The front yard is essential in introducing friends and family to your home. It may be chock full of gorgeous and carefully-maintained plantings, outstanding masonry work and even some enticing water features. No matter how beautiful this space looks during the day, there is always one element to include in your front yard landscape design: light, so that your front yard is as beautiful and welcoming after dark as it is during the day. Here’s how to create a more welcoming atmosphere: the benefits of professional outdoor lighting in your Trenton, MI front yard.
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Safety is the Priority
You may not think of the front yard as being a particularly dangerous place. However, improper outdoor lighting is the root cause of a large part of the injuries that happen in the outdoors since people tend to trust the landscape around a home much more than an unfamiliar place.
The primary intent of proper outdoor lighting is illuminating the walking surfaces so that all potential obstacles are clearly visible and not obscured by shadow. The way to eliminate shadows is by minimizing the amount of space between the light source and the target surface. If you’ve ever been blinded by a flood light you know that it obscures your vision of what’s ahead of you. Likewise, a flood light at your back creates a you-sized shadow that makes it hard to make out what’s in front of your feet. As such, the best safety lighting in an outdoor setting is not the overhead flood light, but a series of low-lying lights at the edge of the walking surface.
In order to eliminate dark spots and improve security in your front yard, it’s important to fill in the gaps with ambient lighting - but with a strategy that doesn’t ruin the nighttime ambience or disturbs the neighbors. Lighting professionals will use a variety of strategies will create the most pleasing effect. A few spotlights backsplashing off the walls of your home, a few “randomly” placed solar-powered walkway lights in a dark corner near the bushes, or moonlighting in a large tree provide just enough light to create interest and make each part of your front yard much secure.
Nighttime Beauty
Each of your front yard landscape features and the home itself will take on a different look after the sun goes down. Professional outdoor lighting will let these features transform into something new. Highlighting just one or two key features such as a beautiful old tree, a rock garden, or a fountain will increase the beauty of your front yard landscape.
Outdoor lighting experts will use strategies such as spotlighting to increase the presence of some particularly eye-catching landscape features. Some well-placed spotlights will largely eliminate the presence of shadows near a special component of your front yard. Even better, they will bring out the texture of features such as stone or plantings that would otherwise be washed out during the daytime sunlight. Your front yard can be just as dazzling during the nighttime as it is during the daytime.
Professional Installation
A well-installed light fixture will last decades. Electricity can be dangerous so it’s always worthwhile to have your outdoor lighting professionally installed to prevent electrical fires and shocks. With professional installation, you can rest easy knowing your wiring is up to code and safe.
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