Tips For Lighting Your Backyard

Home & Garden Blog

Landscape lighting, when placed properly, affects the mood of your yard. If you want to create an air of nighttime luxury, borrow from nature and combine it with a few exotic techniques to creates a backyard paradise. The following tips can help you design the perfect set-up. 

Tip #1: Begin with back lighting

Back lighting is the most natural-looking choice, so it should be done first before other techniques are added to up the light. Back lights create a silhouette, reminiscent of how things are seen when they are in front of the setting sun or when the moon shines behind them. Place a few lights around the yard behind items with an interesting structure, such as a well-balanced tree, a garden obelisk, or a statue. The gentle, indirect light has more power when it is creating a visually interesting silhouette.

Tip #2: Bring more attention to a single focal point

Every yard needs at least one anchor point, with larger yards benefiting from two or more anchor pieces. This piece can be a large tree or a piece of garden art. Use uplights or cross lighting to bring the necessary attention to this pieces, as opposed to back lighting. Uplights are placed at ground level and aimed up, providing dramatic illumination. For an even more dramatic look, place a light on either side of the item and have them illuminate each side using a cross light technique. This method works exceptionally well on statues.

Tip #3: Create a few focal points

If you aren't one for the dramatic and prefer a more subdued focal point, look no further than the water features in your yard. Colored fountain, pond, or pool lights create an exotic but not overpowering lighting option that replaces the more traditional focal lighting detailed above. You can light in a warm white, or add a touch of color with blue, green, red or rotating lights.

Tip #4: Add an entertaining option

Although solar lights are the easiest since they work automatically with no electrical costs, for entertaining it is all about control. This means entertaining lights should be wired to a switch so you can use them at will. If you are the type that prefers large parties, opt for some downlights hung high above where they can flood the yard. If you prefer a cozier feel, consider hanging strings of large-bulb string lights overhead to provide sufficient light to see but without the glare of downlights.

For more ideas and inspiration, talk to a lighting professional (click here to continue reading) in your area.  

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20 May 2016

Carpet Cleaning Tips And Tricks

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