Contemporary outdoor lighting combines a lighting style and also a certain type of lighting fixture. Finding the right type of lighting fixture is simple enough, but coming together with the right outdoor landscape lighting plan is a little bit more difficult. But while it may take a bit of time to choose and install the right lighting, you won’t be disappointed. What you’ll get for your efforts is a clean, crisp garden lighting design that perfectly balances all the need that you have.
Choosing Contemporary Outdoor Lighting Fixtures
Light fixtures for contemporary exterior lighting have several different characteristics that set them apart from other fixtures. By far the most important characteristic is that they have crisp lines and angles. This should match the contemporary landscape design that you have in your garden already that favors hardscape designs that feature lines and sharp angles. Contemporary outdoor lights should also usually generally be made out of a metal as well, stainless steel and copper light fixtures are incredibly popular.
Any lights that can be construed as high-tech are also very popular. This can include LEDs, color changing lights, fiber optic string lighting, or even bollard lighting. Use your imagination, but don’t try to include too many visual tricks or your lighting will just look tacky.
Contemporary Outdoor Lighting Design
Designing contemporary lighting is a little bit more difficult than just picking out the lighting fixtures you’re going to be using. Contemporary lighting aims to balance the functionality and aesthetic beauty you get out of your lights. Functionally, you are always going to want to have your lights be brighter, but aesthetically, in most cases, less light will be more.
To accomplish this, you want to use the lowest levels of light that can be directed exactly where you want it. The easiest way to do this is through the use of covers, deflectors, and reflectors to put light exactly where you want it and prevent it from spilling over into other areas of your lawn. The focused beam of light also means that you can use less powerful lights, keeping a degree of nighttime mystery to your property and saving you money on your electrical bills.
To make sure that you don’t use too much light, you also should decide what the most important areas to light are in your lawn. For most people that most important areas to light are:
- Entrances
- Decks and Patios
- Pathways
- Large trees and shrubs
- Flowerbeds
Once you’ve lit these areas, you can fill in some more less important areas with light, but make sure not to overdo it.
To achieve a contemporary lighting style on your property, you need to choose the right lighting fixtures and have the correct design style. Lighting fixtures should have clean, crisp lines and angles and be made of a material like copper or stainless steel. Once you have the right light fixtures in mind, you need to design your lights. This means abiding by the principle that less light is more so that you can balance the needs for functional light and aesthetic light. This can take a little bit o tweaking and time to get just right, but your reward will be a picture-perfect landscape that doesn’t lose its luster when the sun goes down.
