Have you ever driven through an Irvington, NY, neighborhood and noticed how lovely the illuminated homes look in the dark? Outdoor lighting can be an essential aspect of your landscape design and elevate the look of your home after the sunsets.
Landscape Lighting Benefits
An enhanced first impression: Just like when you see a lovely home with perfectly placed landscape lighting, illuminating your landscape can also boost the overall appearance after dark and draw the eye toward features that do not necessarily stand out in the daytime. A landscaper can highlight architectural details at the roof peak, focus attention on the stately columns that grace the front porch, and bring light to a majestic tree in the front yard.
Illuminate the dark spaces: Some dark corners in areas of your landscape could cause safety issues. Such dark spaces can make you feel uncomfortable when you arrive home after the sun sets since it can be hard to see, and you may worry about someone lurking in the shadows. For those problematic areas—perhaps near your garage or driveway, some additional lighting could provide more visibility and thus less uncertainty.
Stay outside longer: Outdoor lighting lets you spend more time outdoors—the time of day is no longer a constraint, which is a wonderful option in the summer. Your landscaper can plan different types of outdoor lighting based on how you intend to use each area of the landscape.
Convenience: Modern technology has made outdoor lighting so easy to use with the ability to control all the lighting from an app on your phone. You can easily turn lights on and off, and program the lighting to come on at specified times of the day.
Types of Outdoor Lighting
Spotlights: Spotlights tend to be brighter lights that focus on a specific feature such as the trees in the yard or a stone column on the porch. Your landscaper can help you decide if you want a warm light or cool light for the spotlights as the color tone makes a difference in the appearance of the lighted feature.
Floodlights: You might already have floodlights on your house. They are usually mounted on the corners of the roof and shine down into the yard with a wide band of light. If your floodlights are large and noticeable, your landscapers can replace them with streamlined, low-profile floodlights that are now available. As part of the replacement process, they can add more floodlights if needed to cover a wider area in the landscape.
Uplights and downlights: Uplights function similarly to spotlights as they are positioned at the base of the trees to illuminate the trunk and its textured shadows. The downlights function the same way, but with the lights placed in the tree branches to filter down to the grassy area.
Walkway and driveway lights: Walkway and driveway lights could be recessed into the edge of the surface for a gentle glow. Or lights could be positioned in the landscape on both sides of the walkway and driveway for soft light to illuminate the coming and going that occurs at your house. In some situations, you may want minimal fixtures showing, so that all anyone sees is a perfect glow.
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