• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header left navigation
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • Start Here
  • Money Pit Podcast
The Money Pit house logo

The Money Pit

Home Improvement Tips, Ideas & Podcasts

  • Media Kit
  • Posts
  • Spaces
    • Kitchens
    • Bathrooms
    • Home Exteriors
    • Garages & Sheds
    • Outdoor Living
    • Basements & Crawlspaces
  • Reno/Repair
    • Heating
    • Floors
    • Windows
    • Roofs & Gutters
    • Lighting & Wiring
  • Popular Topics
    • Storage & Organization
    • Painting & Decorating
    • Cleaning
    • Pests & Wildlife
    • Buying or Selling a Home
  • Features
    • DIY
    • Pet Friendly
    • Green Home
    • Quick Tips
  • Podcasts
    • Subscribe
    • The Money Pit Podcast
    • Your Calls, Our Answers Podcast
    • Money Pit Minute Podcast
    • Top Products Podcast
vacation, checklist, landscape lighting, outdoor lighting

5 Big Bright Ideas for Outdoor Lighting

Home » Outdoor Living » 5 Big Bright Ideas for Outdoor Lighting

5 Big Bright Ideas for Outdoor Lighting

Outdoor LivingLighting & Wiring
Facebook0Tweet0Pin0LinkedIn0Email0
vacation, checklist, landscape lighting, outdoor lighting
by Tom Kraeutler 1 Comment
Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Up-Lighting
  • Moonlighting
  • Pathlighting
  • Shadowing
  • Grazing
  • 6 tips to plan the perfect landscape lighting layout+−
    • Budget for impact
    • Style meets function
    • Long-lasting effects
    • Creating mood and focus
    • Safety and security
    • Artful installation

An exterior lighting design helps complete your landscaping project. After investing time, money and creativity in your home’s exterior detailing and landscaping, don’t forget to turn on the lights with a well thought out outdoor lighting design..

A well-designed exterior “lightscape” enhances a home’s best assets, adds drama, and keeps your home safe and secure. Every shimmering result depends on a carefully constructed plan. Here are five effective landscape lighting techniques to create your best lightscape ever!

Up-Lighting

Up-lighting is a term used to describe objects that are lit from below.  When installing, it’s important to make sure the lights don’t point toward observers and cause a glare.

Moonlighting

Moonlighting is the opposite of up-lighting.  Lights placed in trees can cast a dramatic and attractive glow to the ground below and mimic the moon glow.  They also provide security to otherwise darkened areas.

Pathlighting

Low placed path lights are the best for walkway and steps. The globe shield the light from above and focuses it on the pathway.  Pathlights are available in many low-voltage styles, as well as solar powered.

Shadowing

Remember the shadow puppets you enjoyed as a kid? You can use the same technique to light smaller shrubs and cast a big glow on your home. The shadow effect will move as the wind breezes over your landscape, making this technique even more interesting.  This also works great for an architectural feature, like an arbor.

Grazing

Grazing is a dramatic technique that can be used to cast a glow across the surface of the building or wall surface.  Its a great way to highlight your homes architectural features.

6 tips to plan the perfect landscape lighting layout

Budget for impact

Exterior lighting costs can range from minimal to maximal depending on the investment you want to make. Illuminating a home where you plan to be for only a few years will merit a different level of investment than a longer-term abode where you’ll be making ongoing outdoor improvements and additions.

In either case, be honest with yourself and your exterior lighting designer about what’s most important to accomplish; from there, system elements and installation plans can be prioritized. You may choose to execute a grand scheme over the course of a few years, or make a smaller, one-time investment.

Style meets function

In the most successful outdoor lighting schemes, function and aesthetics go hand in hand. Consider safety, traffic patterns, and how you’ll use outdoor “rooms.” Intimate spaces for informal gatherings with family and friends will call for different utility and effects than major entertainment centers.

Long-lasting effects

Whether you’re working with a pro or shopping for do-it-yourself outdoor lighting systems, go for quality fixtures and components, because you’ll definitely get what you pay for. Low-voltage is the way to go, but you really need to work with good materials.

Look for durable natural materials like copper and brass, and choose fixtures with glass enclosures. Lifetime warranties are also available on many of the better products. It’s also important to invest in a trustworthy transformer for your system; otherwise, you could wind up with a lighting scheme that fades around the edges, or, worse, a complete blackout.

Creating mood and focus

A range of fixtures make it possible to illuminate your home’s exterior as well as any Hollywood lighting designer could. But focus, focus, focus is the mantra to have in mind before you go lighting crazy—too much is too much.

