When you have a luxury home with impressive architectural features and landscaping, don’t let nighttime prevent you from showing it off. Landscape lighting provides a convenient way to draw attention to certain features of your home and yard when it’s dark out. This type of lighting can improve your home’s curb appeal while also highlighting specific aspects of its design. Keep the following tips in mind for accenting your home with landscape lighting.
Choose the Right Type of Lighting
Landscape lights can serve different purposes and be installed in more than one type of area. Use path lights along pathways and other walkways, as well as in outdoor living spaces. Wall-mounted down lights can brighten up patios, decks and stairs, while in-ground lights can highlight landscape features. You can also use in-ground lights for pathways and outdoor living spaces. Accent lights and tree lights are ideal for showcasing architectural features and your front entrance.
Decide on Lighting Methods
Using landscape lighting to accentuate your luxury home involves more than having these lights installed in certain areas. You can set up landscape lights to create certain visual effects, such as moonlight or silhouettes. For example, you can use in-ground lights or spotlights for uplighting trees and taller bushes and shrubs in your yard with a dramatic effect. Directional accent lights can be used for cross lighting to draw attention to an architectural feature or garden feature. If your property has a pool or water features, such as a fountain, you can use directional spotlights to create a mirror effect.
Select a Lighting Style
Landscape lights come in a wide range of styles. The style you choose for landscape lighting will depend on the style of your home and the overall look you want to create. For a more naturalistic look, choose rustic lights to highlight your home exterior and landscape features. If you want a more elegant or vintage look, choose traditional or antique landscape lights. You’ll also find landscape lighting in modern and contemporary styles if you’re aiming for a more streamlined or minimalist look.
Determine the Ideal Illumination
When you’ve chosen the type and style of lights for your home and yard, you’ll need to decide on the amount and type of illumination to use. Cool white bulbs have a whitish-blue tint that might create an unflattering, harsh effect on your house and landscape features, especially if you use a higher wattage. Warm white bulbs produce more of a natural, yellowish glow that creates a pleasant and more flattering appearance. The ideal wattage you should use will vary based on the size and type of area you're illuminating and the type of lights you're using.
