Blog / Outdoor Lighting Trends in Landscape Design

Integrating exterior lighting in your landscape design offers a variety of benefits to homeowners. First, it highlights plants, trees, and structures that you feel particularly proud of. It also allows you to enjoy your yard at all hours, day or night, giving you a much needed place to sit and enjoy your evenings in peace. 

Another benefit of lighting to your yard is safety. Studies show that houses that are well lit are at lower risk of break ins, burglary, or vandalism since every action of a possible home intruder will be exposed. It also helps to ward off animals who may be searching for a midnight feast in nearby flower gardens. 

Continue reading for some creative ways to add more light to your yard.

4 Ways to Integrate Lights in Your Landscaping

Spotlight Your Favorite Plants or Features

Spotlight specific pockets of your garden with carefully placed spotlights. This will create little islands of interest in your yard to showcase your favorite plants and flowers.

Play With Shadows and Silhouettes

Strategic shadows can be a creative way to add mystique and intrigue to your yard. Light a tree from the front or from above to cast shadows of its branches along the ground or against vertical surfaces. Light the tree from behind to create a silhouetted effect as the sun goes down. You can also aim lights (often buried in the ground) directly up against a tree, shrub, or textured surface to create interesting shadows of the bark or leaves.

Play with Angles

Landscape flood lighting mounted high on the house or in the trees allows you to entertain long into the evening hours and provides added protection against unwelcome visitors. For more subtle lighting options, such as when highlighting flower beds or a walking path, mount your lights closer to the ground. 

Light the Path

An easy way to integrate more lighting in your yard is to integrate soft lights along the driveway, outside the garage, in and around water features, and around the deck. This will allow you to use all parts of your yard safely in the evening and will give the eyes a natural path to follow. 

Explore More Landscape Lighting Options in Raleigh, NC

These are just a few of the many ways you can creatively integrate more lighting into your landscape design. For more ideas, contact Redwood Land Design. We provide hardscape and landscape design in Raleigh, NC. Give us a call to schedule your first consultation today.