If you want to install garden lighting outside your home, but don’t think that you have the time, money, or expertise, think again. Buying an installing an outdoor landscape lighting kit is an effective, affordable way that you can add lighting to your property, even in the space of a weekend! You can find them in many different sizes and styles and even ranging from solar to low voltage landscape lighting kits. You can use them for a multitude of different uses as well. Your kit can be used for anything from driveway lighting to deck lighting.

Why A LED Landscape Lighting Kit?

While in the past installing lighting outside your home used be only for serious do-it-yourselfers, affordable kits like this one from Malibu have allowed everyday people to setup garden lights quickly and easily. These kits come with everything you need to get started, including a transformer, cables, and light fixtures.

You can buy the lights and the transformers separately, however buying them together saves you a lot of time and hassle, especially if you are not sure of what you are doing. If you buy your lights and transformers separately, you’ll have to figure out voltage drops, which cable to buy, and a million other little things you wouldn’t think of. But, by buying everything at once it’s cheaper and everything is figured out already for you.

If this weren’t enough, connecting the lights is usually easier as well! Many kits will come with couplers attached to the wires and to the light fixtures that you can simply attach with your fingers. No more worrying about stripping wires or manually attaching the light fixtures to the cables!

When you’re looking for your lighting kit, make sure that you find one with the light fixtures that will fit with the area that you plan on lighting. So for deck lighting you might want a kit with a few outdoor pole lights, while if you want to use the kit for outdoor step lighting, you might want a kit with smaller pagoda or even recessed lights.

For easy to install lighting on your landscape that you can afford, you really can’t beat installing a landscape lighting kit. It takes all of the mess and fuss out of installing landscape lighting, leaving you with more time to actually enjoy your lights, instead of wrestling with them to get them installed correctly.

Whether you’re using outdoor lights to showcase your magnificent garden or because you want to make sure your property is safe from trespassers or intruders, investing in solar powered landscape lighting not only involves proper planning but also caring for the fixtures so they don’t get damaged easily.

Here are some things to remember to make sure that your outdoor landscape lights are going to last as long as your house will:

•The right materials – choosing the right materials for your garden lights is one of the keys to protecting them against damage.  Fixtures made of heavy-duty, stainless-steel is the best choice for outdoor lighting.  But in order to make sure that they can withstand the harshest weather and will never rust, check the warranty.  Apart from that, they must have wet seal, silicone-based gaskets as well as heat tempered glass.

•The right place – place your solar garden lights where they can be protected from the weather or from traffic or other yard equipment.  You can mount them beneath terraces, canopies or porches or you can set beneath the curb.  Although your fixtures are guaranteed built to last and will not give in even to the harshest weather condition, shielding them from these harsh elements will prolong their life and usability.  Plus, keeping them out of site will not only prevent anyone from trampling upon but also make the outdoor lighting pristine.

•Treatments – Treatments like metal sealants, anti-fog and glass treatments will keep your outdoor lights in tiptop shape.  Invest on the best treatments to keep the glass on your light fixtures clear and dry and protected against natural elements.

•Get professional help – it won’t hurt to spend a few thousand dollars to seek professional help when it comes to planning your outdoor lighting, especially if you’re dealing with an elaborate lighting plan.  Getting help from a specialist spares you the trouble of faulty wiring and messy lighting plans.

Getting great landscape lighting design in your yard in the space of a weekend might seem like an impossible task to you.  Many people resort to hiring professional contractors to make sure that they get things done right.  However, there’s no need to think that you can’t achieve similar results yourself in a very limited amount of time.  Follow these simple steps and you will be basking in the glow of your garden lights in no time.

Deciding Where to Put the Lights

The very first step in installing your outdoor landscape lighting is to decide where to put the actual lights.  Most people have absolutely no experience with this, but luckily there is a way that you can test out how your lights will look easily and without any extra expense to you.  All that’s required is a large flashlight with an adjustable beam.

What you need to do is go out one night and walk around your yard with a flashlight.  Identify potential places to put in lights and use your flashlight to try out how the light will look aimed in different directions and with different types of lights, from spotlights to floodlights.  While this method won’t reproduce exactly what your lights will look like, it will get you pretty close to what your landscape lighting designs will look like.

