You’ve got a beautiful landscape and you want the world to see it – whether it’s daylight or nighttime! Landscaping lighting is an important part of your home for a few different reasons.
First, it works to highlight all of the gorgeous crushed stone, pavers and plants that you have strategically placed throughout your property. Secondly, it creates a more inviting and comfortable atmosphere for gathering with your friends and family after dark.
Finally, landscaping lighting improves the safety factor throughout your landscape when darkness falls. Because this type of lighting plays such a vital role, it’s critical that you select the right fixtures for your home.
This handy guide will take a look at 5 of the best landscaping lighting solutions and how they can best be incorporated throughout your property.
1. Entrance Lighting
Approaching a dark home at nighttime can be very off-putting. Whether you’ve got guests arriving at your house or are coming home after a long, hard day at the office, the last thing you want is dark conditions that will create a feeling of unease, fear or compromised safety.
Installing landscaping lighting fixtures that illuminate the front of your home and its entryway will create a warm and inviting atmosphere that will greet you and your guests with delight. Here, we’ve found that many NJ homeowners love the look of wall-mounted lighting fixtures or sconces that can brighten up your home’s exterior while also beautifying your front door and the house’s entryway.
The lights can cast interesting designs and shadows along your home’s stone or brick facade, establishing a truly romantic and enchanting environment. Flood lights or motion detectors are another great option for those that are more concerned with outdoor safety and full lighting than esthetics.
2. Path Lighting
Many NJ homeowners take pride in the beautiful walking paths that they’ve created to connect various parts of their properties. Whether you’ve got a stunning, crushed stone path leading from the sidewalk to your front door or a gravel path connecting your patio and swimming pool deck, you need to make sure that these areas are safe to traverse once the sun sets for the evening.
One of the most popular ways to illuminate paths like these is to utilize stake lights. These lights are available in a number of different shapes, sizes and designs. They will all be placed directly into the ground and will cast a spectacular yet subtle glow across the ground and its nearby surrounding areas.
These lights will add an air of mystery and delight to your property while also ensuring that those walking across paths will be safe. In many cases, path lighting takes advantage of solar power so you don’t have to worry about paying for the lighting on your monthly energy bill.
3. Patio Lighting
For a lot of homeowners, the patio really is the heart and soul of the entire landscape. This is where friends, neighbors and family can come together on a beautiful evening to grill out, trade stories and enjoy a meal with one another.
This space wouldn’t be so warm and inviting, though, if it were completely dark. Darkness makes it difficult to see the expressions on the face of the people with whom you are speaking to.
That can seriously detract from the pleasure of conversation and social connection. Here, landscaping lighting plays a vital role in keeping the party going once daylight hours come to an end.
With the right lighting, you can set the right tone for your event – whether that be romantic, whimsical or fun. Some homeowners like to use wall lighting here, or light fixtures installed on pillars. Others enjoy stringing up part lights or Chinese lantern.
We suggest looking for lighting that matches the theme you’ve tried to create with your patio pavers, outdoor kitchen and other hardscaping elements. This will create a cohesive vibe that will speak to the hearts of you and your guests, thereby making for an even more wonderful outdoor living experience.
4. Pool Lighting
Swimming pools are a major asset for any property, and when well maintained and cared for, can increase home value. One of the best ways to improve the overall look and feel of your home’s swimming area is to take advantage of landscaping lighting fixtures that are intended for use around the water.
For starters, we recommend that you have some underwater lights installed. The lighting casts a spectacular glow beneath the blue waters that will cast enchanting shadows as swimmers pass by, both improving safety and esthetics.
Beyond this, we suggest highlighting the beautiful plants and other features that may be surrounding your swimming pool with illuminating stake lights placed near the ground. Imagine such a light creating a dazzling shine over the cascading waters of the poolside waterfall that you constructed from boulders and other crushed stone.
Absolutely stunning. Finally, you might plan on installing large lighting poles around the perimeter of the swimming pool in order to light up the entire area for outdoor parties and for the safest nighttime swimming conditions possible.
5. Accent Lighting
Finally, we come to accent lighting. These are the types of landscaping lighting fixtures that aren’t so much necessary as they are desirable.
Accent lights are frequently used in areas where the property owner wishes to draw positive attention to beautiful landscaping features like a patio, fire pit, or fountain. Maybe they wish to create visual interest in an otherwise uninteresting space, such as a blank wall.
Accent lights work best when placed directly below the desired area or directly above. In the case of the former, the lights should be placed flush to the ground or in a “spotlight” fashion in order to establish strong, beautiful lighting and shadows.
In the case of the latter, your end goal is for the lights to emulate a moon beam. Because accent lighting is all about personal preferences and senses of style, our only real suggestion is that you avoid overdoing it.
Pick one or two areas maximum that you wish to highlight. Placing accent lights all over will defeat their purpose and will create a cluttered feeling throughout the landscape.
Choosing Landscaping Lighting for your NJ Home
The experts at Braen Supply are more than happy to help you choose the right landscaping lighting for your home. As landscaping experts, we’re familiar with all of the materials that are involved with creating a spectacular landscape or hardscape.
From fill dirt to crushed stone to paving stones to steps and everything in-between! Because of this, we’re prepared to offer incredible advice on which types of lighting fixtures will best compliment specific landscaping materials.
This will ensure that you are able to enjoy the full beauty of your property no matter what time of day or night it is. Are you excited about improving your property with landscape light?
Do you have questions? Feel free to visit one of our convenient locations in either Haledon or Wanaque or give us a call to get started on your landscaping lighting project today!
