Five Landscape Lighting Tips to Help you get Started

We understand once you become a homeowner, you work hard to not only make the inside of your new home beautiful, but you spend lots of time making sure the outside is just as beautiful and welcoming. You'll spend days going through the selection process - unique plants, trees, shrubs and flowers that will give your home that "wow" factor. When night falls, the beautifully planned and placed landscape design you worked so hard to achieve suddenly disappears. This is because there is one aspect of landscaping that is most often overlooked. Make the most of your investment with landscape lighting that adds to the beauty of your evening curb appeal.

1. How Will You Use Your Outdoor Space? Let's Start Here Before Beginning Your Design

What's your main goal when planning out your landscape lighting design? Are you looking to make your property more safe during the darker hours? Illuminating pathways and patios will help prevent slips or falls when walking up to your home as well as increasing your home's security. Maybe you are an entertainer that is looking to light up your backyard space for weekend entertaining? Many homeowner's goals are to highlight architectural features so they can be seen from the street when the sun sets. Creating goals for your design helps you think outside of the box with your lighting design but also ensures you have all your basic elements covered

2. Cover the Basics

There a many extra features you can add, but it's very important to consider the "Must-Haves" when creating your landscape lighting design:

Driveways
Pathways and Entryways
Steps
Patios
Trees
Water Features or Unique Architectural Elements

3. Ditch the Scattered Placed Solar Lights

Solar lighting along your walkway may seem like the way to go when looking at DIYs, however landscape lighting is much more than that. It's the creation of a mood and atmosphere in your yard at night. It's important to use various combinations of lighting types and styles to turn your daytime yard into a masterpiece at night. Landscape lighting combines your beauty of landscaping with the practicality of outdoor lighting.

4. The Longevity of LED Landscape Lighting

The two most popular selections of lighting types for landscapes are halogen and LED. Homeowners are learning about the versatility and durability of LEDs versus the former go-to source, Halogen lights. LEDs are quickly becoming the number one choice when upgrading your lighting system. Below are a couple reasons why you should make the switch:

LED landscape lighting provides an average of 50,000 hours versus the 2,500 hours Halogen lighting provides. If you have your lights on for 10 hours a night, you're looking at a life-expectancy of over 13 years with LED and a little over 2 years with Halogen.
LED landscape lighting is also extremely durable. It's designed to withstand all kinds of weather, shock and vibrations.

San Diego Outdoor Lighting knows LEDs are the perfect choice to give your home something unique with your landscape lighting. LED lighting have a flexibility that is not found in any other light source. They can be dimmed or brightened depending on your taste and the ambiance you're looking to create.

5. Set your Landscape Lighting to Timers

This is a very simple way to ensure you're property is looking it's absolute best 24-hours a day. We at San Diego Outdoor Lighting understand homeowners live busy lives and the last thing they want to worry about when they come home is if they remembered to turn on their landscape lighting. Do yourself a favor and be sure to add a timer to your install.