Plant life often assumes top billing when it comes to daytime landscapes. Once the sun retires, however, a well-executed outdoor lighting system can literally and figuratively steal the spotlight.
Adding both aesthetic and functional advantages to your home, landscape lighting charges your property’s exterior with a breath of stylized purpose. From showcasing an ornate statue to upgrading safety standards, we’ll uncover the benefits of low-voltage landscape lighting.
1. It Extends Your Day.
We devote significant amounts of time, energy, and money to landscaping our yards, planting gardens, and manifesting beautiful outdoor oases, but when dusk greets us, we’re left with little time to enjoy the fruits of our labor. What if you could spend more time in your yard?
The solution is simple: weaving landscape lighting throughout your yard adds more hours to your day, allowing you to take pleasure in your outdoor space. Whether you’re going for a vivacious or a serene feel, landscape lighting can help you establish the ambiance you desire and curate inviting spaces you can live in from your morning cup of joe to your evening entertainment.
2. It Accentuates Your Yard Décor and Attractive Features.
Landscape lighting allows you to gas the creativity tank; it transforms your dark exterior into a stunning illuminated showcase, emphasizing special features such as fountains, ponds, flower gardens, and trees. Whatever is special to you about your home or yard, you can give it some oomph with landscape lighting. Lighting is available in a variety of shapes and sizes, making it easy to enhance your home’s look.
Whether you use the energetic brilliance of a flood light to highlight the width of a garage door or the restrained intensity of an accent light to uplight a pergola post, incorporating lighting that matches the theme of your décor is a gift all eyes can enjoy.
3. It Increases Property Value.
Most homebuyers have already decided if they like a house before they’ve even gone inside. Per the National Association of Home Builders, 90% of potential home buyers rated outdoor lighting as either “desirable” or “essential.” Most realtors agree that adding light to your outdoor space not only raises your property’s value but also cements the perception that the overall square footage of the home is greater as a result of the extended livable space you’ve created.
Optical illusions aside, landscape lighting can texturize a home’s most attractive attributes, adding dimension, space, and dynamic form regardless of your home’s size. A modest glow from a row of low-standing path lights or a shadow effect from a tree-adjacent downlight can make the most bland, banal exterior shine. Shoe horning high-demand features like this into your home boosts its value and makes it more likely to sell when the time comes.
4. It Enhances Curb Appeal.
You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but you can absolutely judge a home by its curb appeal—and most buyers do. As we’ve discussed, most potential homebuyers won’t even consider taking a closer look at your home if the exterior doesn’t look visually welcoming.
Even if you’re not selling, curb appeal is important. Articulating your home’s exterior beauty with landscape lighting gives it a warm, inviting appeal that will draw your family and friends in and make them feel instantly at ease. Wielding your elaborate outdoor lighting scheme to be the lead horse in your subdivision’s curb appeal race isn’t a terrible bonus either.
5. It Improves Safety and Security.
You can use landscape lighting to shepherd guests along paths, walkways, and driveways, or to light up stairs or uneven areas to help reduce the risk of guests slipping and falling on your property. You can add additional safety by installing lights around patios, decks, seating areas, and water features.
Landscape lighting gives you and your guests a better view when you arrive at night, allowing you to feel safer walking up to your home. Some insurance companies even offer discounts for increased exterior lighting due to the lower risk of accidents that can lead to liability concerns.
Landscape lighting can also be a good deterrent to thieves. A well-lit home attracts the attention of neighbors and passersby, making it more likely they would catch a possible burglar in action. We’re not suggesting you transform your property into the Las Vegas Strip with a lumen overload, but adding tasteful, elegant wall washing, uplighting, or downlighting applications to your home can be a decorative deterrent.
Need further information about the advantages of a low-voltage landscape lighting system? Join our Insider list for exclusive pro tips and sales or feel free to contact one of our ready and willing customer service representatives—they won’t leave you in the dark.
Low-Voltage Landscape Lighting FAQs
Can a landscape lighting system increase your electric bill?
The typical 15 light LED landscape lighting system should add just $20-$25/year to a home’s electric bill. After dividing that into monthly increments, you won’t even notice the difference.
What is the most common type of landscape lighting?
Pathway and walkway lights are the most used types of landscape lighting. They can be spaced along a sidewalk or used to frame an area or feature in your yard. You can stream them along a walkway, around a pond, or outline your driveway.
What light color is best for landscaping?
Warm White (2700 K) is the most preferred color temperature for landscape lighting. It is psychologically thought to be more inviting and soothing compared to higher color temperatures.
