Call 217.227.3256 for a free outdoor lighting consultation!
Landscape lighting has become increasingly popular in recent years, and for good reason. Lighting can give your home that “wow” factor that everyone craves. Professionally-installed outdoor lighting gives your home a “cared-for” impression and makes your home’s exterior feel warm and inviting.
It can even make your neighbors envious. 😊 But is landscape lighting worth the investment? Yes!
Types of Outdoor Landscape Lighting
Pathway Lighting
Lighting your landscaped walkways, steps and pathways and entryways not only adds beautiful drama in the evening, but it’s safer for your guests (and for you!), especially if you have steps and uneven areas of your walkways. If you want more light, we suggest taller lights. Lower light fixtures are usually designed to blend into your landscapes and provide less light but add a lovely effect.
Up Lighting or Down Lighting
Up lighting or down-lighting are popular ways to add a dramatic, elegant effect on your house, trees, or other front-yard features.
ACCENT LIGHTING
Don’t forget the add accent lighting to your water features like ponds and bubbling fountains, yard sculptures or ornamental shrubs. Landscape lighting professionals will make sure you get the right beam angle for your sculpture or other feature.
Lighting for PONDS, outdoor kitchens, patios, and pools.
Make your outdoor spaces usable day and night. Lighting these areas create a welcoming mood for your family and friends.
Check Out our Outdoor Lighting Service
5 Reasons Why You Need Landscape Lighting
1. Lighting Creates Beautiful Curb Appeal
Professionally done, landscape lights will last as long as you live in the home. When you’re ready to move on, professional landscape lighting can add value to your house and create a warm, inviting environment that can make it more appealing to buyers.
2. Outdoor Lighting Adds Safety
Safety is an important issue at home, and landscape lighting for security is becoming more popular and can add extra peace of mind. And not just for deterring trespassers and theft. Illuminating walkways and entrances can ensure safe navigation for you and your guests, to prevent injuries from tripping and falling.
The more lights you have, the safer you will be!
When we talk safety, we’re also talking about the installation of the lighting. Depending on your home, wiring and installation can be very complicated. When you have professionals install your landscape lighting, you don’t have to fuss don’t fuss with dangerous electricity – we want you to stay safe, so let us work with the electrical details. We also install lighting timers that you can program.
Another factor to consider when thinking about safety is how reliable your landscape lights are. We use a low-voltage system that is very efficient, with low power use, yet the lights are still bright. In our experience, solar lights are typically not bright enough to illuminate what you need, and they don’t last very long. Our wired system uses LED bulbs that last a long time and will illuminate whatever you need it to.
3. Professional Designers Deliver the Best Landscape Lighting
It’s frustrating when you’ve put in hours and effort to create a particular lighting effect and it tanks after the first heavy rain or snowfall. Don’t sacrifice quality for cost. Passersby can usually tell a professional project from a DIY’er. Call a professional and get it done right the first time.
Planning landscape lighting is not something to do on a whim. For the best results, it takes time, planning and an understanding of how lighting can enhance your home and its features, such as the landscaping. Our team at Designer Landscapes carefully considers the placement of lights in correlation with your landscaping and your home. You want the lighting to shine on your sidewalks, house, and landscaping, but you don’t want it to shine in your windows and become a disruption inside your house. We also make sure your lighting complements your garden, trees, and plants.
Although it’s tempting to install lights yourself, landscape lighting can get tricky really fast: How are apart do you space the lights? What are the best brands of outdoor lighting to use? How can the lighting complement the existing landscaping? How do I wire to get in-ground lights, a wall wash, an accent light? How much distance between the lights so it won’t look like an airport runway (unless that is the look you’re going for.) 😊
Using a professional company to install landscape lighting can give you peace-of-mind if something needs to be adjusted with your system. A simple service call can fix most issues you might have. If you install a DIY system, you will be responsible for your own maintenance/issues.
When you work with professionals, we do a thorough look at your home and garden and can answer these questions for you. we use only the best products/fixtures on the market so that the lighting is durable, high quality and low maintenance for you.
Check Out our Outdoor Lighting Service
4. You'll Save Your Time & Invest in Your Home
Thinking of setting up outdoor landscape lighting yourself? Consider hiring a professional to avoid landscape lighting mistakes. We can install the best landscape lighting in a matter of hours, saving you time and hassle. When we’re done, you’ll have a beautiful, functional and fashionable outdoor lighting system. You won’t believe the difference light makes as a wonderful complement to your home or office! Along with complementing the visual appeal of your home, professional lighting will also increase the value of your home. A well-lit home is more attractive to buyers, which gives you an advantage if you are looking to sell your home in the future.
Professionally-installed landscape lighting has upfront costs with installation, but it is a worthwhile investment into your home with minimal costs after installation. LED lights last for a very long time and are pretty inexpensive when they eventually need to be replaced.
Use a professional to avoid this outdoor lighting mistake
One of the most common outdoor lighting mistakes that we see are either using too many lights or not using enough. There is a fine line between these two scenarios, and you want to make sure you have adequate lighting without making your home look like a year-round light show.
We space the landscape lights about 10-15 feet apart and usually alternate them if possible. We also use LED light bulbs are longer-lasting and less expensive to use.
5. You'll Be the Envy of Your Neighbors!
Professional lighting also can make your neighbors want to imitate you! It’s tempting to try to design, plan, prepare and install the lighting yourself. The results are usually less than perfect. Here’s a story to show you what I mean.
A few years ago, we did front “up” lighting for a Springfield home. The neighbors were so impressed, they attempted to do something similar on their own with cheap solar lights.
While professional work can stand the test of time, the neighbor’s DIY version had less than sparkling results. The spacing was uneven, and after a few weeks, some solar lights were leaning over, some weren’t lit… you get the idea. Our client tells us at after a few weeks, the neighbors quietly removed their self-installed lights. Years later, our client’s home lighting has remained beautiful, functional and maintenance-free.
Our team at Designer Landscapes is your one-stop-shop for professional landscape lighting. When you hire outdoor lighting professionals, you avoid multiple trips to the hardware store and installation frustration. Instead, you get the fun part: browsing our catalogs to find the lighting that suits your style. We do the rest, including design, planning, and installation.
Collaborate with us to find the perfect combination of styles, materials, voltage, and placement to light up your home with spectacular lighting that you will love for years to come! We can’t wait to talk to you! Call us at 217-227-3256 or email Patty.