If you want the best outdoor lighting ideas to come good, then you have to plan. Effective planning of your outdoor lighting makes the difference between a failed or average project, to one which is full of your best outdoor garden lighting ideas and makes your garden look the perfect picture at night.
So if you are thinking of a new outdoor landscape lighting design or just a re-vamp and re-design, you should be thinking in advance right now. I reckon that you need to go through 3 basic steps to get the best ideas for outdoor lighting working properly.
Don’t Get Yourself in a Twist
Look, we all want the best garden we can get. In fact, even if we don’t admit it, there is a bit of one-upmanship in all of us as well. I don’t want you to be too restricted in your outdoor lighting design ideas, but be careful. The grander the outdoor lighting plan, the more can go wrong. Stick to outdoor lighting ideas that are simple first of all. Get the cornerstones of your design in place. Then you can start to elaborate a little here and there. But don’t be too adventurous yet, as it could all come crashing down.
On a similar point, have a look at what you already have to work with and integrate this with the design. When I looked at some of the decking options for lighting, I stressed that you should be blending in and forming a flow to your outdoor deck lighting ideas so that the whole landscape looks right. Pull in the style of the outdoor lighting fixtures you have and match or at least try to blend in with their style.
Use What Nature Has Given You
Nature has wonderful form, symmetry, and architectural beauty without us doing much to it. This is really to our advantage when planning out outdoor lighting ideas. Use that beauty to your advantage. Look at the trees as they produce amazing effects with uplights or with a great silhouette effect. Can you extend any of your outdoor patio lighting ideas and fixtures into your planting schemes nearby?
It is well worth thinking about. If the ideas you have for lighting your garden can be implemented to enhance the planting, incorporate it, or use it to soften harsh features, it will look all the more spectacular.
Match the Outdoor Lighting Ideas With the Right Outdoor Lights
This may puzzle you a bit so let me explain. There is no point in putting outdoor lighting ideas into practice with the wrong outdoor lights, producing the wrong lighting effects. Outdoor accent lighting ideas are great, but not in an area of general use. Similarly, there is no point bathing a whole area in a general light when the features in it would benefit from more subtle outdoor lighting ideas such as uplighting or shadow effects.
If you don’t own any landscape lighting design software and are doing everything yourself, then it might require some imagination, but it can be done. The other thing to look at is where you can change the types of lights you are using. Obviously, low voltage outdoor lighting is still very popular, but some areas may be suitable for some outdoor solar lighting ideas and fixtures that require less maintenance, are easier to fit and cheaper to run. Similarly is the case for outdoor LED lighting ideas
Summing up the Principles of Outdoor Lighting Ideas
- Keep it simple is the watchword for all your ideas for landscape lighting and outdoor decoration.
- Don’t ignore what you have already
- Let your outdoor lighting ideas blend with nature rather than fight it
- Use the right outdoor lighting effects in the right places
- Consider solar outdoor lighting fixtures where you can.
- Build safely and enjoy it once it’s in.
