Tips & Tricks for Landscape Lighting Installation
Are you considering installing or upgrading your home’s outdoor lighting? You’re not alone. Exterior lighting is one of the most popular home improvement projects among Nashville homeowners, and for good reason.
Investing in outdoor lighting is a simple way to make a BIG difference in the look of your home. After all, you’ve put a lot of time and effort into your home, so why not show it off even when the sun goes down?
While adding exterior lighting isn’t an overly difficult project, it does require thought and proper execution. With this in mind, our Nashville exterior experts have shared some of the best tips and tricks for landscape lighting installation, as well as the benefits of adding this feature to your home.
Benefits of Landscape Lighting
In addition to the obvious aesthetic benefits, there are many reasons why installing landscape lighting is a great investment.
Enhance Curb Appeal
Homeowners spend a lot of time and money perfecting their landscape and home exterior for neighbors and passersby to see. But do you know what your home looks like at night?
Outdoor lights are an easy way to illuminate the best features of your property after dusk, enhancing the curb appeal of your home during all hours of the day.
Accentuate your favorite architectural details with wall-wash fixtures or the beautiful evergreen shrubs you just planted with shrub uplights. Strategically placed lighting will make the entryway to your home warm and inviting for yourself and guests alike. Plus, you won’t have to feel stuck inside just because it’s dark out. With the right outdoor lighting plan, you can enjoy your outdoor space for longer.
Increase Safety and Security
More importantly, exterior lighting adds a measure of safety and security to your home. Burglars tend to target dark houses because they have a better chance of breaking in undetected. Ensuring your home is well-lit reduces the risk of suffering a robbery. Your insurance company may even offer a lower premium with the addition of exterior lighting!
Another important benefit of proper lighting is that it gives you and your guests a better view of your property, making it easier to navigate walkways, find entrances, and identify any potential tripping hazards. Illuminating high-traffic outdoor spaces where you’re likely to host parties or small gatherings not only makes your space look better but protects your guests and your family from getting hurt.
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Common Lighting Pitfalls to Consider
While lighting can make the exterior of any home look better, all landscape lighting is not made equal. Here are some of the biggest mistakes our professionals at Greenway of Nashville see when it comes to outdoor lighting:
Lack of Variation
If you overuse the same lighting fixtures throughout your property, the end result will likely be underwhelming. Instead, carefully incorporating a stylish variety of lighting fixtures that provide contrast will draw the eye to your home’s focal points.
Experienced outdoor lighting contractors can draw up a thoughtful, customized design that will give your home the right effect!
Poor Placement
Another common mistake is poor fixture placement. This can cause one area to be over or under-illuminated, throwing off the entire look of your home. The goal with landscape lighting installation should always be proper balance. Poor placement can detract from your home’s elegance instead of subtly illuminating its best features. The key to achieving the right look is to identify your focal points, spread your light fixtures evenly, and know when enough is enough.
Lackluster Lights
While the placement of your lights is important, even the best designs won’t matter if your lights are too dim or give off the wrong mood. For example, if the color temperature of your fixtures is too warm or yellow, it can make your home’s exterior feel outdated. Low quality or lackluster lights can also ruin an outdoor lighting design, as the light beam might only illuminate the bottom half of your home.
We recommend using low-voltage, LED landscape lights. These bulbs create the ideal outdoor environment and tend to be more energy-efficient. This ‘dusk to dawn’ bulb, for example, is a long-lasting LED option that comes equipped with sensors that turn your lights on at night when triggered by movement.
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Steps for Landscape Lighting Installation
Exterior-grade fixtures are usually placed along pathways and/or driveways and are also commonly used to illuminate steps, shrubbery, retaining walls, fences, and other landscape features.
Typically, there are three components to a standard outdoor lighting system: a transformer, a low-voltage electrical cable, and your light fixtures. While every project has different needs, here are the basic steps to installing exterior lights:
Lay Out Your Fixtures
Place your light fixtures on the ground where you’d eventually like them to go (ideally around 8 to 10 ft. apart, if installing along a walkway). Run your electrical cable along the line of fixtures.
Bury Electrical Cable in a Shallow Trench
Between each fixture, your cable will then be buried in a shallow trench no more than a few inches deep. Any deeper and you may have trouble connecting the cable to your light fixture.
Place the cable in the trench, allowing some of it to stick out of the soil where each fixture will go so you can make the connection.
Plug in the Transformer
Next, run your cable up to an outdoor electrical outlet and attach it securely to your transformer. This part can be tricky, so be sure to call a professional if you’re uncomfortable handling the wiring.
After attaching the cable, you can plug the transformer into the outdoor electrical outlet. Your transformer will need to be able to support the total wattage of your lights.
Connect & Install Your Light Fixtures
Lastly, you’ll make a hole for each of your fixture’s stakes, connect the fixtures to the part of the electrical cable you left sticking out of the soil, and insert each light fixture into its stake.
Finally, place the cable and connector at each light fixture under the soil, roughly 2 inches deep.
Cast Your Home in the Best Light With Greenway of Nashville
In addition to many residential landscape services, Greenway of Nashville offers exterior lighting solutions that will illuminate the beauty of your home and landscape.
Serving homeowners across Nashville and surrounding communities, our exterior professionals can create and implement an outdoor lighting plan that will cast your home in the best light. Contact us today to get started!
