Lighting the surrounding areas of your home is as important as it is to light the inside. Outdoor Lighting Fixtures serve to illuminate the outside areas of the houses. Most people fix the lights for security reasons while others install them to beautify the home during the night.

Before purchasing and fitting the Outdoor Lighting Fixtures, there are various factors that you need to look at. Some of these factors are directly related to safety and as such cannot be brushed aside. Determine the power source for the lights. This can be gas, battery, or electricity. Also, calculate how much the additional Lighting will cost you to determine if you will be able to foot the bill. As a tip, florescent and energy saving bulbs consume less power than tungsten bulbs and would provide a way to reduce your power bill.

Secondly, you would have to consider the application. Different Outdoor lights are designed for specific areas: pool Lighting, perimeter Lighting. Below are some of the popular examples of Outdoor lights:

Outdoor landscape Lighting: The most common example of these is the directional Lighting used to draw attention to the beauty of the homes landscape. They are intended to catch and appeal to the eye, thus drawing attention to their surrounding area, more so if there is a feature you want people to take note of. Since these lights are designed to play a specific role, how and where they are placed counts for a lot. For this reason, setting them up would require the landscaper to have a good Lighting system plan in place.

Outdoor Decorative lamps: These are usually mounted just outside the house front door. They come in eye catching designs which usually blend with the façade. These are mostly fitted for security purposes. As their name suggests, they are more of decorative pieces than security Fixtures.

Outdoor wall lights: Outdoor wall scones are examples of these lights offering brilliance and beautiful looks as well as offering security. They are basically fitted on the wall and you have an option of installing exterior flush lights to boost beauty. But other than adding to the beauty of the architectural design, Outdoor lights are also used as signs, and map out paths and walkways at night.

Taking into account that these lights are the instruments you look up to for personal security and beauty, it is crucial to ensure that they are always in good working condition. You should always ensure that:

They are well fitted; poorly fitted lights bulbs could fall off and hurt people. It is advisable to seek professional assistance to fit the bulbs if you are not comfortable doing it yourself.

Switch them off whenever they are not needed; this helps to save power and reduce the power bill. It is also prudent to use the right type of bulbs for Outdoor Lighting because Outdoor lights are specially designed to resist elements like rain and snow.

The idea of Lighting the outside of your house is a concept that can be materialized by getting the right Outdoor Lighting Fixtures, fitting them well and the result exhibits itself through beauty and security you enjoy with a clear surrounding and a clear mind.

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Creating a truly Modern garden lighting design can add so much to your home. All types of properties can benefit from a garden lighting makeover, from small apartments with limited outside space to large palatial country mansions. You can Create Designs that are practical and those that simply impress your neighbors. But how do you achieve this in a contemporary style? This can be done using a few tips and techniques, all that is required is a little forward planning and thought as to how the end result will look.

Use contemporary looking landscape light units for starters. The style and design of the light units themselves can influence the overall appearance of the project. Avoid using the old fashioned lantern style lights or even those common stick in solar lights, they just look dated. Go for sleek Designs in chrome or stainless steel. When using floodlights again pick out something that looks nice and Modern not the standard black housing that is so common today. Don't forget you will see many of these lighting units, in the daytime at least.


The type of lighting you use can have an impact on the Modern look of your design. For example think about LED lights, they simply look Modern. LED string lighting can give any garden a contemporary edge. Using some colored lighting can also Create the desired effect. Color garden lights can be very effective but care must be taken not to mix vivid colors too much, the effect can look quite cheap. It is usually best to stick with one added color other than your standard white light.

Another way to make things look attractive and contemporary is to use the light units in Modern ways. Certain techniques for creating lighting effects have developed over the years moving away from the old light above the front door style. Think about using up lights, down lights and recessed lighting. Back lighting a garden feature is another great trick to keep things looking fresh. Vary the lighting methods and styles but be careful not to over-do it. Sometimes simple and subtle landscape lighting design ideas are the most effective.

Many elements will have an impact on your overall garden lighting design. Something as simple as choosing Modern looking units can do the trick. For the best results aim to mix Modern looking lights with a few contemporary techniques. If Modern is what you want then start thinking in different ways from the start, avoiding the older traditional ways of using outside lights.

A properly Designed Landscape with appropriate outdoor Lighting is a source of enjoyment for the entire family. It also enhances the utility and security of your property and adds to the resale value.

However Landscape Design and the Design of outdoor Lighting to go with it involves much more than just placing trees, shrubs and other plants on the property together with a few solar lights or low voltage outdoor lights. The Design process is part art which deals with conscious arrangement or organization of outdoor space and its Lighting for human satisfaction and enjoyment. Some of the major goals of the Landscape Planning process include:

Organizing and developing the site for maximum use and pleasure.
Creating a visual relationship between the house and the site.
Reducing Landscape maintenance to a practical level.
Planning Landscape outdoor Lighting that blends with and enhances the Landscape
Americans spend tremendous amounts of money landscaping and Lighting their businesses, homes, streets, parks, schools, etc. Unfortunately, much of this money is wasted, however, because of little or no Planning. People cannot know how to Landscape and light that Landscape properly until they know why they Landscape. There are several reasons why people Landscape:

Some think it improves the appearance and value of their property;
Other people like to grow plants;
Others just want their place to look aesthetically appealing.

However, these Landscapes and the associated outdoor Lighting unfortunately often dominate rather than serve. Masses of plants or other materials in the Landscape may take up a large portion of the space and leave little room for people. Also, too often the Lighting is overdone, intrusive and/or harsh. So how does the Designer arrange outdoor space and the Landscape Lighting to complement it so that people will find it useful, appealing and functional?

The methods include:

Observing and analyzing the habits of the people who will be using the space, including their activities, needs and how much space and light each of their activities requires.
Studying past landscaping and Landscape Lighting methods.
Surveying available materials to solve Design requirements.
Analyzing the environment of the site including the view in and around the site. The ecology of the site should be carefully analyzed since it is important in determining the Design.
Deciding which areas will be best served by outdoor Lighting and which should be left un-illuminated.

With new outdoor Lighting installations you may want to consider energy efficient lights such as LED outdoor lights, which have several benefits when used for garden and Landscape Lighting, including:

They are low voltage and energy efficient. In other words they throw out a lot of light for not much electricity in.
They are versatile and so can be used for a variety of outdoor Lighting solutions including ambient Lighting, floodLighting, walkways in fact for most applications

The good news is that the purchase costs of LED outdoor lights are now competitive with traditional Landscape lights. Because LEDs are energy efficient this means the overall cost of installing and operating an outdoor Lighting system is falling.

See the next article in this series for more detail on the Landscape and outdoor Lighting Design and installation process.