Stylish Yard Lighting Ideas and Design Planning

If you’re a decorator that prides yourself on style, the outside brings a different element of design that can’t be met with a quick outlook. To beautify your backyard or front yard with lighting, draw up a blueprint on what you want to accomplish and then thinking about the types of lights you want to use and how they will illuminate the landscape or patio.

There are three primary ways to light your yard. These are uplighting, backlighting, and accent lighting. Uplighting is the usage of ground lights to angle towards objects with height or just general architecture or landscape. For example, if you have a beautiful tropical tree that sets off your Hawaiian themed yard perfectly, don’t leave it in the dark. Illuminate the tree’s structure to cast the edges and capture the outline. When you’ve gone to the trouble to set up a great theme, never leave center pieces out of the lime light. Instead, draw attention to them. Up lighting accomplishes this by giving shape and depth to objects.

Backlighting provides the elusive silhouette you’ve been looking for (see: what is back lighting). Imagine looking into the distance of your yard and seeing your fountain’s edges illuminated with brimming Garden Lights from behind. This may not be the focus of your outdoor scenery, but it can create quite a stir among guests when silhouetted objects come into focus. The way to attain a silhouetted effect is to spread the light from behind the plant, shrub, tree, fountain, etc. with the object facing where views will come from. This can be done during with the holidays with Christmas lights or regular lights on a Santa with reindeer or a snowman by itself.

Accent lighting is used to add a dramatic touch along to the home and is usually placed around the edges for a more dramatic effect. Accent lights can give your home texture, height, and form.

Now that we’ve identified the different ways you can illuminate with outdoor lights, we need to plan the types of back yard lights we want to use. First, do you want solar lighting, halogen flood lights, or garden wire lights. Along these lines, patio and deck lighting are also options because shrubbery, gardens, and grass obviously aren’t the only places to install outdoor lighting.

Next, what styles of exterior lighting do you want to implement? Styles are available with antique looks, modern lights, and everyting in between for yard lighting aesthetics.  We’ll continue to discuss these and specific products next blog.