Everything You Need to Know About Landscape Lighting in a Sun Prairie, WI Landscape Design

The right landscape lighting puts the finishing touches on your landscape, creating ambience and making your landscape inviting and safe. Here’s everything you need to know about landscape lighting in a Sun Prairie, WI, landscape design.

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The perfect landscape lighting design happens in steps.

Step 1: Know Your Zones

Identify the level and type of lighting for each activity zone. 

1. At the home, illuminate all entryways as well as easy-access windows. The front entryway and house number should be well-lit, for safety and a welcoming atmosphere.

2. Highlighting the driveway and walkways with low path lighting provides an attractive and safe welcome.

3. At the garage, install overhead lighting with a remote switch or timer so you’re not coming home in the dark, even if all other lights are turned off.

4. Outdoor living spaces need the right mix of task lighting (outdoor kitchens), and ambient lighting (seating/dining areas). 

5. Add safety and ambience to pools and hot tub areas with underwater and land-mounted fixtures.

6. In less-used areas of the landscape, highlight a few focal points to eliminate overly dark areas.

Step 2: Choose Focal Points

Select key focal points like a gnarled old tree, a clump of evergreen shrubs, a fieldstone wall, or a water feature. Creating a dramatic feature in the yard is one way to add safety without flooding your yard with too much light. 

Step 3: Choose Lighting Techniques

1. Accent or spot lighting focuses a controlled beam of light to dramatically illuminate focal points.

2. Shadowing lights an object from the front, casting an interesting shadow on a vertical surface beyond it (your home, or a wall).

3. Grazing is used to accentuate the texture of tree bark, masonry walls, or other highly textured materials such as cedar shingles.

4. Silhouetting illuminates a feature such as a tree, from behind.

5. Cross lighting illuminates a focal point from two or more sides, giving it a more dimensional look after dark.

6. Downlighting uses fixtures placed high in trees or on the home to illuminate a broad area.

7. Uplighting places a fixture at the base of an object and aims the light upward to highlight textures.

8. Diffused lighting creates circular patterns of softer, low-level illumination perfect for gardens.

9. Moonlighting places a fixture high in a tree, so that its soft light filters through the canopy with a romantic effect.

10. Underwater lighting creates a delightful play of light refracted in the water.

Step 4: Choose Light Fixtures, Bulbs and Power Supply

Choose from cylinders, box lights, bullet lights, diffusers, well lights, spot (accent) lights, lanterns, post lights, and submersible lights. Light fixtures should blend seamlessly into the landscape during the day.

Different types of fixtures have different power requirements and light output, and therefore usage costs. Each type of fixture is designed to accommodate a specific type of bulb, but you can fine-tune choices with LED, halogen, incandescent or CFC. Choosing the right bulb creates the right mix of bright and soft lighting as well as color temperature (amber, bright white, soft yellow, or bluish). Talk to a lighting expert who can educate you on the power consumption and light output, light temperature, and installation.

General Tips:

1. In most cases, you’ll want installation to be done by professionals, especially if you’re working around existing hardscapes or incorporating fixtures into masonry features.

2. Automatic timers and/or remote switches provide convenience and safety.

3. Less is more! A little light goes a long way.

4. Use a variety of lighting techniques.

5. Conceal the light fixture where possible unless it’s a decorative element.

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