6 Easy Outdoor Lighting Improvement For Your Home & Garage

6 Easy Outdoor Lighting Improvement For Your Home & Garage

Many people often say that the first impression is the last impression. While many people argue about the trueness of this phrase, it holds when you host people at your home for the first time. Outdoor lighting at your place can enhance many aspects of the spaces leading up to your main door. These spaces include everything from the garage neighbouring your patio to the lush green yard surrounding your property.

Not only does outdoor lighting beautify the area around your house, but it also helps in averting an intrusion by burglars and thieves, who’d usually be motivated to do so on seeing dimly lit surroundings.

If approached pragmatically, outdoor lighting can turn out to be a fun project with spectacular results at the end. You might’ve looked around the market to shortlist some lighting options and would’ve been overwhelmed with the multitude of products available. Worry no more! Read on to find 6 easy outdoor lighting improvements for almost any place around your residence.

1. Illuminate the walkways. Period

via Amazon

This is probably a no-brainer, but the path leading up to the main entrance of your house should be well illuminated. Be it stairs, rocky paths or steps, unless the door is not adjacent to your fence, having a few lights around them would do you more good than harm. It can help you navigate around the outer area when you arrive late on a particular night and can save you from a potential injury caused by missing a step.

There are a bunch of options to do this. One of the most common choices is using an LED light installed in a fixture similar to recessed downlighting, the difference being that these point in the upward direction. These are placed along the walkway at regular intervals to provide uniform illumination. If you’re looking for a designer look, mushroom light fixtures can give an elegant look. Moreover, if you have a granite path running through your lawn, lampposts can be used for an urban vintage look.

2. Glam up the look by landscape lighting

via CE Pro

Outdoor accent lighting can do many wonders in beautifying the exterior of your house. There are various techniques of doing so and come under an umbrella term called ‘landscape lighting.’ There are many fixtures available for doing so, which include garden lights, bullet lights, wash lights, and well lights, to name a few.

Bullet lights, popularly known as spotlights project a narrow beam of light which can be used to highlight specific architectural features of your house or to cast light over some garden features. Wash lights throw a more diffuse beam which can be used to illuminate facades, fences, and walls. Use well lights to throw light on the underside of foliage or to provide an accent on engraved pillars, dormers and facades. Since these are installed in waterproof fixtures, you won’t have to worry about electrical issues like short circuits.

3. Add sufficient lights on your front door

via Light My Nest

Lighting the front door is essential for both you and your guests. You can avoid people tripping on the welcome mat, and provide a clear path to the main entrance by placing a few lights on the ceiling of the entrance.

To achieve this, you could use a single bulb in a fancy enclosure such as a lantern. Down-lights can be used similarly to provide brighter illumination. Moreover, you can use wall sconces for uniform illumination. You can buy these in a variety of designs and shapes. Coach lights are an alternative to wall sconces and can be used for a vintage appearance.

4. Patio lighting is equally essential

via Brite Nites

Nothing sets the mood for a party than a well decorated and illuminated patio. Ambient lights, coupled with carefully chosen accent lights, would make people come to your home more often. The patio is one of the places in your house where you can experiment with different lighting styles easily. Put deep thought into the spaces you want to illuminate and choose the fixture accordingly.

In the entertainment spaces, you’d always want overhead lighting to achieve minimum glare emanating from any fixture. Stringing lights in a zig-zag pattern lays down a soft and steady overall light. The same can be said for pendant lights which can be hung over tables as task lights. Of course, wall sconces are your best friends for the patio as they’ll give out-diffused lighting over the whole space and create a soothing ambience.

If you have some plants or pots, you’d like to highlight, use two bullet lights placed at an angle to each other to reduce shadows.

5. Treat your garage like a sanctum

via Garage Journal

Whether you use your garage to park the car your dad gifted you on your sixteenth birthday, or to fix faulty furniture in your house; lighting is an essential component to enhance your overall experience of entering it. Recessed lighting fixtures with bright LEDs can be used to brighten up the entire space effectively. Moreover, you could use task lights for your workspaces to minimize glare while you’re at work. These can also help you in providing a clear vision when you’re performing repairs like cabinet repairs, garage door repair, or car maintenance tasks.

At the entrance of the garage, you could install downlights on walls and pillars for a modern look. At the garage door, consider using bunker lights to make a design statement.

6. Use light dimmers

A centrally active dimming system should control your landscape lights. This can be used to create a whole new ambience at the touch of a button. These are available in an entire range of control mechanisms, ranging from Bluetooth control for a single light to WiFi control for an array of interconnected lights. Using light dimmers can significantly augment the design factor in your outdoor lighting.

In the process of improving your outdoor lights, you must ensure that each of your fixtures is waterproof to prevent electrical faults when it rains or when you’re spraying water in the garden. This can be done by checking the IP rating of the light you’re purchasing. Once assured of the quality of the lights, you can proceed to design their layout with the above tips in mind.