When you want to make a big change to your Mendham, NJ, area landscape, look to outdoor lighting to add the dramatic impact you want. From the front yard to the back, illuminating your landscaping can bring out the best outdoor features after dark.
Related: 6 Creative Outdoor Lighting Ideas for Your Chatham Township, NJ, Front Yard
Illuminate the Entry & Special Features
When you arrive home at dark, and there are no lights to show where to enter the driveway, this can be a safety issue but also an issue of seeming not interested in having visitors. Adding landscape lights to the driveway make your property entry more welcoming, while additional landscape beds and other outdoor features could further make your entrance area appealing.
The new lighting around the driveway can be done with discreet fixtures that nestle in the new nearby landscape beds, and it could also happen right alongside the driveway for easy walking when anyone is exiting their car and looking for where to go next—perhaps toward a walkway that leads to your backyard.
Another addition that can add definition to your front yard along with the lighting can be a stone retaining wall. The wall can incorporate recessed lighting to highlight the texture of the stone while adding more visibility.
Shine Light on the Front Yard
The front walkway can be another area that can benefit from outdoor lighting. Having a soft glow over the walkway can allow your guests to park their cars and walk to the front door safely. Along the way, they can admire the attractive landscape plants that are illuminated by the perfect lights.
Along the foundation of the house could lie wash lights, which will shine upward onto the front of the home, creating an interesting pattern. Your landscape professionals can also add direct spotlights on your favorite features like stone columns and a trellis of climbing roses.
Your front yard trees could also benefit from some nighttime illumination. Spotlights that are anchored at various distances can draw the eye to the bark’s color and texture. Lights fixed in the upper tree branches can shine down to create mottled shadows on the grass below and illuminate the foliage above.
Consider Options for Backyard Lighting
While front yard lighting can be crucial to the beauty of the front property, the illumination for the backyard can be focused on increasing the function of the outdoor spaces after the sun sets. You certainly want the backyard to look amazing, but you will likely be spending more time there, so you need to have lighting that allows all the activities you enjoy.
Illuminating the patio can be a priority since this can be the primary outdoor space where you’ll want to relax and spend time with your family and friends. Your landscape professionals can incorporate task lighting if you’ll be using this area to finish up some work at the end of the day or you need it for your outdoor kitchen. Then you can switch to ambient lighting for a nightcap.
The backyard walkways can also be important to add lighting. The kids need to see on a summer night as they run out to practice kicking soccer goals after school, and you need illumination as you carry items to the trash.
It can also be helpful to have wash lights along the fence to increase your comfort in the darkened landscape. Knowing where the boundaries are can allow you to relax as the kids play. With the right landscape lighting plan, you can use any outdoor space as long as you wish despite the fact that the sun has set.
Related: Keep the Gathering Going With These Outdoor Lighting Options in the Chatham Township, NJ, Area