While it’s easy to understand the merits of outdoor lighting, it can be overwhelming to figure out what kind of lighting to select as there are seemingly endless choices.

Some design fundamentals hold strong and true for years, even decades, other design elements not so much. Here’s what we mean!

Don’t: Place Path Lights in Planter Beds

Path lights are often misused and abused. Path lights are meant to light pathways. But for some reason, we’ve seen them installed in the oddest places. Flower beds are one place we’ve seen path lights installed that doesn’t always make sense.

This design approach doesn’t make for effective lighting. Lighting should be done purposefully, not randomly. Path lights lining a pathway will create a functional task light that shows people how to get from point A to point B.

There could be another way to cast light over your flower beds that doesn’t call for an unnecessary number of path lights.

Do: Use Steel Bollards for Your Path Lighting

The term bollard is actually a nautical term. A bollard is the post ships and boats tie up to on docks.

These light fixtures provide not only functional light to pathways, but they also add a splash of magic in the way they look.

Steel bollards offer a signature beauty that blends into the landscape. With steel cut in the shape of oak or aspen leaves, these fixtures cast a gorgeous shadow on the ground.

If it’s day or night, you can’t go wrong with a beautifully crafted steel bollard.

Don’t: Use Motion Sensor Lights for Security Lighting

Contrary to popular belief, motion-sensing lights do not make for an effective security lighting solution.

Why? More light equals less trespass. If a potential trespasser sees two homes, one that is well lit and one that isn’t, he will likely target the home that has less risk to them being seen.

Even if the dark home has motion-sensing lights, they will not turn on until after the trespasser has already made up his mind to enter the property. This is why motion-sensing lights often fail to make effective security lights.

They don’t turn on until after a trespasser has already entered what they assumed was a dark property. Even if the light turns on, the trespasser has already made the decision to proceed.

Do: Use Security Lighting to Beautify your Property

Effective residential security lighting needs to do three things: Illuminate your property to protect it from trespassers, not create an eyesore for the neighbors, and accent the beautiful features of the property for everyone to see and enjoy.

Low voltage landscape lighting lets us do all three of these things. 12v systems with proper designs provide enough power to accent key features, but not so powerful that the neighbors will complain about bright lights shining in their windows.

Do: Update Your Lighting System with Smart Controls

Smart controls are becoming a common addition for many landscape lighting systems. Smart controls allow you to adjust the brightness of your lights with the touch of a button or dial.

The timers we have available today are truly a marvel when compared to what we had available a few years back.

With astronomical timers, you don’t have to deal with resetting your lighting control when the power goes out. Today, you don’t even have to adjust them for daylight savings since they do it themselves.

By entering in the time and coordinates for your home’s location in the world, your timers will know exactly when sunset and sunrise happen throughout the entire year. They will always turn on and off when they are supposed to. They also have battery memory backups in case there is a power outage.