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- Pathway Lighting
Pathway Lighting
You want your home to feel welcoming and safe for your family and guests as a homeowner. This is why pathway lighting can help you get around your house at night. Making sure that there are lights near the entrance to your home reduces the possibility of an accident or injury.
And the best part, pathway lighting gives a welcoming beacon when you return home in the evening.
Pathway lighting is a very popular choice for homeowners. It's also very functional, but what if you're looking at it and thinking that it's just not your thing?
We have an answer to that and you only have to consider how they'll be used before installing them and deciding which ones are right for you. Find out below the reasons why you should add pathway lighting to your outdoor space.
Pathway Lights are "Out of Style"?
Do you plan on adding a few pathway lights down your walkway and around the shrub bed in front of your house but someone told you it’s “out of style”?
You might want to listen to this.
Pathway lighting is a very popular choice for homeowners. Asking yourself first why pathway lighting is out of style, consider this: “functionality does not go out of style.”
Think about how they will be used. Will they light areas where light is needed and people actually walk? Or you may also think tripping over your pathway in the dark is what is out of style. What’s your opinion?
5 Reasons to Install Pathway Lighting
1) Guide your Guests
Whether you host parties often or just want to create a welcoming environment, it's important to illuminate your walkways. Pathway lights lead the way to your front door, outdoor entertaining areas, and through your garden. This allows them to serve their primary function to guide your guests.
2) Increase Safety
According to most sources, burglary is the most common hazard to your house. This is why crime prevention and security are two of the main reasons for outdoor pathway lighting.
As an added bonus, illuminating walkways create a safer environment by highlighting potential tripping hazards and defining the border of the path you and your guests are walking on.
3) Protecting your plants
Outdoor pathway lighting draw boundaries or creates obstacles in areas of your yard where you do not want people to walk. If you want to keep your guests from destroying your lawn or stepping on plants and flowers, consider installing pathway lights.
4) Improves the overall appeal of your house
You can guarantee that pathway lights can also be attractive. They'll change the way your landscaping looks and feels.
You will notice that your landscape and architectural features are the first things people see when they approach your home. A well-designed lighting system can be the difference between a house that looks like it was built in the 1970s and one that feels like it was built in 2013.
The right pathway lighting can accent your architectural features, complement your landscape and transform the mood of your outdoor spaces. And Zest Lighting can help you create an instant wow factor for your home.
Common Type of Pathway Lights
When a pathway is well-lit, it immediately appears more inviting and safer. Pathway lighting is often installed by councils and authorities for a variety of reasons as stated above, including making them more inviting and encouraging residents to use them even during the night.
These are the 7 common outdoor or pathway lights that you must have:
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Spotlights
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Flood Lights
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Up/Downlights
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Step Lights
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Garden Lights
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Bollard Lights
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String Lights
Spotlights
We will keep it simple. It is a general term for lights that point only in one direction. A spotlight is aimed at the object it illuminates and can have a cutting glare which increases with distance. Another example is when a spotlight is pointed at a wall, it can create an uplight effect, giving surfaces a wall-grazing look.
They can be used to illuminate statues, plants, walls, patios—anything you can point them at.
Floodlights
Flood lights are the best choice for illuminating large areas such as driveways and patios. They cast a bright light over a wide area, also makes them perfect for highlighting landscaping features.
Up/Downlights
These uplights illuminate where you want them to. They cast patterns on walls, statues and anything else you'd like to highlight in your yard.
Step Lights
Step lights are great for illuminating stairways at night. They can also help delineate the edge of steps and parts of a staircase that are otherwise obscured by darkness.
Garden Lights
Garden lights in natural areas can help showcase your favorite and most beautiful plants to the rest of the world. They resemble beautiful light mushrooms. The light shines downward, allowing everyone to see the plants rather than spots caused by looking at a bulb.
They are typically 18 to 24 inches tall and have a canopy that reflects light down onto adjacent paths and garden beds.
Bollard Lights
Bollard lighting is a type of fixture that has become extremely popular in recent years. They are also known as 'steeple lights' and are often used in urban areas to light paths or parking lots. Bollard lighting fixtures can be installed on, or up to 10 feet away from, a building and still provide illumination.
String Lights
String lights are the perfect way to bring twinkle magic to your outdoor spaces and indoor trees. This type of lighting has a nostalgic charm, reminiscent of hot summer nights with family and friends or cozy evenings by the fire.
How can you avoid BAD outdoor pathway lighting?
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Light fixtures should be placed 10-15 ft. apart instead of creating a constant stream of light. Space them apart to create pools of light to guide you from point A to point B. You don't want your walkway to feel like a parking lot, so don't light up every inch of it.
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To avoid the runway look, stagger lights on both sides of a path rather than placing them directly opposite one another. It's more attractive to place lights on both sides of a path.
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Set your path lights back from the walkway a little to highlight adjacent plantings rather than the pathway material.
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When placing lights in the landscape, their height should be proportionate to the surrounding terrain. Lights should be slightly taller than the plantings if they are set in foliage.
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Rather than stringing all your lights in one straight line from the transformer, create hubs or a T with the transformer at its base.
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Be careful not to overlight. Use low-wattage bulbs to add subtlety and create an inviting atmosphere.
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When you're planning a lighting design for your yard, be sure to avoid directing light toward stairways and hillsides. Remember that people's eye level changes when they sit down, so don't shine the light directly into their faces.
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Select fixtures that direct light toward the feet, not the eyes.
How do I power my pathway lights?
Outdoor or pathway lights need to be connected to an electric power source, unless they are solar-powered. To do that, you can plug into an outdoor power outlet, hard-wire to a full 120V electric source, or install a low-voltage transformer.
In terms of safety, cost, and ease of installation, low-voltage lighting is the way to go.
Low-voltage transformers change regular 120V to 12V which is ideal for outdoor use because of the wet conditions. We all know that electricity and water are natural enemies!
You can bury the wiring for a regular electrical power system 18 inches deep or encase it in a conduit, but low-voltage systems can plug right into outdoor sockets. Then you just bury the wires under soil or gravel. Please consult with an electrician or outdoor lighting professional for guidance or installation.
If you are considering adding lights to your pathway, Zest Lighting has a wide selection for you to choose from at affordable prices. We ship them Australia-wide straight to the doors of your residential and commercial spaces, ready to be used as your next decorative and functional lights. Contact us for your inquiries.