You can easily enhance the security of your home with the right outdoor lighting ideas. Besides that, by landing your landscape, you can improve the general aesthetic view of your home from a distance. There are many lighting plans that you can use to give your home the taste it deserves.

In this guide, we have mentioned some of the best outdoor landscape lighting ideas you should consider trying.

Type of Lighting

You need to be very careful because the type of light you choose for the landscape will greatly impact the overall look of your home. Also, the type of light you opt for will dictate how you decorate your landscape.

The kind of light you pick will narrow down the lighting methods, layout, style, and controls. It will also determine the best installation technique and the source of power.

Path Lights

Path lights are great when you need to give your home a welcoming atmosphere. Your guests will feel like you are using the path lights to guide them to the door.

They are the most popular types of landscape lighting, and they do as their name suggests. The lights keep the path, driveways, and walkways illuminated, which are some of the things that define your home’s landscaping.

Path lights can also be used to emphasize a particular feature that you have within your compounds, such as lighting a foundation or a pond. It can be used to frame a specific area of the yard to make it a focal point.

Post-mount Lights

Post-mount outdoor lights feature lanterns placed on top of posts. They can also be referred to as per-mount lights and are best used for gates, fences, and entryways. If you like this idea, maybe you should try installing them where guests congregate, like patio or deck, to make sure that everyone has adequate light.

Column-mount lights are a similar option. Though they are used for the same purpose, column-mount lights are always placed on concretes, stones, or brick columns rather than posts.

Deck Lights

Deck lights on the patio or deck are a necessity. There is no way you can make your landscape look its best without giving it some deck lights, especially when you have some sections that seem to be a little dark.

These lights are great since they provide you with impressive visibility of the entire area at night. You can use the lights to line out the entire deck area and can be installed using the decking material.

While they serve the primary purpose of improving the overall safety of the area by making it visible, they can also be used as the primary light for entertainment. Deck lights are a great decoration tool, and they are also easy to install.

Step Lights

It is always easy to stumble and trip on dark outdoor steps and stairs at night. This is a problem that can easily be solved using step lights. These lights are directly installed into the steps or nearby to ensure that guests get a safe passage when it is dark outside.

Besides improving safety, these lights can be used to improve the overall look of your home. It will give your landscape an attractive appearance so that you want to spend more evenings around with your loved ones.

Bollard Lights

These work more like the path lights, only that they are a little more heavy-duty. They can be used to accomplish a wide range of tasks, no matter many homeowners love them. The lights can illuminate pathways, driveways, and walkways.

They are widely used as decorative elements since they are stylish and unique. The fact that they are a little larger means they will bring about ornamentation and complex designs.

If you like, you can go for smaller bollard lights to light your paths and other sections of the patio. They are also a perfect choice for framing gateways and entrances.

Spotlight

Spotlight is arguably one of the best ways to landscape lighting. They are highly versatile and easy to integrate. It is okay to use a spotlight to light up features such as flowers, trees, shrubbery, or any other plant that you might have in your garden.

If you have man-made features in your compound, such as buildings, sculptures, and other architectural elements, you can use the spotlight to emphasize them. Spotlights are known to provide powerful illumination, which is why they are widely used for security purposes.

Flood Lights

Flood lights can also be referred to as Pegasus lighting and are heavy-duty cousins to spotlights. This means they can serve the same purposes as spotlights. The only difference is that spotlights have narrow beams of light, while flood lights have wider ones that can cover expansive areas with uniform wattage.

Flood lights can be used to highlight various landscaping features to provide illumination over a vast area, such as a driveway or the whole yard.

Well Lights

One of the best solutions for landscape lighting is the well lights. When strategically placed, you will notice that well lights are something that any modern home can’t do without. They are installed in a way that they are partially buried in the ground. They provide perfect illumination without a noticeable visual impact.

The nature of well lights makes them the best choice when you are looking for something that remains hidden. It is worth noting that they work just like spotlights. If you want to make their impact more noticeable, try to direct the light to a certain feature.

Pond Lights

It is reported that today, water feature for landscaping has become one of the most appreciated backyards. A fountain, a pond, or a waterfall will add an awesome look to your home and even enhance its sell value. In case there is moving water in your home, the relaxing sound will make you appreciate your home more.

There are unique underwater pond lights that you can use to illuminate water features in and around your home. The pond lights are designed to remain submerged in water, so they are more like waterproof spotlights. Their primary feature is to accentuate your landscape to make it more appealing.

Hardscape Lights

Hardscape lights are the few landscape lightings that have caught the attention of many homeowners in the past few years. The fact that they are LED lights means that they use very small bulbs to give a lot of illumination. Hardscape lights should be your choice if you are looking to decorate your landscape without breaking the bank.

