How Close to Structures Should Outdoor Lighting Be?

Getting the most out of your outdoor lighting design boils down to some key factors, including proper outdoor lighting placement. The location of your lights during an outdoor lighting installation can affect the finished look and even functionality of your design. 

It sounds like such a small detail but it can have a significant impact on the end result.

In other words, depending on the look and purpose you’re trying to achieve, you might make variations to the precise location of where you install your lights.

One consideration in regard to outdoor lighting placement is how close the lights should be to structures. We’ll talk about that and more. It’s important that your outdoor lighting designer takes many different considerations into account when coming up with your custom design.

The Location of Outdoor Lights Next to Home can Alter Technique 

Both the proximity and the angle of the light you are installing can impact the technique. You definitely want there to be some depth to your landscape lighting design. That also means taking into account where different lights are in relation to one another. Different areas of your home are best lit in different ways.

As an example, if you are looking to light a wall of your home, you can use a lighting technique called uplighting.

But there are even different ways to uplight. These include silhouetting, grazing, and shadowing.

Let’s look at how the position of the light can create these different effects.

• If you are trying to create a silhouette effect on the wall, then you want to cast the light from a wide angle. This is also considered a form of backlighting and can work well for shrubs and trees as well. With silhouetting, the light is cast evenly across the surface.
  
  
• However, if you are going for a shadowing effect, the goal is to create patterns on the wall by lighting up the object in focus. This might be done to light up a statue or a container garden in front of a wall.
  
  
• If grazing is your uplighting objective, then you’d acutely angle the position of the light so that it just “grazes” the surface. A grazing light is typically placed within a foot from the wall (closer compared to other techniques) and it’s tilted sharply upward. This works well with a stone wall or other irregular surfaces due to the shadowy effect.

Making Decisions About Outdoor Lighting Placement 

There is no hard rule for how close lights should be placed to structures or how close together lights need to be. But there’s no question that variations to this are going to impact the finished look and function of the design. 

You’ll know if lights weren’t placed in an optimal location because something will look “off.” Even to the untrained eye, a light that is in an aesthetically poor location can negatively impact the entire design. 

For instance, if you have two lights flanking your front door, you’ll likely want them centered on either side. You also want to think about the height. A comfortable and attractive height is generally somewhere around six feet above the ground (a little higher than eye level for most). 

If the lights aren’t centered, it’s going to stand out. That’s why it should be precisely measured with careful consideration by a landscape lighting expert with an eye for design.

Again, every design is different because every home is different. It’s important that your outdoor light placement is right for YOUR property.

Working with a Lighting Designer for Your Outdoor Lighting Installation

At the end of the day, the key is to work with an outdoor lighting designer who pays attention to every single detail. Because there are no “small” details when it comes to being satisfied with the finished product.

The last thing that you want is to work with a designer who is just putting lights around your Memphis property without a whole lot of attention to detail. You want to work with a designer who takes every aspect of the job seriously.