Outdoor Path Lighting Tips

Path lighting is often one of the first types of lighting installed by a homeowner. It increases safety and helps define outdoor spaces. But there are also many homeowners who make a lot of mistakes with this seemingly simple lighting feature. Simply follow these path-lighting tips to create an eye-catching outdoor nightscape that will enhance your home's beauty.

Proper road lighting helps ensure the safety of guests. It can also liven up outdoor spaces around your home after dark. But it's not always easy to get it right. There are some common mistakes homeowners make when installing street lighting. But you can avoid these mistakes combined with great design skills. This will ensure that your outdoor pathway lighting provides the resort-style charm and inviting warmth your home deserves.

Pathway lighting tips are very important because these lights are one of the first types of landscape lighting that most homeowners will install. Some systems don't even require wiring, such as solar street lights, making them an easy do-it-yourself project. However, there are some common mistakes with path lighting. Avoiding them will take your path of lighting from mediocre to stunning.

Your path is not a runway. Homeowners often place street lights too close together. While it might seem like a good idea to have your path well-lit for the entire distance, too many lights spread too evenly can make your sidewalk look like a landing strip.

Eight to six feet apart. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to landscape lighting, but in any case, you want to avoid placing lights within six or eight feet. This helps avoid a runway feel and will force you to think more creatively about your placement.

Path lighting is a guide. Your street lights should guide your guests down a path, not stand like sentinels guarding your sidewalk. The lights are placed separately just to draw visitors along the path, from one light to another. Don't just light up your sidewalk. Consider the landscape lighting value of each light. If you can highlight an interesting shrub or garden element (or even some unique flowers), do it. You will gain interest in the ways of your home.

Mix and match light fixtures. Avoid the eyes of the tin soldier. Having a row of lighting fixtures of the same type up and down your path may seem stiff and forced. Instead, consider that each light has its own landscape character. When the fixtures are properly spaced, you can try mixing different types of fixtures for a more natural look without making the fixtures look out of place.

Street lights are an important safety feature that illuminates the correct way to traverse an outdoor space. They also help guide guests around your home or your garden. However, a common mistake homeowners make when it comes to pathway lighting is installing too much. Not every path needs to be lit. At least not without path lighting. There are other ways to light the way.

Ambient light from other landscape and exterior lighting sources can be just as effective as path lighting. If your path is surrounded by trees, or even if there are at least a few trees on the path, consider using the "moonlight" of a downlight to illuminate your path. It will give a natural feel without any visible fixtures.

If your path is close to your home, or if it runs parallel to the driveway, light from the house's facade and driveway lighting may not require street lights. Reflectively setting up path lighting just because it looks like any path should be lit is a waste of resources and can actually affect your overall lighting design.

If your home's exterior is brightly lit, or even if it's lightly illuminated with strategic spotlights and warm wash lights, ignoring the space in front of your home can lead to a jarring, flat look. Chances are, there's some sort of path connecting the street (or at least the driveway) to your home. This path is an opportunity to detach lighting from your home's façade and bring it into three dimensions, giving your lighting scheme more eye-catching depth.

Placing streetlights at appropriate distances along the walkway leading to your home creates individual points of light that meander upward toward your home, drawing the eye to the front of your home, all the way up to the brightly lit facade.

But keep in mind that roadway lighting is not the only way to illuminate a road or sidewalk, nor is it the only way to achieve the depth of field with an outdoor lighting scheme. If you have a decorative feature in front of your home, such as a statue or fountain, lighting for that feature will likely illuminate most, if not all, of your pathways. In that case, placing street lights is a waste of resources and has no visual significance. Additional feature lights will bring a lighting scheme out of the home, providing depth that can make all the difference between the mediocre and the spectacular.

Trees can serve the same purpose. If you have trees along your path, lighting those trees can create a focal point for the eye, separate from your home's facade, and provide the depth you need without the need for additional path lighting. Some pretty "moonlight" streaming from high up in the trees can create a natural and inviting light that illuminates the path to your home without adding any fixtures. If you also add in uplighting (to illuminate the trees), the extra light is enough to keep you safe on your way home.

The above briefly introduces the lighting skills of path lights. If you want to buy path lights or other outdoor lights, please contact us.

TFB Lighting is a professional custom outdoor landscape light manufacturer. The company mainly produces various path lights, flood lights, garden lights, floor lamps, lawn lights, wall lights, underwater lights, wall lights, spotlights, street lights, solar energy and landscape lighting, and other products. With many varieties and high quality, it is widely used in decorative lighting in various roads, squares, parks, villas, pedestrian streets, garden communities and other places.