After you’ve decided where you want to put your lights the next step is to put your thoughts down on paper.  Make a sketch of a bird’s eye view of your property marking major landmarks like trees and shrubs.  Don’t worry if your drawing resembles the artwork of Picasso, as long as you can understand it, it will work.  Once you’ve sketched out your property, sketch in where you want to place your garden lighting fixtures.

Putting Your Landscape Lighting Design Into Action

Now that you’ve planned out your landscape design lighting scheme, its time to put that scheme into action and actually install it.  The first step is to pick out the lighting fixtures that you want to install.  Start your search out on the internet to save some time, but if you need to you can still visit your local hardware store, although your selection may be a bit more limited.

You can go several routes for installing your lights.  You can opt for solar powered garden lights, which only require you to stick them in the ground to install them, a low voltage lighting kit, or individual low voltage lights.  What you choose will depend on your yard and on what you can afford.

If you’re installing low voltage lights, it takes a few more steps than installing solar powered lights, but it is still very simple.  First, you need to figure out how big of a transformer that you need.  To do this, add up the voltage of all of the lights and find a transformer that is rated for seventy to one hundred percent of this power level.  If you’ve got a lot of lights, you might need to install more than one.  Whether you bought a kit or all the pieces yourself you need the following components to install your lighting system.

• Light fixtures
• Transformer or power pack
• 12 gauge cable
• Connector taps
• Electrical tape

You’ll also need the following tools

• Wire cutters
• Utility knife
• Flat head shovel
• Screwdriver

While this is a lengthy list of tools and equipment, installation is a snap.  First you need to find the plug outside your home you want to connect the transformer to.  Attach the transformer to the house nearby or to a stake that keeps it off the ground and reduces the chance of water infiltration.  Next, take your plan that you drew up and install your lighting fixtures where you drew them in on your sketch.  Once the lights are installed, lay out the cable to each light and connect it to the lights.

Now all that’s left is to connect the lights to see if they work.  Connect your cables to your transformer and the transformer to your home’s power.  Switch it on and see how it works.  If you’ve connected all your lights correctly, you should be seeing the fruits of your labor.

Once you’re sure your lights are working, the next step is to make any necessary adjustment to the lights and bury the cables.  While it’s not necessary to bury the cables, it removes a trip hazard and makes your yard look neater overall.

And there you have it, landscape lighting design from the idea in your head to the lights laid out in your yard.  If you put your mind to it and already had light fixtures in mind, you could finish the entire process in a weekend by starting on Friday with the flashlight, leaving you free by Sunday night to enjoy your new garden lights and recharge for work again on Monday morning.

If you have not been using outdoor wall lanterns, perhaps you might want to give them another look. You see, decorating your home is something every homeowner looks forward to. To be able to paint the walls as you would like or arrange the furniture the way you want is a liberating feeling that cannot truly be felt when you are merely renting and the true owners of the home can veto any change you want to make. Perhaps no stylistic change is more anticipated by homeowners than the ability to construct the landscape as they wish. This endeavor is taken with great care as their lawn and their grounds are going to be on display for every one of the neighbors to see. So naturally “Mr. and Mrs. Homeowner” will spare no effort to make this area look good.

One aspect of landscaping continuously gets overlooked though, the lighting. The landscape is going to look great during the day and as the sun goes down the shadows will play nicely on the lawn. But when the sun disappears over the horizon, unless you have lights put up, no one will be able to see your beautiful landscaping that you spent so much time and money on. So make sure you put up the right garden lighting to accomplish the aesthetically pleasing vibe you want to give off for the viewer.

One way to shake up your landscape lighting is to vary your lighting sources. To this end, outdoor wall lanterns are a great way to provide illumination for the structures and flora on your lawn and highlight your prized work. These exterior wall lights can be used in a number of places such as pathway lighting and lighting doorways (to name just two).

One thing is for sure, you won’t regret installing your garden lights.

If you have a patio that needs a little help to make it more attractive and comfortable three are a few easy tips that you can use.   Through the use of patio furniture, plants, and light fixtures, you can change your patio from a square patch of ground into an extension of your home

Patio Furniture

Adding patio furniture to your space is the first step to creating a comfortable area. Be sure to choose an appropriate type of furniture depending on the location. If have an exposed patio, and your furniture will be at the mercy of the elements, it may be worth looking into synthetic blend wicker outdoor furniture. This material is very resistant to wind, sun and water and will last for years. If the area you are planning to add the furniture is covered, then you could go with something a little more decorative and possible add cushions without fear of being exposed to the elements.

