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When it comes to enhancing the exterior of your property, plants are a common focal point when strategically designing your landscaping. And while homeowners can generally get away with improving their curbside appeal by updating their garden, if you want to really enhance your exterior property and set your home above the rest in your neighborhood, then landscape lighting is the perfect solution you’ve been looking for. And yes, while most homes already come with uplighting features throughout the property, adding lighting to your trees can provide you with that extra level of ambience that can completely transform your home’s appeal. Therefore, if you want to learn more about landscape lighting ideas for trees, keep reading.
Before diving into choosing landscape fixtures for the trees on your property, there’s some logistics you need to consider first so you can make the most out of your home improvement project. Let’s take a closer look at what you need to contemplate below.
The Number of Trees on Your Property
The first factor you need to consider when designing landscape lighting for trees on your property is how many trees you want to accentuate and make your focal point. By doing so, this will help you determine how many fixtures you’ll need to purchase and what you want your design to look like when the lights have been installed.
Power and Voltage
Installing light fixtures on your exterior property can be tricky, especially when there are limitations to electricity sources. Therefore, beforehand, make sure you have a plan on how to connect all the lighting fixtures to an energy source, so your property is well lit at all times throughout the night. This will also save you the trouble of having to make any extensive changes to your landscaping.
One the other hand, while exterior lighting comes with its fair share of challenges, it also provides you with ample opportunities to craft a mood that draws in the attention of onlookers from the edge of your property. Therefore, consider which lighting fixtures you want to shine with intense light and which you want to shine more subtly to create a beautiful contrast throughout your property. Additionally, this will also help you choose which bulbs you need to purchase as well.
Your Installation Budget
Evidently one of the most important aspects to consider with any home renovation project is the budget. To make sure you anticipate all renovation costs without going overboard with surprise expenses, it’s essential that you sit down beforehand and calculate what you’re willing to spend to enhance the exterior of your home. This will also help you with determining whether you’re planning to install your landscape lighting for your trees on your own or using a professional contractor to do the work for you.
Other Things to Consider
Remember, exterior lighting also plays a vital role in adding that extra bit of security for your home. Therefore, to ensure your property is properly lit, while designing the perfect ambience, keep in mind what areas of your home need more lighting than others to create a perfect balance.
Now that you’ve considered the logistics for your exterior renovation project, let’s take a closer look at how you can enhance your property with these landscape tree lighting ideas. One thing to remember is that all trees are different in their own way. Therefore, the options are truly endless when it comes to designing a unique layout for your property.
Uplighting and Downlighting
One of the best ways to accentuate the trees on your property is by using a combination of uplighting and downlighting. While uplighting shines a focused light upwards from the ground level of your property, downlighting shines light from above your tree line to create a stunning, yet subtle moonlight effect. Therefore, when used strategically you can create an offset design that appears natural and elegant. So, how do you do this exactly? Well, there are a couple ways, depending on the type of trees you have on your property:
Lighting Evergreen Trees
Evergreen is a species of trees that have needles, rather than leaves. And, unlike other species, they do not become bare during colder months. These include:
To light these types of trees, we suggest using two uplighting fixtures positioned on two sizes of its base at a 60-degree angle to create a beautiful 360-degree illumination.
Lighting Deciduous Trees
Furthermore, unlike evergreen trees, deciduous trees lose their leaves during the fall and winter and grow them during the springtime. Some common deciduous trees include:
To strategically light deciduous trees, keep in mind the size of the tree itself, and how wide it is as it will help you determine how many uplighting fixtures to use. For smaller deciduous trees place one fixture directly at the center of the tree's base at a 35-degree angle to create one beautiful focal point.
For medium deciduous trees, use two lighting fixtures at the base at a 35-degree angle placed on either side of the trunk. Lastly, for large deciduous trees, place a smaller accent light at the center of the trunk's base and two larger accent lights further away on either side.
Alternatively, you can place a single downlighting feature located high on the tree’s truck to shine light downwards. This not only provides you with the ability to shine light on the landscaping located around your trees but it will also allow you to create a beautiful moonlight effect.
Lighting Ornamental Trees
While more rare, ornamental trees are small and delicate, making them a focal point without lighting. Therefore, to truly accentuate their beauty, homeowners need to strategically plan their lighting fixtures. Some ornamental trees include:
Rather than utilize a harsh light to accentuate ornamental trees, use a dimmed lighting to create a subtle focal point. Depending on where the tree is located on your property, you can use either downlighting or uplighting to create your design. Just keep in mind whether you want to also accentuate any other plants located in the same area as well.
Other Lighting Tips
Furthermore, if you have any outdoor furniture that you want to accentuate with tree lighting, don’t be afraid to play with the idea of string lighting to create a starlight effect. Additionally, keep in mind what type of lighting fixture you want such as flood lights, well lights, bullet lights, and wash lights as they each provide differences in lighting intensities and range of illumination.
As you can see, there’s a lot more that thought that goes into creating your desired ambience on the exterior of your home. However, with the help of the tips listed above, you can create a beautiful design that improves your curbside appeal while adding value to your home.
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Absolute Lighting installed my outdoor flood lights 2 years ago and they are beautiful! They did such a great job that I used them to setup and take down the Christmas lights for the past 2 years. I would highly recommend them. Frank always responds to questions and automatically puts me on the schedule for set up and take down of the Christmas Lights.
We love Abulous lighting and have been using them for years They are very responsive and professional and will come back no questions asked for any follow up work Good pricing and highly trustworthy Frank, the owner, is a true stand up guy. I recommend without reservation
Frank and the team at Abulous were great to work with. They came out and retro-upgraded some previous lighting that we had done a few years back and made it look as seamless and continuous as possible. They also worked with us on the best (& most economical) way to light up a hard to reach area of our yard. They also followed up with us after we had another group of workers "disturb" some of the lighting wires and came back out and fixed everything back up again. Very friendly, dependable local resource who do great work. Highly recommend.
After reviewing multiple companies we contracted with Abilous Lighting to create outside accent lighting for our home, backyard patio, walkways, & fire pit. Their ideas and design were the best! It was a pleasure working with Frank Hasty, who did the design, and his crew of Brandon & Rusty who performed the work. All were excellent to work with. We are very happy with Abulous Lighting.