ShareEveryone wants a beautiful-looking home, and these days you can see more of a home from the curb than ever before. That’s because virtually all the trees are gone, so all you’re left with is a house on a plot of dirt. That is no way to sell your house or make it look appealing.
However, with landscape lighting, you can make your impression more appealing by making it easier for people to see the best parts of your home. They accent key objects like trees, plants, and buildings, offering a much greater chance of increasing home value. Besides delivering a major impact to your curb appeal at an affordable cost, landscape lights offer many other benefits, including increased security.
This post compiled by the experts at Hevi Lite – a reputable San Fernando Valley Outdoor lighting supplier – walks you through practical landscape lighting ideas to elevate your curb appeal. Let us dive right in.
Table of Contents:
8 WAYS TO INCREASE CURB APPEAL WITH LANDSCAPE LIGHTING
Effective way to increase your curb appeal in the dark is to add landscape lighting to your property! Here are eight ways you can increase curb appeal with landscape lighting, while making your home stand out.
RELATED ARTICLE: How To Setup Your Landscape Lighting In Easy Steps
1. Draft a Plan
A plan provides a direction for a project and eliminates budget surprises. At Hevi Lite, we highly recommend low-voltage landscape lighting. It is flexible, affordable, easy to install, and delivers an incredible balance between brilliance and security.
Getting accurate measurements will help you buy the right accessories (particularly cables). You also want to locate your electrical outlets to which you plug your transformer(s). Depending on your lighting system’s size and zones, you may need to hire a qualified electrician to install new outlets.
2. Determine Your Power Requirements
An outdoor lighting transformer steps down the mains voltage to around 12 volts. Each transformer has a maximum rated wattage(W) capacity. For example, a 150W transformer can comfortably power a landscape lighting system demanding up to 150 watts.
So, how do you determine the right transformer size? It is a matter of addition and multiplication. Add the maximum wattage of each light you intend to install in your landscape.
Let’s assume you intend to install 20, 18-watt bulbs – you only need to multiply 20 by 18 to obtain a total wattage of 360 watts. Next, multiply the figure by 1.25 to adjust for cable losses. For our example, the ideal transformer size would be:
360 X 1.25 = 450 watts
Choose a transformer with slightly more wattage to support future additions. For example, you might need to highlight a new tree or garden feature with an extra landscape light without having to buy a new transformer or alter your existing setup.
3. Highlight Architectural Features with Uplights
Uplight fixtures are normally mounted so that they illuminate upwards. They are an affordable way to showcase your home’s best features and add a luxurious look to your home at night.
You can add uplights to create the right amount of light and shadow to accentuate architectural features such as the dormers, rock works and pillars. Common types of uplights include:
- Grade-mounted bullet fixtures
- Well lights
- Direct burial fixtures
4. Use a Variety of Lights on Statues and Water Features
The hypnotic patterns of water and the intricate details of a statue add a beautiful element to a landscape, but when night falls, these features often get stripped from the curb appeal. Landscape lights will highlight the beauty of your water feature and statue, culminating in a beautiful nighttime showcase.
You have a variety of options when it comes to illuminating your water features and statues. From uplights, downlights to waterproof mini LED lights for fountains, you can harness each option to generate the best results.
5. Backlighting
Backlighting is similar to silhouetting but focuses on fixtures installed on a home’s exterior. If you have a hanging object through which light can shine, you can install a light on its back to show the details at night.
6. Achieve a Moonlight Effect Using Downlights
We would all illuminate our landscape with moonlight if we had the option. Unfortunately, we cannot control the moon, but there is an affordable way to simulate moonlight – downlights.
The best place to install a downlight is high up in a tree, creating a dappling effect where the light shines naturally through the lights. You can downlight house sidings and nearby garden beds from the vertical wall just beneath a gutter. Choose between 36 degree and 60 degree beam angles, depending on the space you intend to illuminate.
You can also mount downlights on the beams or eaves inside gazebos. We recommend low wattage and wide-beam angle lights to create a relaxing and romantic ambiance.
7. Create Landscape Silhouettes
Lighting behind an object can both illuminate it and render it in silhouette. For example, you can install landscape lights behind sculptures, large flower pots, and trees, so you only see their outlines and not details when the sun goes down.
Silhouetting does not just add some visual interest to your landscape. The design also prevents light from shining directly into your eyes or guests’ when admiring the silhouettes.
8. Accentuate Features with Shadowing
You can make an interesting feature in your property stand out at night with shadowing. The commonest shadowing method is placing a light low to the ground near an object and facing upwards to cast shadows of the object on a vertical surface behind it. It is an excellent landscape lighting technique for projecting the leaves of a garden plant on a wall.
Alternatively, you can project lights downwards through an ornate gate to cast interesting patterns on the ground.
Bottom Line
There you have them- the best yet affordable landscape lighting ideas to get an instant curb appeal. For landscaping lights and accessories, look no further than Hevi Lite. Our landscape lights and accessories are designed to give your curb and landscape the look you desire. Contact us today at 818-341-8091 for a free consultation on landscape lighting ideas that match your needs and budget.
