If you are looking to illuminate your dark Homer Glen and New Lenox, IL Areas home and landscape, strategic outdoor lighting is a key consideration. Perhaps one of the most transformative landscape elements, landscape lighting takes the daytime spaces to nighttime use with ease.
What to Know About Outdoor Lighting
LED lights are the most efficient, best way to illuminate the landscape and areas around your home because they are long-lasting (for up to twenty-five years) and work in all weather. Their lifespan and low voltage needs are ideal for homeowners who are interested in sustainable practices for their properties.
Outdoor lighting is automatic, programmed for the times you prefer but can be adjusted through the smartphone app from anywhere.
Walkways and Driveways
Add a custom touch to your walkways and driveways with outdoor light fixtures in decorative styles, lending a gentle, warm illumination over the surfaces to increase visibility. Lighting strategies here also draw attention to the textural surfaces of the pavers or stone, highlight the nearby plantings, and make the whole space brighter. For a uniform look, choose the same fixtures and lighting color (for example warm white or white light) for both outdoor areas.
Planting Beds and Trees
Showcase your planting beds and the lovely shrubs and flowers that add blooms, healthy green leaves, and interesting branch patterns to the landscape with outdoor lighting. Illuminate the perimeter for a defined look, add spotlights to the larger shrubs, and diffused lighting that adds gentle lights to the groundcovers and flowers.
Trees are some of the most interesting lighted features when the spotlights shine on the bark, showing the texture and knots. Up-lights that recess into the ground make their way to the low branches while lights hidden in the higher branches deliver a mottled, moonlight effect on the ground below.
Outdoor Living Areas
Outdoor living areas are those spaces you want to use even after the sun goes down so illumination there focuses as much on function as increasing the beauty. Patios, fire pits, outdoor kitchens, and outdoor dining areas can benefit from a well-planned combination of dimmable lighting to set the mood and task lighting for brighter illumination.
Dim lighting sets the tone for an intimate dinner in the evening with your best friends and can add more atmosphere to the fire pit area which has flickering flames but not enough light to see clearly. Enhancing the fire with lights around the retaining wall and fire pit ledges illuminates downward onto the floor surface, allowing for movement from one outdoor area to another.
Pool Area Lighting
The pool is another space that needs the right combination of lighting and brightness. The pool deck, slide and ladders, and immediate vicinity should have lights that focus on keeping the swimmers safe.
The planting beds, trees, and retaining walls can be dimmer, functioning as background features while the pool is the focal point. Remember to add lighting to the pool fence and a spotlight to the pool gate so guests can come and go with ease.
Stepping stones and walkways are visually interesting after dark, looking almost artistic with lights that shine over uneven surfaces. Planting beds and the grassy connections of the stepping stones add a geometric interest with the right lighting.
Related: Why Outdoor Lighting Is a Top Suggestion From Landscapers Near Me in the Homer Glen, IL Area