The tiny light bulbs mean the feature can be easily tucked in areas where they otherwise won’t be compatible. The hardscape lights can be easily installed on various features that you value the most in your home and make them appealing to the eye.

Methods of Lighting

The method of lighting used in your landscape is as essential as the type of lighting used. The method also affects how your choice of light affects the overall look of your home.

You will realize that many fixtures are easily compatible with a plethora of lighting configurations. This is because each configuration has something that it aims to achieve. This section has suggested some of the best lighting methods you might want to consider using.

Uplighting

With uplighting, you can easily accentuate your landscaping features. Just as the name suggests, this method involves placing the light fixtures and then having then pointing upward toward an object. For instance, if you have large tree trunks around your home, you can illuminate them through uplighting.

Silhouetting

To give your landscape an amazing look, then you should consider silhouetting as the best landscaping option. Just like uplighting, silhouetting lets you focus light on various features on your property. The only difference is that in this case, you will place the light behind those features instead of in front of them.

By placing a light behind an object, you will end up with an attractive silhouette. Another option is to use multiple lights and objects so that you end up with a perfect blend of light and shadow.

Shadowing

Shadowing is the direct opposite of silhouetting. This is a technique that makes use of a fixture between the landscape feature and the viewer. In this case, the light is focused on something so that a shadow is achieved on the other side.

Shadowing works perfectly if you have a wall or a flat in front of a source of light. The light acts as the feature so that it creates an attractive shadow on the other side of the wall or flat.

Moon Lighting

Are you looking for elegant outdoor landscaping? Few illumination options can match moon lighting when it comes to helping you with that. The main secret, in this regard, is to make use of all trees available in your yard.

You want to place the fixtures high above the tree and ensure that they are all facing downwards. Your light will then go through the branches to bathe the space below. If you use this feature alongside trees with open branches, you will end up with something like a bright night with a moon.

Grazing

Grazing is a technique that has also become very popular these days as it helps you achieve an eye-catching display as it utilizes both shadow and light. Your fixture should be positioned close to a flat surface, such as at the edge of your house.

You want to aim the light down or up so that the shadow dances on your wall. Grazing is a landscaping technique that looks great on a textured home wall.

Washing

Use this technique to come up with a dazzling nighttime experience. This method will give you a great ambient. The technique works by flooding a hedge, a wall, or a flat feature with a bright light.

The bright light is intended to wash the entire area so that it is easy to see. The fact that it is fast and easy to install makes it great when you are working on a fixed budget.

Path Lighting

Landscaping Network maintains that that path lighting is a creative method to enhance your outdoor landscaping, especially at night.

However, you need to understand that path lighting might not be so easy. Though any person can spread some types of light on a pathway, one must have a keen eye to end up with the best display.

First, make sure that you don’t use more light than you need. Next, the lights should be uniformly spaced while ensuring that they are not too close to each other. Lights that are cramped together will give you something more weird than impressive.

Landscape Lighting Design Options

Just because your mind is made on the type of lighting and method doesn’t mean everything is set. You still need to decide on something that best suits your home. It is also crucial that you think about the styles of the fixtures, such as the finish, color, shape, and size. Homeowners should also decide on the ideal controls to help them achieve functionality and appeal.

Lighting Fixture Style

The styling of the fixtures determines the entire look of your landscaping. Color, materials, and shape are some of the main factors that impact the overall style. These design elements will determine how rustic, modern, or attractive the fixture is.

You should choose a design that perfectly matches your home exterior of the overall landscape design, more so for very visible fixtures such as lights mounted on posts.

Modern Fixtures

Modern fixtures tend to have clean lines, which is why they are easily noticeable. Try to imagine something that you would find in a modern luxurious home. Add them to your current landscaping style, and you will end up with something visually irresistible.

Contemporary Fixtures

Contemporary fixtures take all the elements of the modern fixtures and then tone them slightly. Minimalist design and clean lines are still attractive. However, the contemporary style kind of utilizes traditional finishes and materials. For instance, you might want to go with polished copper and antique copper instead of sterile white or gray.

Traditional Fixtures

Use traditional fixtures to keep the atmosphere of your home more laidback. These fixtures are loved because they are traditional and classic in style. While they are not so rustic, they can give your home atmosphere a touch of beauty that it deserves. Traditional fixtures are also more welcoming, so you want to use them if you are someone who likes to invite people to their homes.

Closing Thoughts

Landscaping is something that many people struggle with. It is hard to know the right type of outdoor landscape lighting to use and where to place it, especially when you have a vast area to decorate. Thankfully, with the ideas shared in this piece, making the best decision won’t be an issue for you. Make sure to think about what you would like to achieve, and make sure that the lights are perfectly placed to help you with that. There are many ways to use lights to decorate landscapes, but you can only use a few of them at a time.