How to Choose the Right Outdoor Lighting for Your Yard

Aug 16, 2022 11:19:34 AM

Making smart outdoor lighting choices can help you to get the most out of your Memphis property, even during the nighttime hours. But the key to success is a smart outdoor lighting design. It’s easy to assume that outdoor lights in the yard are relatively simple to set up or arrange but this isn’t the case at all.

That’s why we’re talking about some outdoor house lighting ideas that will allow you to really maximize your use and enjoyment of your yard—along with your aesthetic appeal.

What Type of Outdoor Lighting is Best?

There are four different outdoor lighting applications that we find most homeowners are interested in. These are landscape lighting, architectural lighting, security lighting, and vacation home lighting.

For the purposes of this article, we won’t be talking about vacation home lighting but instead will focus on how to make the most out of the lights used around your primary residence.

These are a few outdoor house lighting ideas that will help set you up for success.

Use Landscape Lighting to Add Beauty and Appeal

Your plant material like trees, shrubs, flowers, and more are part of what makes your property aestheically appealing and enjoyable. With the right landscape lighting, you’ll also be able to show these elements off after the sun goes down.

Landscape lighting is one that tends to get oversimplified. But it should be a lot more involved than just shining a spotlight on a tree or shrub that you really like. We can incorporate lights right into your plant beds, uplight a tree or shrub, or even use downlights to cast light on your lawn areas or pathways.

Backyard Landscape Lighting w Pool & Torches

The best landscape lighting is artistic and subtle. We often say in these blog articles that with outdoor lighting “less is more,” but it’s an important mantra to remember. It’s often when lighting is overdone that it starts to lose its appeal.

Light Up Your Home’s Features with Architectural Lighting

As far as great outdoor house lighting ideas, using architectural lighting to light some of the key architectural features of your home can add tremendous aesthetic appeal.

You can use architectural lighting to showcase some of the beautiful structural features of your home like stonework, columns, arches, and more.

Front of Home Landscape Lighting

We find that the best lighting helps to bring an outdoor space to life, even after the sun has gone down. In fact, these spaces often take on a whole new look in the evening hours. Lighting can create dramatic effects by casting shadows and finding beauty in the areas between the light and the dark.

Make Your Home Safer with Security Lighting

Finally, we believe that your home should always feel safe and lighting plays a huge contributing factor in that. Having well-lit outdoor spaces not only makes these areas safer to navigate (you can see where you are going!) but also helps to deter unwanted activity. Thieves and trespassers tend to target poorly lit homes.

That’s why when it comes to making lighting choices, you must also keep security lighting in mind. Security lighting is so much more than a spotlight or two. Severe, high voltage lighting can actually be somewhat blinding and serve as more of a disturbance than a help.

Fence Lighting

Instead, you should focus on strategic areas that could pose trip and fall hazards. Having a well-lit driveway and well-lit pathways and steps is also important. You want your home to be safe to navigate for yourself and your visitors.

What Type of Outdoor Lighting is Best…a Little Bit of Everything

We know that you came to this article to find out what type of outdoor lighting is best but the truth is, they’re all important and they all serve their place in a different way.

When it comes to truly getting the most out of your outdoor spaces, you don’t want to cut corners or feel like you were given a lighting scheme that somehow falls short.

At Mid South Night Lights, we know that outdoor lighting is more than just something that “looks nice.” While there’s no doubt it will add tremendous aesthetic appeal, it also brings functional value by allowing you to safely navigate and use your property at night. We’d go as far as saying that outdoor lighting is a “must-have” if you truly want to maximize everything about your outdoor spaces.

It simply doesn’t make sense to keep them in the dark!

customer and team consultation 7

If you’d like to talk more about outdoor house lighting ideas, we’re here to help. We want your outdoor lighting design to be everything that you desire.

Are you ready to create a secure, functional, and beautiful property at any hour of the day? If so, let’s meet and discuss some bright ideas.

Request a Consultation

Landscape Lighting