Did you know that outdoor lighting can be brighter in some areas and dimmer in other parts of your Naperville and Hinsdale, IL landscape? Landscape professionals can use brighter white lighting to draw some features to the forefront while others are still visible but sit in the background. These ideas to plan areas to illuminate can help you envision how you want your nighttime landscape to look.
Lighting Ideas for the Front Yard
Well-planned outdoor lighting can welcome your guests with warm illumination that invites them to enter your property. Adding extra lighting or specialty lighting to the features you love in the front yard can delight you every time you arrive home after dark.
Circular Driveways
While you can add more lighting to any driveway, a circular driveway can lend itself to strategic lighting simply because of its unusual shape and position in the landscape. Brighter lights that shine upward onto the center of the circle can highlight the attractive landscape plantings there and draw attention to the front door for easy entry.
Spotlights placed at various distances from the center of the circle can illuminate this area to create interesting shadows that add dimension to the dark space. You can also have spotlights illuminate the front entry and door to make them visible from the main street.
Landscape Lighting
Mature front yards can benefit from adding more lighting to majestic trees that add shade and stately beauty to your landscape. Weeping willows, oak trees, and maples are all lovely when they have spotlights that shine on the texture of the tree bark and lighting placed in the branches that deliver a mottled look to the ground below.
Mature trees can make a visual statement that other landscape plants can’t so you might want to make them focal features with outdoor lighting.
Lighting Ideas for the Backyard
Illuminating the backyard can be as much about spending more time in your yard after as it can be about making the outdoor areas look appealing after dark. Illuminating the patio from above with task lighting and dimmable illumination can ensure you can see to complete tasks there and set a tone for a party, too.
Lighting around the patio perimeter can come from fixtures that sit in the adjoining landscape beds while steps need lighting to allow your guests to go up and down safely.
The backyard can be like the front when you have mature trees there, too. Creating the same lighting plan for those can deliver a uniform look to the outdoor lighting that is pleasing.
When you have a fence that encloses the backyard, illuminating the fence can make you feel safer in dark areas and draw attention to the fencing style. Whether the fence is metal or wood, adding lighting to the property boundary can make the yard feel secure and highlight the texture of the materials.
Landscape Lighting Benefits
Landscape lighting can be one of the most transformative investments you can make in your landscape. The LED lighting is energy-efficient and won’t drive up the electricity bill and it is durable and long-lasting to create beauty to last years.
With the right illumination plan, you can bring out any features that make your nighttime landscape a stand-out area.
Related: Outdoor Lighting for Every Occasion: Tips and Tricks for Each Season in Naperville & Plainfield, IL
About the Author
Since 1984, Figgins Trees & Turf has offered an array of design and build and landscape maintenance services with a personal touch. Our versatility and wide range of specializations—from general maintenance to an extensive portfolio of design and build installations—set us apart.