2 Landscape Lighting Ideas to Include in Your New Backyard Design in Westchester County, NY
You may have a brand new landscape; an incredible landscape that’s ready to show off; or you may be in the process of doing a complete redesign. Either way, you need to include landscape lighting techniques in the design to complete the project. Beyond simple beauty, landscape lighting is intended for safety and creating a welcoming environment. As you plan out the next steps in your summer renovations, here are two landscape lighting ideas to include in your new backyard design in Westchester County, NY.
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Aside from festive string lights, minimize the use of overhead flood lights or other lights mounted above the outdoor living space. These tend to be uncomfortably blinding, and cast harsh shadows. Instead, use more ground-level lighting strategies to create a welcoming space.
Walkway Lights
The most important function of landscape lighting is to create a safe environment, especially the walking surfaces of your walkways, patio, and pool deck. While obstacles can always be a hazard, shadows can be just as dangerous. In lighting your walkways, overhead lights may look beautiful. However, they are ineffective at eliminating shadows. Lights that are low to the ground, on the other hand, will efficiently illuminate the ground in front of you without casting any shadows, since the light source is so close to the surface.
Low-lying lights also have a few other benefits. They are less visually obstructive, making for a cleaner look in your landscape and letting natural and masonry features shine. Since they’re focused close to the ground, you won’t need high-wattage bulbs. Even subtle walkway lighting will do the job and use much less energy than lights that shine from a further distance. You can even incorporate walkway lights in your vertical masonry features such as retaining walls, fire pits, or raised masonry planters. When placed around the perimeter of your patio, they add a soft, warm light that doesn’t light up your space like a stadium but creates a pleasing ambience.
Layers and Dimension
If you live in a more remote area, one of the most disconcerting feelings is hanging out in a well-lit outdoor living space while the surrounding landscape is pitch black. You can make a space feel much more welcoming with “random” placement of a few types of lighting throughout the landscape to add subtle lighting and dimension. Less is definitely more here, to maintain the feel of the night (too much illumination disturbs migrating birds, for example); depending on the size of your property, this technique could include a light placed at the base of one or two shrubs and trees. There will be just enough light to give shape to the “void” and make it feel less intimidating.
Part of building a successful landscape is using several lighting techniques. For example, add ambient light with the backsplash or wash technique that uses a light directed at a blank vertical surface, such as a wall of your home. The light that bounces off the vertical surface will wash outwards, enhancing depth perception and creating a wonderful ambience. Moonlighting, or placing a white/bluish light high in a tree canopy, will create an amazing play of shadows on the ground. Uplighting and downlighting can be used to highlight the textures of rugged features such as masonry retaining walls or the bark of a tree.
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