Adding a nice outdoor clock can add sophistication to a bland patio. Many outdoor clocks will come with a thermometer and be very resistant to the weather. If the clock is going to be shielded from the elements you won’t have to worry about getting a weather resistant clock, which are typically more expensive. When choosing a clock that will be kept outside, quality is important. The quality of the clock will determine how well it will stand up the elements over the years, a high quality clock can last decades.

Plants

The second idea that will have a great impact on your patio is adding some sort of plant life. Adding even just a small flower bed around the edges of your patio adds a great amount of visual appeal, depth, and defines the area better.   When choosing a plant or tree for your home, make sure to know what type of sunlight the plant to will get. Some plants require a lot of sunlight and if your area is shaded the plant will not do very well. There are plenty of plants that will be fine in the shade so you just have to do your research on choosing the correct one.

Lighting

Your patio should be an integral part of the greater garden lighting scheme that you use in your property.  There are many different fixtures and lighting styles that you can use on your patio, so make sure that you weigh all your options first.  One popular option is to line the patio with recessed lights or lights placed in a flowerbed.  This helps define the edges of your patio and can prevent people from stepping on your flowers at night.  Outdoor lanterns also work very well on patios, especially on any tables you might have.  They provide great task lighting and can be used for some late-night reading or some al-fresco dining.

Adding a unique touch to your patio isn’t hard.  Try to incorporate new furniture, light fixtures, and plants in a way that sets a unique atmosphere.  If you treat your patio as an external room of your home and put all the care into it that you would into your living room, you’ll end up with a great living space where you can spend warm days and nights.

If you have ever driven down a street late at night and noticed a quality landscape, you will agree that the garden lighting was the difference maker.  Most high end landscapes will have well thought out outdoor garden lighting and positioning.  We have taken the time to educate you on why you should make landscaping with garden lights a priority.

Going down to your local home improvement store you will find several lighting products that you can use.  Most common are the solar garden lights.  These are a great idea if you don’t have the time or money to put into your home.  You need to plan on replacing them just about every year.  The solar panels are not built tough enough right now to go more than a year and expose the same amount of light like the day you opened the box.  Solar lights are nice though, they do offer several advantages of convenience and cost.

Hard wired lighting seems to be the best way to go.  If you are looking to add good LED lighting that will be bright enough to spot light your front trees, hard wired is the way for you.  Many will tell you that solar is the best due to the increase in electricity cost you will have while running these outdoor lights.  You will be pleasently surprised that the new LED lights are so energy effecient, you might not even see a reflection in cost.  Your daughters hair straightener probably runs more electricity per month than a good outdoor lighting system.

If you decide to go the rout of adding a outdoor lighting system.  We recommend finding a licensed contractor to do the work for you.  Landscaping contractors can do your project fast and save you money on your product because of the large purchasing power.

If you pick the right one, a landscape lighting contractor can make the different between an okay system of solar garden lights setup in your landscape or and amazing layout that will wow anyone who passes by your home.  The problem is finding the contractor that has a great track record and will be within your budget.  Luckily, in most areas there are several landscape lighting companies that you can choose from.  Avoid these five common mistakes when you’re picking which one will handle your property and you won’t be disappointed with your choice.

Mistake #1: Not Checking Their Licensing

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they’re choosing between landscape lighting companies is that they don’t check to make sure that the company is licensed in their state.  Today, most states require companies that are doing any large amount of home remodeling to be licensed, and this includes landscapers many times.

Beware of companies that aren’t licensed, as many times this is because they are cutting corners.  They may give you the lowest bid, but it could be because they run their business under the table, hiring illegal workers and not paying any benefits.  Because of this, you might not have any legal recourse against them if they don’t live up to their contract or accidentally destroy pieces of your property.

#2: Not Actually Checking References

Most landscape lighting contractors will provide you with references when they submit their bid, make sure that you actually follow up and contact the individuals that they list.  Try to find out as much information about the contractors that you can from them.  Find out how satisfied the customers were, if the work was done on time, if the contractor stayed in touch throughout the process, and how he responded to complaints.  Also make sure to look at any examples of the landscaper’s work they provide.  It will give you a very good idea of what type of work the contractor is likely to do and how imaginative they are with their lighting schemes.

