting in Naperville, Elmhurst, and Hinsdale, IL, we hope you’ll also add KD Landscape to the companies you’re assessing.
Our landscape lighting design and installation experts can give your landscape the elegant, graceful aesthetic you’re seeking – all while taking your needs into account.
Ready to see how KD Landscape can help you enjoy your Chicagoland landscape once the sun sets? We’d love to share our design and installation expertise with you. Get started today with a free consultation. Together, we can create a plan that you will love and can enjoy for years to come.