Both practical and beautiful, outdoor landscape lighting can easily transform your backyard into a new room. For your front yard safety and security come first. Good lighting design along paths and walkways will make it easy to see and navigate at night.

Here are at least five types of outdoor lighting that can achieve stunning effects for your home:

Rope Lighting
Inexpensive and very adaptable, rope lighting comes in spools and can easily light up a porch, patio or gazebo. It only requires a twelve-volt system. You can also stretch it along walkways, pool edges and driveways for some gentle lighting.

Recessed Lighting
Recessed lighting is modern with a chic finish. It is perfect when you want ambient light for your porch or patio. It offers great control as it can easily be put on a dimmer so you can adjust output.

Paver Brick Lighting
These are lights in the shape of bricks that are incorporated into your landscape. You can replace regular bricks with these lights to create a cozy glow on your patio. You can also use them to line driveways and walkways to add a little light without blinding the neighbors. The bricks can be driven over without breaking.

Lighted Pots
Lighted pots are a new twist on gardening.  They come in a variety of sizes and shapes. You use them like any other pot and put in any kind of flower or small tree that will complement your landscape. Lighted pots have a glowing effect and require no wires or cords.

Lanterns
Lanterns add an elegant look to your outdoor decorating scheme. You can find lanterns that can be placed on a wall, that hang from ceilings and ones that can be placed on fence and porch posts. Many of these come in “green versions” so they take advantage of the daytime sun to provide lighting at night. These are usually easy to install and will either hang from a hook in a ceiling or require just a few screws to fix them to a wall or a post.

– By Harold Salkin
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