‘Tis the season for making changes in and around the home. The arrival of warmer weather renews home owners’ vigor for various home improvement projects, and many have grand plans for interior and exterior renovations as they prep their living spaces for comfort, beauty and entertaining opportunities. While there are many worthy projects to pursue, adding outdoor lighting to a home can help increase its value and make the home safer and more attractive in the evening hours.
According to the American Lighting Association, with a few updates to outside lighting, families can make even better use of their homes at night. Adding outdoor lighting is easier and less expensive than many home owners may know, allowing them to transform an existing patio, deck or pool area into an enjoyable night-time retreat. Pool parties, dinner on the patio or barbecues with neighbours become even more memorable when outdoor lighting is added or improved. But home owners who want to install or upgrade their outdoor lighting should consider the following tips, courtesy of ALA.
– Improve navigation: Lighting is typically layered into a room or outdoor space in three ways: overhead, tasks and ambient. Even outdoors, where there are not typical boundaries and borders, those three layers are necessary. Outdoor overhead lighting should improve visibility on steps, paths and walking surfaces, especially where there’s a bend or an intersection . Task lighting can be used around cooking or gardening areas. Ambient light will cast a comforting glow around any outdoor space.
-Enhance security: To improve visibility and security, combine a motion detector with a sconce to illuminate dark corners or entryways. Be sure to aim lights away from the door to improve visibility. Lanterns on either side of the door can give a home a warm, welcome appearance and improve safety of entryways.
-Create outdoor rooms: Outdoor lighting at the borders of a space is a great way to create barriers, both vertically and horizontally. Lights in a tree create something akin to a chandelier hung in the middle of the sky, and even accent lights in the general area of the edge of a patio, deck or porch will shine across the space and provide enough of a comfort level for people to understand where things are.
-Reduce glare: Outdoor lighting that casts a glare can be blinding, as can light that’s too bright. Lighting along paths should be cast downward, with fixtures that are hooded. A variety of lighting options will create layers, allowing you to add or subtract as necessary. Exterior safe dimmers also can provide flexible control over the level of light, as can movable fixtures added to a patio or porch.
–Add decorative elements: Just as arbors, pergolas, patios and other outdoor elements help to enhance the style of an outdoor space, so, too, can lighting contribute to a well-designed landscape. Lighting should play up decorative features of a yard and add the ambiance that home owners desire. Step lights make passage sage while also highlighting molding or trim details. An outdoor chandelier can make for a wonderful accent during, dinnertime on the deck or under a pergola. Patio lights provide atmosphere as well as illumination for cooking outside.
-Enhance views from inside: Outdoor lighting can make the view from inside pleasant and enjoyable. Use a variety of lights, including spotlights on trees, lights dotted along pathways and accent lights on unique landscape features to create an idyllic landscape visible from inside the home.
Outdoor lighting enhances functionality of yards and landscape while making such areas safer for home owners and their guests once the sun has gone down.
About Don Cholak
