3 Good Reasons to Install Landscape Lighting

Have you ever driven through a neighborhood at night and looked around at the houses? Some of them are completely dark. Some of them may have on a porch light or even a few solar powered garden lights. But the houses that really stand out are the ones with professional outdoor lighting. You can tell these houses by the way they stand out without looking like a light show. Instead, a house with great outdoor landscape lighting will look natural. Its architectural features and beautiful landscaping will be lit just enough to show off their beauty. Did you ever wonder how that happens? It’s the result of proper planning and professional installation.

Why Spend Money On Landscape Lighting

Some people may wonder why they need landscape lighting. It may seem that they have all they need with a porch light to signal to people that they are home. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Look around at some of the more upscale neighborhoods and what you’ll see if lots of high-quality outdoor lighting. And there’s a reason for that. Landscape lighting serves many purposes. We’ll present three really good reasons to install landscape lighting right here.

1. Curb Appeal

They say that you only get one chance to make a first impression. At a business meeting that might mean you have to dress right, look good, and speak well. But for your home, we call that first impression curb appeal. The “curb” in curb appeal means that you don’t have much time to make that first lasting impression. Before someone has even stepped onto your property, they have made up their mind about your house. In fact, many homebuyers have already decided on whether they are interested in a house before they walk in the front door.

There are lots of things you can do to increase curb appeal. A nice fresh coat of paint, some landscape design, and even just sparkling clean windows go a long way toward making a good first impression. But all of that becomes irrelevant at night. That is unless you have high-quality outdoor lighting.

The goal of outdoor lighting is to highlight all of the best features of your house and landscape without looking like a light show. To do that, careful planning and professional experience go a long way. TrustDALE certified business Night Vision Outdoor Lighting has completed over 5,000 lighting projects in the Atlanta area. That makes them some of the most experienced landscape lighting professionals you will ever meet. Their attention to detail and sophisticated approach will leave your house looking like a glowing gem.

2. Security

Many homeowners suffer from optimism bias. That’s just a fancy way of saying that they think they are less likely to suffer a negative event compared to others. Of course, that’s not how statistics work. The U.S. Department of Justice reports that 3.7 million household burglaries occur each year. And in case you thought you could be the exception, they also report that 88% of those burglaries are residential, mostly occurring in privately owned, single unit homes. The sad truth is that there is little reason to believe that you are immune to the risk of unwanted visitors to your home.

However, there is a way to significantly decrease your chances of burglary.

Escaping burglars is kind of like the old joke about escaping a bear. You don’t have to run faster than the bear, you just have to run faster than everyone else. Burglars will go after the easiest targets. Making your home even a little more secure will drive unwanted intruders to an easier target.

One way to make your house less desirable as a burglary target is to install some security lighting. One typical type of security lighting is motion-sensor controlled lights in the front and back of your house. For instance, a single bright floodlight by your driveway, attached to a motion sensor, can be a huge deterrent. Any burglar that is suddenly caught in a brightly live driveway will quickly disappear to a darker target. The same is true of lighting up back porches or yards. A single bright floodlight can do the trick. However, floodlights are not the only solution.

Having your house and landscaping tastefully lit throughout the night can make it hard for an intruder to approach your home unnoticed. One of the most common hiding places for a burglar as they approach is in the shadow of trees. If you light up your trees with some subtle uplighting, you will both create a beautiful landscape feature and deprive burglars of a useful hiding spot at the same time. If your home is built near an area of dense brush or trees, this can be especially important.

Most burglaries are actually committed by intruders who enter through a first-floor doorway or window. So lighting up these areas on your home should be a top priority.

3. Making Outdoor Spaces Usable at Night

The third reason to install outdoor lighting on your home is to make your outdoor spaces usable at night. If you have a garden patio, grill area, deck, or any other useful space, there’s no reason it should be less useful at night. These days, outdoor living space is one of the most popular additions to a home. Here in Georgia, where the weather is mild much of the year, adding outdoor lighting to these areas can dramatically increase the usable living area of your home.

If you have a deck, walkway, or any type of steps or stairs, it is vital that you light it up. This is as much for safety as recreation.

Pathway lighting is an essential part of any outdoor lighting scheme. Many homeowners install simple solar lights in parallel rows along either side of a pathway. While this may provide some light and help avoid trips and falls, it is far from ideal. Solar lights are rarely bright enough to light a pathway adequately. They are also usually cheap and easily breakable. Finally, installing your lights in parallel rows is aesthetically a poor choice. 

You want to avoid turning a walkway into a lit up runway. Instead, try placing lights less evenly and not matching on opposite sides of the walkway. If you are lighting a garden path, feel free to use a variety of fixtures for added character. For a modern look, bollard lights can be a sturdy and contemporary-looking alternative.

Reliable Outdoor and Landscape Lighting

While it may seem tempting to purchase a kit and try installing your own low-voltage system, there is no way to replicate the work of professionals. Did you know that Georgia requires anyone who builds or services a low-voltage system professionally to have a special low-voltage license? The low-voltage license demonstrates a certain mastery of techniques, and you should only work with a licensed installer. From lighting design to low-voltage installation, professionals do it best. Check here for the best TrustDALE certified landscape lighters in your area.