The best references that you can find will likely be word of mouth.  If you have any friends, neighbors, or relatives that recently hired a contractor, ask them who they hired and what they thought of them.  You’ll be able to get a detailed account of what they thought about the whole process and what the end product ended up looking like.

#3:  Not Hiring a Company With Lighting Experience

When you start to accept bids for your outdoor landscape lighting job, make sure that you only seriously consider bids from companies with an experienced background in landscape lighting.  Some landscape companies may submit bids as well, but without the knowledge to run wires and the experience to know how your lights will behave at night, you’ll end up with a subpar lighting job that you won’t be happy about.

#4: Automatically Accepting the Lowest Bid

Whatever you do, don’t just automatically accept the lowest bid that you get.  When you’re searching for a landscape lighting contractor, as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.  The contractor with the lowest bid may end up using less quality materials that will degrade faster and take other shortcuts that will ultimately end up costing you more money.  Make sure that you compare the total package, not just the price.

#5:  Not Getting a Contract in Writing

One of the biggest mistakes people commit is not getting a contract in writing from the company before they start work on your property.  When they do give you a contract, inspect it to make sure that there aren’t any surprises.  Also try to get the contract in as much detail as possible, including information on the start date, expected end date, what tasks are to be done, materials to be used, payment installments and methods.  If you can’t obtain a contract in writing, then insist to the company that you will be withholding payment until the job is done to your satisfaction.

Hiring a landscape lighting professional will no doubt give you the absolute best garden lighting layout that you can possibly have.  To make sure that you are completely happy with your choice, make sure that you don’t’ commit these five common errors and search around on the internet for the best deals in your area and any references that you can find.

Adding some garden lighting to your garden can be the perfect way to enjoy your garden day and night.  It is very beautiful to sit or stand on your porch and be able to view your hard work under the stars and the moon.  The garden light industry has grown enormously in the last several years because these lights are in such high demand.  It also helps that advances in technology have allowed garden lights to be constructed that are easy and inexpensive for consumers to install and buy.  If you are considering buying garden lights, here are some tips to help you decide which lights to get.

Most gardeners spend a good amount of time in their garden cultivating and growing flowers, plants, fruits, and vegetables.  Being able to enjoy the beauty of that hard work can be priceless.  Since it is difficult to work in your garden after the sun goes down it is usually a much better time to just enjoy the garden you have. Garden lighting can help you to do this.

Choosing the best type of garden lighting for your needs can actually be pretty simple.  If you know how to install electrical wiring then you can choose lights that needed to be hard wired.  If you do not then you can choose lights that are either battery powered or solar powered.  Whatever option you go with will work for your needs, it most comes down to ease of use.  Battery powered and solar powered lights are super easy to install and can be very quick to setup as well.  They can also make it easier to place in hard to get places.

How to setup your garden lights along with your other garden decor depends a lot on the design and shape of your garden.  It would be best to draw a quick sketch of the layout of your garden on paper and then strategically place your garden lighting in the areas you want to show off.  This could be a beautiful flower garden or vegetables you have been growing all summer.  The solar powered lights provide a great way to keep your garden green.  They get charged up during the day while the sun is out and then light up at night to show off your garden.

You are well aware that you put a lot of hard work into your garden.  One of the best ways to enjoy your garden is to add quality garden decor as well as some garden lighting to be able to enjoy it at all hours of the day.

Many homeowners will spend thousands of dollars on their home landscaping, and create beautiful yards and gardens that are the envy of the entire neighborhood.  But many of these same homeowners see their creations, their investments disappear as soon as the sun goes down.  They don’t know that the beauty of their home and property can improve at night with the right installation of landscape lighting.

The first question to ask yourself when you are considering outdoor landscape lighting is what is your goal?  Is it to show off a new landscape design?  Is it to improve security?  Is it to throw parties and entertain guests outside?  There are many different options and types of landscape lights, and answering this question will set you on the right path to choosing the right lights.  For example security lights are bright and light up large areas of your property; smaller spotlights, even colored floodlights, can make your yard look great.  And if your goal is to throw great parties, you want festive lights that set the right mood.