In the front and back yards, carefully choose focal points to receive the brightest and most dramatic spotlight (whether an unusual tree, water feature, or architectural ornament), and build the rest of the scheme around them. Overall, shoot for a natural look that replicates moonlight streaming softly from above, as opposed to heavy doses of uplighting.

Safety and security

Harking back to the utility portion of outdoor lighting planning, illuminating for safety and security should be central considerations. Make sure to shed light on outdoor pathway lighting, all walkways, stair treads and risers, low-to-the-ground water features, and grade changes. In addition to careful placement, the light’s qualities should expose potential intruder hideaways as well as regularly used thoroughfares.

Advanced lighting control systems also protect your home whether you’re in or away. Timers, light-sensitive photo cells, remote controls, and computerized systems can all help you manage your new lighting scheme. We suggest a combination of controls, with front yards on automatic timer systems and back yards on more flexible, homeowner-managed networks.

Artful installation

And when should you actually start digging in and implementing your outdoor lighting scheme? You can install anytime, but it’s best to get the designer involved as early as possible in the home renovation or building process. It’s not mandatory, but it works your advantage.  In the ideal conditions, lighting pros can usually do installation work in two phases: wiring and system controls are installed before paving and plantings arrive, and after they’re in place, the team returns to mount and fine-tune fixtures. Such an approach creates the opportunity to integrate controls with the rest of a home’s systems for convenience and a dazzling result.

Outdoor LivingLighting & Wiring
Facebook0Tweet0Pin0LinkedIn0Email0

Related Posts

Energy Efficient Lighting: Bright Ideas for Low-Cost Illuminationpatio decorPunch Up Your Patio Decor with These Outdoor Ideasone toilet sucks water from anotherHow to Plan and Build a Basement BathroomLandscape Lighting, holiday home securityOutdoor Landscape Lighting: Creating the Perfect “Lightscape”Kitchen Lighting Design Techniques, IlluminatedSecurity lighting outside a homeOutdoor Lighting: Expert Tips to Create Attractive Landscapes

Related Podcasts

outdoor living, patio, decorPinterest-Worthy Patio Decor IdeasThe Money Pit Top Products PodcastWeatherTech Offers TechFloor Premium Modular Flooring and Indoor and Outdoor MatsThe Money Pit Top Products PodcastOsram Sylvania’s LIGHTIFY is a Bright Spot for Smart LightingCenturion Rides the Cutting Edge of Affordable Garden Tools and Outdoor Living ProductsThe Money Pit Top Products PodcastPhantom Screens Delivers Retractable Solutionamount of lighting needed for closetBest Lighting for Closet

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. chadsie

    Proper landscape lighting provides security and safety to a homeowners property. Having well lit walkways provides risk free tripping along the pathways. Illuminating the entire house provides good security from unwanted visitors.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sidebar

About Tom Kraeutler

Tom is the Host, Founder and Chief Home Improvement Evangelist of The Money Pit. With 20 years experience as a professional home inspector, Tom is a hands-on home improvement broadcast journalist and the kind of guy homeowners want to call at midnight -- especially when their basement floods!

Favorite Posts

Installing a security camera

A Simple Guide To Security Camera Positioning Around Your House

HART Tools in workshop

Expecting a Tax Refund? Here’s 3 Projects You Can Totally Get Done for Less!

greenhouse

Grow Fresh Veggies Year-Round with a Backyard Greenhouse

Yaheetech 32in Outdoor Metal Wood Burning Firepit Square Table Lifestyle

12 Best Outdoor Fire Pits Under $100

Popular Podcasts

Lawn mower cutting grass

Episode #2090: Save Time Cutting Grass | Tips for Paint & Primer | Home Office Renos | Your Q & A

Realtor showing a home to a couple

Episode #2089: Buying a Rental Home | Tips for Terrazzo Floors | Garage Door Do-Overs | Your Q & A

Deer in the backyard

Episode #2088: Keeping Wildlife Out of Your Garden | Big Ideas for Small Baths | Stopping Closet Clutter | Your Q & A

Remodeled garage with floor and cabinets

Episode #2087: Easy Clean Garage Floors | Fun Closet Cleaning Hacks | Trends in Kitchen Design | Reupholstering Furniture

Newsletter

Get weekly updates with the latest tips and tricks to save money in your home.



  • Media Kit
  • Partners
  • Endorsement Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy and Cookie Solution
  • About
  • Affiliates
  • Cookie Policy (US)

Copyright © 2021 · The Money Pit · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Mai Theme

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!