Does you home look welcoming to family and friends who visit after dark? Proper outdoor lighting can not only make your home more welcoming, but also more safe and secure. When we add lighting to the outside of our homes, it is for one of three reasons, lighting for safety and security, outdoor task lighting, or outdoor accent lighting. Let’s take a look at each of these types of lighting.
In the daytime a home with no landscaping looks lost and lonely to my eyes. There is nothing to tie it to the property that surrounds it when there are no landscape plantings. By the same token, a home with no outdoor lighting looks lonely and lost at night. It fades into the dark, with only a shadowy somewhat creepy outline. Neither situation accentuates the good looks of a home, and both can be remedied. Adding lighting that makes your property safer and more secure should be a priority. Security lighting can help discourage people from coming onto your property who might be up to no good. Safety lighting illuminates the way for your family as well as invited guests as they walk around the yard at night.
If you plan to spend time outdoors in any type of activity after dark, you will probably need some type of task lighting. One spot that often needs extra lighting is at the barbecue grill. It’s really difficult to cook when you can’t see what you are doing. There are lights that are made specifically to illuminate the grill. Whether you choose one of them or use something else to light the grill area, the cook will surely appreciate the additional lighting. While pathway lighting falls under the safety category, it is also a form of task lighting. Many kinds of outdoor lighting will fall in more than one category.
Outdoor accent lighting is the fun stuff. Whether you want to use an umbrella with solar lights, one or more glass lanterns either hanging or sitting on tables or a string of whimsical party lights hung from the eaves, all of these would be accent lights. Once you have your safety and security as well as task lighting taken care of you can have lots of fun with accent lights.
There you have it the three types of essential outdoor lighting. Make sure that your property is safely and securely lit, add task lighting where appropriate and then create a little atmosphere with accent lights.