Awesome Outdoor Lighting Techniques
Highlight the best parts of your garden with these outdoor lighting techniques.
Outdoor lighting is an excellent way to show off the best parts of your home and amplify holiday spirit. But how do you know where to place lighting to achieve the best effect? Here are a few cool outdoor lighting techniques that will help transform your outdoor living space.
Highlighting
One of the most common lighting techniques, highlighting involves placing a spotlight at the base of an outdoor feature such as a tree or garden statue. Experiment with a variety of angles and distances for your lighting fixture to find the best design for your unique landscape.
Silhouetting
You can create an illuminated backdrop by placing lights behind outdoor features or aimed toward an adjacent wall. The lighting will create an outline or “silhouette” of the object in front of it. This technique is great for showcasing dense plants, and looks especially striking at sunset.
Shadowing
Shadowing works similarly to silhouetting by positioning fixtures such that light reflects off a wall. Unlike silhouettes, however, this technique creates softer shadows. This is particularly useful for delicate foliage or objects that move, such as a tree in the wind. The lighting will enable the shadows to “dance” on the walls of your home.
Wall-washing
For a more soothing, even glow you can use a wall-washing technique. Place lighting fixtures, usually wide angle flood lights, with a sideways angle a few feet away from the feature. Shining light along the side of a wall will maintain an even look and imbue your home with a subtle, ambient effect.
Moonlighting, and Downlighting
A moonlight technique involves placing a fixture with a full glare guard angled downwards from within a tree. The “moonlight effect” puts an emphasis on features on the ground and is great for showcasing natural patterns and beauty in your landscape. Down-lighting is similar to moonlighting. Place a fixture high up and cast it downwards over a large area to create a brighter, less subtle effect.
Contrasting, Accenting, Path-lighting
Place spotlight fixtures closer to a building or feature to create a bolder effect with greater contrast. Lighting that draws special attention to a part of your landscape is called accent lighting and can be achieved by angling a narrow light to reveal a particular design, plant or feature. Path-lighting involves lighting walkways, driveways and patios. You should carefully position path lights so that they provide enough illumination but are not in the way. Good path lights help determine the pacing of a pathway.
Light up Your Home with Help from Aqua-Bright
For more information about outdoor lighting, irrigation, and drainage for your Maryland home, call Aqua-Bright today at 410-489-9009 or take a tour of our website. We offer top notch irrigation services from seasoned professionals. You can follow Aqua-Bright Irrigation & Illumination on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn for more updates and information about our illumination and irrigation services! For examples of our work, check us out on Pinterest, too. 1