Landscaping is a simple, but effective way to beautify your home. A little light can go a long way toward helping your house pop, whether by illuminating your home, drawing attention to interesting features on your property, or adding a splash of colour to make your external space more eye-catching. The right steps are invaluable for making your home brighter, especially during the winter months. However, to make the most of your landscape lighting, it helps to know exactly what you’re doing.
7 Landscape Lighting Techniques to Make Your Home More Attractive
Many homeowners do struggle with where and how to place their lights. If you’re looking to boost your home’s curb appeal, it helps to be aware of the common techniques for lighting your landscape. With the right steps, you can do more than just shine some light on your property, you can also create interesting effects around your external spaces while you’re at it. Keep these techniques in mind to spice up your landscape lighting and help your home shine.
Highlighting
As the name implies, highlighting involves creating a highlighting effect on a feature by setting up fixtures to shine their light at that feature. This technique allows you to draw the eye to those features, perfect for interesting, eye-catching elements like trees, statues, or water features. Varying the angle, distance, and number of lights can alter the effect, so experiment to find the combination that best flatters your elements. Take care not to overdo it with the lights. You want to highlight the feature, and too many lights draws attention to them rather than their subject.
Grazing
Grazing is a technique used to highlight walls and other surfaces. Grazing is a prudent choice if your surface has an interesting texture of some kind, whether because of the materials or because of some image on the wall you want to display. For maximum effect, set your lights some distance away and angle them upwards or downwards to create some dimension for your surface. Refrain from bathing the wall in an excess of light. For best results, consider using low-voltage lights or fixtures with dimming control options to control the intensity of the light.
Washing
One alternative technique for illuminating a long surface like a wall or a row of shrubbery is washing. Washing adds a uniform ambient glow to long surfaces. This effect helps define and accentuate those large areas without creating a harsh brightness. Unlike a grazing effect, washing eliminates shadows rather than uses them to create an effect. For best results, use low-angled, low-wattage floodlights to illuminate the area without making it too bright. You can also experiment with your angles and distances to your satisfaction.
Silhouetting
In the course of your external lighting efforts, you may also want to bathe the area around it to make it stand out. By silhouetting your features, you position your lights behind your chosen feature and angled toward a structure behind it, like a wall or fence. The soft light reflecting off the surface outlines the object, creating a dynamic shadow against the illuminated background. Silhouetting works best with tall features like trees, tall bushes, or statues that benefit most from such a dramatic effect.
Up- and down-lighting
Up- and down-lighting are rather similar, differentiated primarily by the angle by which you set your lights. With up-lighting, you position the light directly below your feature and angle it upwards to throw the feature into relief. Down-lighting works directly opposite, with a light positioned above and pointed down. Up-lighting works to highlight details and features of elements like trees, plants, and smaller structures. Down-lighting, on the other hand, creates additional illumination or dramatic effect. This technique is typically used for patios and gardens, or to create more lighting around points of entry.
Moonlighting
Moonlighting, as the name implies, is an attempt to replicate the effect of natural moonlight on your landscape. To get that effect, install light fixtures in high areas, like high in trees, patios, or outdoor spaces, then angle them downward. To achieve that wide, bright illumination, use low-voltage landscape flood lights, spotlights, or a mixture of both. Keep in mind that moonlight generally looks soft and subtle, so bulbs with a cooler colour temperature usually work best to achieve that look.
Path Lighting
Path lighting is generally geared more toward function than form. As the name implies, path lighting is all about finding practical but interesting ways to light your paths outside the house. Illuminating the walkways increases safety and visibility, while also highlighting plants and other features along the path. Some interesting ideas to consider for your path lighting include staggered lights or motion-activated lights. These approaches can help your paths pop and make a favourable impression on guests as they enter your house.
When it comes to your landscape lighting efforts, the right techniques make all the difference. The difference between a well-lit landscape and an over- or under-lit one depend on the techniques. Keep these techniques in mind to help get the effect you want and make your landscape pop.
Need some professional help setting up your landscape lighting? Give Augusta Green Sprinklers a call. We have a wealth of experience setting up landscape lighting for clients to help their homes stand out, no matter what elements their properties may have. Call us now at (416) 227-1666 to get started.