The next choice is how you want to power your lights.  Traditional lights need to be wired to the house, either hard-wired into the electrical panel, or through use of an outdoor extension cord.  Solar landscape lighting, on the other hand, requires no wires, trenching, and doesn’t take any power.  This keeps your electric bill down.  One drawback of solar landscape lights is that they need to get a lot of sun during the day, and are not always as bright as wired lights.

So, figure out what you are trying to accomplish, and then get out there and see what products meet that need. The good news is that whatever you are looking for, there is a great solution that will fit all of your needs and give you a great looking property!

Without the proper research and preparation, designing outdoor landscape lighting can be a pretty tedious affair. However, with just a little extra time preparing and looking at some landscape lighting tips, you can come up with the perfect landscape lighting for your property with a minimal amount of time spent and frustration. Here’s eight different tips that you can use to help light up your garden.

#1: Use Solar Lights in Sunny Areas

There are many advantages to using solar garden lights. They are easy to install, run on their own power so you don’t have to pay for anything more than the installation and are eco-friendly, running off our biggest renewable resource. As solar cells and the batteries they power get more powerful and the lights they light get less power intensive, more and more different solar light fixtures have popped up. They offer a great deal of options for almost every situation.

The only real downside to solar lights is that they need direct sunlight. But there’s no reason that even if you are using a low voltage powered lighting system in one section of your yard you can’t use a few solar powered lights in other areas. It will save you on electricity costs and time and energy spent installing the lights and running the wires to them. You just stake the lights into the ground and forget about them.

#2: Use Feature Lighting to Draw Attention

Do you have a prized flower, shrub, or tree? Or just one that could look interesting if lit up late at night? If so, one of the best outdoor landscape lighting tips that you can get is to make use of feature lighting. Feature lighting, usually through the use of uplights, but spotlighting also works, will draw people’s attention to the most interesting or unique areas of your yard. First decide which objects you want to feature light and then design the levels of ambient lighting that you need around that.

#3: Use floodlights to cast shadows

One of the great things about nighttime garden lighting is that you can play with elements of light and dark to create shadows and hide or reveal objects. One of the best objects to try to create an eerie effect in your yard is a large tree. Try placing floodlights behind the tree to silhouette it against the light. Don’t be content with just sitting the lights there and forgetting about them though. If you truly want to find the best angle for the lights, try a few different spots for the floodlights and see the different shadows and shapes that you can make by lighting up the tree. Some of them might turn out quite spooky, or even resemble other objects.

#4: Uplight trees for great effects

In addition to backlighting trees, you can also attempt to uplight them by placing spiked lamps near to the tree’s trunk. This will highlight the tree and draw attention to it, but also if its done correctly you can still create different shadows up in the branches. The major advantage this has over silhouetting the tree is that it doesn’t cast large shadows over areas of your yard.

Try playing with different colors and types of light to create the right effect that you want. For example, tungsten lamps will give off a much softer light on the tree than the harsh light that many halogen bulbs have.

#5: Try to follow the same theme

Another landscape lighting tip is to try to follow the same theme throughout your entire property. Unless you own sizable chunks of land, you don’t want an island theme here and then a full moon theme over there, and then a romantic theme this way. You and your guests will end up just being confused and you won’t be eliciting the types of moods and feelings you’d like to.

Instead, try to find a theme you like and that will go with your entire yard. Follow it throughout your whole garden and deck. If it turns out you don’t like it, you can always get a few different light fixtures and bulbs.

#6: Less light is more

The sixth tip is possibly the most important. Remember that less light equates to more. It’s easy just to bake your entire landscape under several high powered halogen floodlights. However, you’ll be missing out on an undiscovered world of shadows and subtlety. Try to create what you want in your yard with the least amount of light possible. Accentuate the night, don’t make it run for the hills.

#7: Hide the sources of lights

One of the best things that you can do when installing your lights is to try to hide the light sources as much as you possibly can. There will be some situations when you actually want to show the lights, such as when you’re installing old-fashioned lamps and other fixtures. However, for most garden lighting, like uplighting and downlighting, you should be trying to hide where the lights come from in your landscape. This creates a much better effect.

Along these lines, also, for everyone’s sake, don’t make too much use of decorative lights. It is okay to have a lit up frog or deer every so often, but don’t cover your yard in them unless its Christmas time and your name is Clark Griswold.

