Daylight savings may be right around the corner; but landscape lighting makes a huge difference no matter what time of year!
We moved into our new house in May and didn’t initially notice how dark the exterior was during the longer spring and summer days. It wasn’t until we pulled up to the house one night after football practice last fall that I noticed just how dark it was. Even pulling into the driveway and entering our backdoor; nothing was illuminated.
We had also discussed changing out some of the dead plants in our front beds, and adding privacy arborvitaes along the side of the driveway, so it seemed best to do it all at once. We hired a former client of mine, Mike Lyons of Lyons Design to complete the work. They were digging up the beds anyway, so they added two low-voltage transformers; one in the front and one along the side of the driveway. This way, we could add more lights in the future in either the front yard or backyard without issue.
What a difference! We were so impressed with how the landscape lighting turned out not only illuminating the home, but also lighting trees and shrubbery. We have a beautiful weeping cherry tree on the side of our house that we never fully appreciated until the flood lighting highlighted it and made it really stand out. Additionally, we used upward facing bullet lights to showcase architectural features of our home, such as the arched dormer windows on the third floor. Crossing the paths of lights casts amazing shadows of low-lying shrubbery against the house creating visually-pleasing patterns. Finally, illuminated the side of our driveway, making it easier to see when getting in and out of the car and creating a welcoming path to the back of the house.
Our boys also play a lot of basketball and street hockey in the driveway, so it was important to add spotlights, especially for those late summer nights! We decided to hold off on adding lights to the backyard patio area until we figure out how to best utilize that space. However, adding the additional transformer in the backyard will allow us the capability of adding more lights as we go.
Overall, the exterior lights have made our home feel more welcoming at night, and brightened these shorter winter days! We look forward to spending more evenings outdoors soon and can’t wait to enjoy the lights even more!
We used Kichler Exterior Lighting bought locally in Cherry Hill at Barton Supply.
My Recommended Local Landscapers:
Rich Culver
609.969.0087
Mike Lyons
856.834.0402
856.534.3553
856.547.6115