The front yard is the gateway to your home and is generally the first image your friends and family see of your home and lifestyle. When guests come to your home, they’ll feel so much more comfortable and welcome at night with some well-planned outdoor lighting strategies. By just focusing on the walkway, you can transform the entire feel of your front yard. In your upcoming landscape renovation, here’s how to brighten your walkway with outdoor lighting in your Sterling Heights, MI, front yard.
Path Lighting
Path lighting refers to a landscape lighting system that is designed to bring illumination to ground surfaces for walking. While this obviously pertains to walkways, path lighting can also be an ideal solution for lighting patios, pool decks, and driveways.
Path lighting typically consists of a series of light fixtures that are hardwired and anchored in the ground and situated 1 to 2 feet off the ground and 5 to 8 feet apart.
The reason path lights are built and situated this way is to more efficiently focus the light energy to where it’s needed. The lights are angled downward to ensure adequate lighting of all walking surfaces while creating minimal shadows and dark spots. This strategy also makes sure that no one experiences direct eye contact with the lights as they follow the walkway.
Landscape contractors may recommend using hardwired path lighting due to its resistance against the weather. Alternative path lighting is often solar-powered, which is a fantastic environmentally conscious choice. However, solar-powered pathway lights can be rendered ineffective by snowfall or long periods of cloudy weather. Hardwired path lighting will stay bright throughout all weather situations.
As you read through these lighting techniques, keep in mind that less is often more. In general, think about safety first, ambience second, and dimension (a layered approach that minimizes contrast) third.
Moonlighting
One of the most popular techniques used in landscape lighting brings a pleasing ambience to your front yard. Moonlighting takes advantage of large, mature trees by anchoring a white light high in the canopy. The light is intended to be partially obscured by leaves as it passes downwards. The light is subsequently scattered and creates dynamic dancing shadows on the ground, bringing to mind the romantic light of a full moon. While this isn’t the primary way to light a front walkway, it can add a level of interest that ground-mounted lights cannot.
Wall Wash Lighting
Another great tactic at improving ambient light in a front yard is by using the vertical surfaces of structures themselves. Blank walls provide a fantastic opportunity for this lighting option, which bounces light off a wall so that it washes over the surrounding space. This is a great technique to not only call attention to the presence and beauty of the home, but also to provide a great deal of dimension in a nighttime landscape.
Embedded Lighting
Any lighting technique involves infrastructure. Wiring has to be buried, but the presence of a lot of stand-alone light fixtures might not be aligned with your aesthetics. Today, you can find outdoor light fixtures that can be concealed inside masonry features including retaining walls, columns, and steps along your front walkway. Masonry features can either be designed with lighting in mind or be altered to add light fixtures. Some lights may even be embedded within the walkway itself.
The Front Entry
An inviting, well-lit entry area is desirable. Sconces are perennial favorites because there are hundreds of styles to choose from, and they do double duty at illuminating the front door and bringing attention to the textures of the home.
Related: 4 Areas of Your Patio That Need Outdoor Lighting in the Sterling Heights, MI, Area