#8: Find inspiration in botanical gardens

One of the biggest sources of inspiration you can use for your own garden lighting plans is to look at how professionally designed botanical gardens are lit. These gardens have had a lot of time, effort, and money put into their designs and while you won’t be able to achieve all the effects that they do, you may walk away with some more ideas for your home and garden.

With the help of these landscape lighting tips you should be well on your way to designing the perfect lighting for your property. Make sure to do you planning and research before you commit to any big purchases and enjoy turning your backyard into a great landscape that you get enjoyment out of both day and night.

There are many advantages to installing low voltage lighting in your yard over installing solar lights. You will have access to a greater range of light fixtures because they don’t have to contain a solar panel. You will also be able to place these fixtures wherever you want because you won’t have to worry about the fixture getting direct sunlight. However, low-voltage systems also come with significant setup costs and part of this setup cost is installing a landscape lighting transformer. These transformers can be bought online for fairly cheap but make sure you’ve done all the proper research and know which one you want first.

Low Voltage Transformer Basics

The lighting transformer is going to be the single largest investment you make into your lighting system. You can expect the costs per light fixture to be about the same as those as if you were installing solar garden lights. On top of this you must budget around two hundred dollars for a transformer and the more money depending on the amount of wiring that you need to run.

The high cost is because the landscape lighting transformer plays a vital role in powering your garden lights. It steps down the power from the deadly 120 volts that comes in off of a normal power line into your house to a much safer 12 to 22 volts. This ensures that you don’t have to bury cables far underground and removes almost any shock hazard from the power chords if they have to be run out in the open.

Placing the Transformer

You are going to want to place your low voltage transformer in the most central location you can find in your yard. Make sure it is safe, out of the way, and has easy access to your home power. A shed that has already been hooked up with lights is ideal for this. With a normal transformer outputting 12 volts, you can run about fifteen feet of cable per wire from your transformer. If you need to run more cable than this, you should buy what is known as a multi-tap transformer. These let you increase the voltage up to 22 volts, giving you several hundred feet of cable that you can work with.

The transformer is the most important part of your low voltage lighting system. Make sure that you plan out your lighting design first so that you know which model you need to buy and how many volts you need it to output. Once you’ve done this and found a safe place to install the transformer, make sure to buy a quality model because it’s what the rest of your outdoor landscape lighting system depends on!

There’s no major secret behind landscape accent lighting. It’s using the lights in your garden to accent the trees, shrubs, and other plants and structures at night. But this is easier said than done. Installing the lights you will need to put in a soft touch, because as the name implies, the lights should accent the feature you are lighting, not overpower or dominate it. If you do your research and look around for ideas and inspiration, you can create the right effects in your garden. There is no substitute for accent lighting when it’s properly done. It can create stunning effects in your garden, provide some functional light, and even make your garden safer.

When you are installing accent lighting the first rule is that less is more. Do not try to light up the entire structure that you are targeting. Instead use less powerful bulbs to play with creating silhouettes and cast shadows in different directions. With accent lights you can highlight, conceal, reveal, and dramatize different plants and structures to your heart’s content.

When you’re planning out how to light your different landscape structures, make sure to not to forget to light your paths and walkways as well! To apply accent lighting to paths, you can take several different approaches. You could install small light fixtures close to the ground that cast a small amount of soft light directly on the ground. You could also have larger lanterns that give you walkways an old-fashioned feel. Or you can do anything in between. Don’t forget to adequately light any hazards that people could trip over in the middle of the night as well. The main focus here is to create an ambiance that flows naturally with your feature accent lighting.

Once this is done, you can plan out lighting for the more functional areas of your yard. This can include deck or patio lighting. Most of the time, these areas will have more light shone on them because you will need to see to read or operate the barbeque grill as the night grows on. However, there is no reason you have to light this entire area in bland halogen light. Try using some colored bulbs and a few interesting light fixtures that match the lights you have installed in your yard. Just make sure that everything flows together.

Outdoor accent lighting is easy to define, but sometimes can be tough to implement in practice. However, there are several simple steps that you can take to help you plan out great garden lighting. First, make sure that you cover all your areas with light that strikes the same mood or ambiance. Second, remember that less light is more. And finally, make sure that you play with different lights and angle of the light to try to create different effects with shadows and light.

