Staging For Nighttime - Outdoor Lighting

Staging Nighttime - Outdoor Lighting for Curb Appeal and Safety

Well-planned outdoor lighting improves curb appeal, safety, and security for your home.  Have you driven into neighborhoods and some homes have that WOW effect at night? You may not have realized that the purpose is twofold – beauty and security.   What burglar would want to walk up and be in the spotlight?  At the same time, visitors are warmly welcomed and tripping is lessened. Even the moonlight effect has a security function: Soft, overall landscape lighting eliminates dark areas that might hide an intruder, exposing any movement on your property. The success of exterior lighting hinges on its design. There are several techniques a professional uses to highlight a home.

Moonlight lighting: A “moonlight effect” is a naturalistic look that features light somewhat like that of a full moon, but still strong enough to make beautiful shadows and intense highlights.

Highlight trees: Whether illumined from below or given presence by a light mounted in the tree itself, trees make stunning features.

Uplights:  Uplighting is dramatic because we expect light to shine downward. Used in moderation, it’s a great way to highlight architectural and landscaping features.

Focus: The entryway is often center stage, a way of saying, “Welcome, this way in.”

Beauty and function: For example, adding lighting to plantings along a pathway breaks up the “runway” look of too many lights strung alongside a walk.  Subtle lighting prevents tripping. Think accent, not runway.

Stick to warm light: Warm white light showcases the home and its landscape.  Multi colors are more theatrical. If you’re looking for an elegant look rather than create a light show, stay with warm white. Mixing warm white with the cooler LED light is also attractive.

Orchestrate: A timer, with confirmation from a photocell, brings the display to life as the sun sets. At midnight it shuts shut down everything but security lighting. Some homeowners even set the timer to light things up an hour or so before dawn.

Combine safety and security: Here are some ideas: motion-detecting security lighting mounted near the garage provides illumination when you get out of your car at night; the same function deters intruders. Motion detecting switches can also be applied to landscape lighting to illumine shadowy areas should anyone walk nearby.

 LEDs: Once disparaged for their high cost and cold bluish glow, LEDs are now the light source of choice for lighting designers. They’ve come down in price and now have that warm light people love in incandescent bulbs.

Total outdoor lighting costs will vary according to the size of your home and the complexity of your lighting scheme. Vary the fixtures -while the workhorses are spots and floods, designers turn to a wide range of fixtures, area lights, step lights, and post lights.  Nothing says "Welcome" as distinctly and elegantly as professional outdoor lighting.  Ready, set, glow!