How Do You Lay Out Landscape Lights?
Residential landscape lighting is a great way to upgrade your home, whether you are building a new home or updating an existing one. What makes good landscape lighting so important is that it allows your home to look its best even when the sun goes down. With all the work you put into your landscaping, it would be a shame if it just disappeared at night.
A large part of landscaping is increasing your curb appeal. Curb appeal is your home’s first impression. Like any first impression, you only get one shot, and that impression is hard to shake. It’s called curb appeal because your home’s first impression is made even before a guest walks in the door. Just the look of your home from the street can leave a lasting impression. That’s why the landscaping on your home is so important. It’s the first thing visitors will see.
Residential landscape lighting allows you to make a great first impression even after nightfall. You wouldn’t want the first thing a visitor sees to be an unkempt yard. So why would you want someone who visits at night to be greeted by a dark or poorly lit home? Residential landscape lighting is vital for your home’s curb appeal. Not everyone will get the chance to see your home for the first time during the day. With high-quality residential landscape lighting, your home looks great day or night.
There is no one way that all residential landscape lighting should be laid out. However, there are some good rules to follow.
- Don’t overdo it. You are highlighting the best features of your landscape, not lighting a Vegas strip hotel.
- Provide depth. Landscape lighting should be present at different distances from your home.
- Spread it out. Avoid clumps of light or dark spots.
How Many Lumens Do I Need for Outdoor Landscape Lighting?
This is a common question. Many homeowners in the Atlanta Metro Area are confused about how many lumens they need for residential landscape lighting. Just like with the layout of your lighting, there is no hard and fast rule for every situation. Instead, the amount of light you need depends on your goals.
It’s important to understand that lumens are not the only feature of residential landscape lighting. The two most important numbers you will find on most modern light bulb packages are lumens and color temperature. While lumens are important, the look and feel of your light have just as much to do with the color temperature you choose. Typically, most homeowners go with a color temperature of about 3000K. That’s roughly equivalent to a “soft white” incandescent bulb. A 3000K lamp produces light with decent color rendering that is also relaxing to the eye. While some people prefer cooler lights in their home for better color rendering, they are not advisable for most residential landscape lighting. A cool light–that is one with a high color temperature–can feel unnatural or glaring. Some people experience it as brighter, but it can often be jarring.
The lumens you need depends on the function of your lamp. If you are using a flood light to light up a large area, you may need more lumens. For example, the floodlights that will cover the facade of your home could be anywhere from 700 to 1300 lumens. Path lights can be much dimmer. For residential landscape lighting, as opposed to commercial applications, 100 to 200 lumens will usually suffice. If you need step lights or other lights that just define an edge or highlight an obstacle, you could use 100 lumens or even as little as 15 lumens.
High Quality Landscape Lighting Fixtures
One of the most critical choices you and your designer will make about your residential landscape lighting is which fixtures you will use. This is one area where many do-it-yourselfers get it wrong. Yes, it’s good to be price conscious. But saving money on low-quality fixtures will only cost you more in the long run.
At NightVision Outdoor Lighting, we use only the highest quality residential landscape lighting fixtures. Because we are able to buy our products in bulk, we offer some of the best prices in the industry, saving our customers around 30% on installation costs. That’s a saving that you simply can’t get if you go the DIY route. With those kinds of savings, you can afford to use higher quality lights across your residential landscape lighting project.
There are two main types of residential landscape lighting fixtures: ones you can see and ones you can’t. In both cases, quality makes a difference. For instance, downlighting that is placed high up in a tree uses a fixture you will never see. But a high-quality fixture includes superior glare reduction. It can prevent light from escaping upward or to the sides, which would create an unnatural and undesirable glow in the tree canopy.
On the other hand, the most visible fixtures in residential landscape lighting are usually pathway lights. These lights are a design choice in and of themselves. You can choose fixtures that express your personal style and the style of your home. Fixtures can be sleek and modern, classic and conservative, or fun and whimsical. The choice is yours.
The Best in Residential Landscape Lighting
NightVision Outdoor Lighting has been in the business of residential landscape lighting for over 15 years. We have won numerous awards and installed thousands of residential landscape lighting projects. There’s just no way to substitute for that kind of experience. When you work with our designers and installers, you can feel assured that you will get the very best in residential landscape lighting. If you’re considering residential landscape lighting for your home, why not give us a call? We will come to your home for a no-obligation free consultation. We’ll discuss your goals, your desires, and your budget and propose the perfect residential landscape lighting solution for your home.
