When considering landscape lighting, don’t forget the importance of illuminating your St. John, IL, retaining wall. While it may be a functional part of the landscape, there is no reason it can’t also be beautiful. Take your landscape design to the next level with ambient, decorative lighting to highlight this feature in your nighttime yard.
Advantages of Nighttime Lighting
Illuminating your property after dark can have many benefits but the one that can stand out the most is curb appeal. Seeing your home and landscape with gorgeous, perfect lighting once the sun sets can be so satisfying. In addition, simple tasks like taking out the trash and arriving home after dark can feel safer since you can see your landscape clearly in the lighting.
Under Cap Lighting
A retaining wall typically has a flat rock cap on the top that provides a level space for extra seating or flower pots. This can be the ideal spot to add landscape lighting underneath the rock cap, highlighting the gorgeous texture of the rock and adding shadows to the crevices.
This can be low level lighting just for an ambient look or it can be brighter when the retaining wall follows the pathway of a sidewalk or surrounds an outdoor patio.
Up-Lights for a Wall
Frequently when a retaining wall is installed, there is grass or landscape plants or rocks at the base. This can be an ideal spot for lights that shine up onto the retaining wall to add interest and focus on nearby plants, too. These can be brighter lights that illuminate the wall clearly or lights that cast a gentle glow.
Because they are hidden in the landscape bed, you won’t see them but you will see the pretty light that filters onto the retaining wall.
Wall Steps
Many retaining walls contain steps to ease the transition between elevations. Illuminating the steps can make it easier to navigate after dark, especially when you are entertaining a group or even when the kids want to play outside later into the evening. With hidden step lighting, you can weed the garden, enjoy your yard, and sip a nightcap as you stroll around to the landscape.
Include the Nearby Trees
The same lighting principles can apply to nearby trees and shrubs to bring light to additional areas of the landscape. When you look out on your yard and see each feature lighted to perfection, you will have curb appeal in the daytime and gorgeous illumination for the nighttime.
Well-planned landscape lighting can draw the eye to special features in the landscape—whether it is a stone retaining wall or a walkway to the front door. As it provides lighting to areas of the landscape for both tasks and for setting the atmosphere, landscape illumination can make your outdoor spaces more beautiful and functional.
The right landscape professional can assess your St. John, IL, retaining wall and the surrounding spaces for the exact lighting that will enhance the space and make your after dark outdoor spaces shine. Combining usability with targeted illumination can make all the difference in your landscape once the darkness falls so don’t settle for a dark landscape when you can have curb appeal even at night.
Related: HOW OUTDOOR LIGHTING CAN IMPROVE OUTDOOR LIVING AFTER DARK IN FRANKFORT, IL