One of the necessary finishing touches to any well maintained property is the use of outdoor landscape lighting fixtures. Landscape lighting increases the visual appeal of your house and the functionality of much of your land and it brings your property value along for the ride as well. Designing lights that will take both you and your neighbor’s breath away on a nightly basis is not hard. You just need the proper planning and installation to get it done right.

Decide On Your Outdoor Landscape Lighting Theme and Fixtures

When it’s viewed at night without any lights, your landscape is almost like a blank canvas that you can draw anything on. The first thing you must figure out is what type of mood you would like to set with your outdoor landscape lighting. To do this, take a walk around your property and night and try to figure out what you could be doing after dark and what you would like you and other people around to feel like while they’re doing it. Maybe you want your deck to have an island theme for when you have cookouts or maybe you want to give some of the trees a spooky, almost surreal feel with long shadows. Let your imagination run wild with the possibilities.

While you’re doing this avoid the mistake many homeowners make and try to only choose one theme to light your house in. One theme will give everything a consistent feel that can be built on, but if you try to mash together too many themes in a tiny area, you will end up with no theme at all and just a lot of tacky lights. Pick something and stay with it. If you want to go to a different style, you can always change lights out later.

After you’ve decided what general theme you want to employ, its time to decide on the different outdoor landscape lights and lighting methods you would like to employ. Start first with how you would like to light the paths on your property; these can range from driveways to actual walking paths through your garden. These are the easiest lights to decide on and so should give you a great starting point. After you’ve decided on your path lighting style, try to decide how you would like the entrances to your house lit. After the entrances, move to deciding the lighting style for the large objects in your landscape, such as large trees, shrubs, pools, and facades. Finally, figure out the accent lighting for smaller areas and objects on your property. Start with the easiest and largest things to light and work your way down.

While you are doing this, it might help to either sketch out a picture of your landscape and draw in the lights, or if you’re really talented, take a picture use a computer program such as Photoshop to do much the same thing. This will help you get a better overall picture of how your landscape will end up looking once the lights are installed.

Things to Keep In Mind While Designing the Lights

While you’re trying to sketch out the lights you would like to use on your property, try to have a specific task in for each bulb you are trying to place. Are you place lights here for security or are they just to make sure people aren’t tripping over the stairs? Different tasks will need different bulbs and different features to accomplish what you hope them to.

If you are aiming for accent lighting your garden while placing your outdoor landscape lights, try to create some dramatic touches if possible. Do this by playing with the different shadows that object throw off. Try moving lights around and placing them at different heights to give you different looks.

Finally, one other very important thing to keep in mind when planning your landscape lighting scheme is how far away your lights will ultimately be from the transformer if you are planning on using low voltage landscape lighting. You transformer will turn the normal 120 volt current electricity into 12 to 22 volt power that will not shock people out in your lawn. However, the downside to this that the further away from the transformer you run power cords, the dimmer your lights will be. This needs to be taken into consideration as well.

By using these design tips and other creative landscape lighting ideas, you will be well on your way to creating the outdoor landscape lighting that will be the envy of the entire neighborhood. Just make sure to do your research and start planning today!

Well-designed outdoor landscape lighting can create many different looks that can make your house stand out from the rest of the neighborhood. You might be after just the aesthetic enhancements or you might need some added safety. The right landscape lighting can provide either or both in a well-balanced manner.

When it comes to outdoor landscape lighting, you have two main choices when it comes to light fixtures: traditional wired landscape lights, or solar landscape lights.  You are free to pick whichever lights you prefer, but you need to know what you are getting when you purchase each one.  Wired lights give you a very consistent light night after night.  They will keep on shining the same, no matter what.  The main drawback is that you have to install the wires for these lights, which can mean a lot of trenching through your grass, under your patio and garden paths, and around trees.

Solar landscape lighting is powered by the sun; therefore you don’t need to run any wires to the solar lights.  This makes them very easy to place, and gets rid of all the work that it takes to install wires.  The other benefit of solar lights is that because rays from the sun power them, they are free to operate.  They will not increase your electric bill by one penny.  The one drawback to using solar lights is that the light that they put off at night depends on the amount of sun they get during the day.  If you have several cloudy days in a row, the battery may not recharge enough to give the light full power throughout the night.  You have to be very careful when you choose where to put solar lights to make sure they get enough sun year-round.

So, no matter whether you choose traditional landscape lighting or solar landscape lights, you can design a lighting scheme for your yard that meets all of your needs.