Outdoor Lighting Buying Guide

What do you want your garden lighting to do?

Before buying outdoor lighting, you'll need to decide what you intend your garden lighting to do. If you have pathways and driveways to illuminate, you'll need mushroom or tiered lighting to light the path. But if you desire to play up the architecture of your home or certain plants in the garden, uplights, downlights and sconce lights may be more of what you need.

What is the overall effect you want from your garden lighting: romance, landscaping or safety? Your needs will determine which outdoor lighting styles you choose. You may also choose several for all exterior areas of your home and garden.

Garden decor lighting

Lighting for decoration adds to the value of your home and will illuminate the areas where you gather with family and friends even as the sun goes down. They can make any patio or garden a romantic place filled with interest, perfect for gatherings.

Mushroom lights: Add ambiance to any area of your garden with mushroom lighting. Mushroom lights, also called scoop lights, are usually mounted on stakes or posts. They have a mushroom- or scoop-shaped hat, hence the name. The hat helps reflect and spread the light over the ground, instead of in people's faces. They are great for the garden, steps and pathways.

Tiered lights: Similar to mushroom lights, tiered lights are shaped like a pagoda and mounted on stakes. They're more decorative, with several layers of tiered hats. Deflecting light back toward the ground, they are great for walkways. Tiered lights are also known as louvered lights.

Sconce lights: Perfect for areas with large wall spaces, sconce lights can light the way. Add a sconce light fixture to outdoor stairways, on large blank exterior walls or anywhere you want to bring attention to the architecture of your home. Sconce lights are sometimes called eyelid lights and are wall-mounted.

Recessed lights: Light up your patio or deck with recessed lights. Recessed lights are mounted on or buried into the deck. They will give light upwards from the floor area and are usually mounted at the sides of built-in benches, stairs and low walls.

Landscape lighting

With landscape lighting, you can show off your garden, lawn and all the interesting features that make it a beautiful yard.

Backlights: Also known as uplights, backlights are mounted on the ground to give a sense of depth to your landscape. Backlights are often placed behind plants or other objects and shine up at the object. Cast shadows on a wall or highlight a grove of trees. Backlights should be hidden from view and aimed at whatever you want to draw attention to.

Downlights: The opposite of backlights, downlights are intended to cast light down onto an object and give a natural lighting effect. Downlights should also be hidden from view.

Path lights: Including mushroom and tiered lights, path lights should be covered on top and only light the ground. Path light lighting is subdued but just bright enough to light paths for visibility.

Security lighting

Security lighting brightly lights a large area of your yard for safety. Security lights are made to discourage trespassers and provide enough light to safely maneuver in the dark with your car or while walking. Make sure you aim your security lights onto areas that may need a bit of extra protection. Aim them at the garage, side yard and backyard, but make sure they are not aimed at neighbors' windows. Look for security lighting with sensors or timers. Timers will automatically turn security lights on and off at certain times of the day. Security lighting can also be used to give you light to finish working outdoors after the sun sets.

Floodlights: Fill your yard with light from a floodlight. You can continue working long after night has fallen or you can include a timer or sensor to deter trespassers, including animals.

Spotlights: Also very bright, spotlights can be used for landscaping purposes as well as security. Draw attention to a large tree or use with a motion sensor to trigger spotlights if an area is breached.

Garden lights: Any garden lights that keep light to the ground can be used for security. If you live in a nature area near a wilderness or mountains, install garden lights to identify animals in your yard. Garden lights will let you see if raccoons or skunks are in the yard so you can keep your pets inside.

Specialty outdoor lighting

Illumination shouldn't be limited to decks, patios and walkways. Light your water features with underwater lamps; give trees, bushes and gazebos twinkling style with stringed lights; have a fête with party lights and garden lanterns. Specialty lighting is usually a temporary addition to your outdoor lighting, but some can be mounted permanently so you can always enjoy the atmosphere made by these versatile lights.

Underwater lights: Popular for pools, ponds and spas, underwater lighting can add a lot of style and safety to your home. If you have a swimming pool, spa or other swimming area, you should add underwater lights permanently. Fountains and fish ponds can be lit temporarily or as the weather and seasons allow.

Party and string lights: Paper lanterns, twinkle lights and even outdoor Christmas lights can add fun outdoor lighting options to your yard and home. String twinkle lights in trees or bushes for parties or other celebratory events for subtle yet festive lights. Paper lanterns can be used to give your parties a theme or to add color to your lights.

Garden lanterns and garden torches: Garden lanterns can be hung from trees, shepherds' hooks or placed on tables. These romantic specialty lights can use battery power, candles, liquid or gel fuel or solar power to operate. Garden torches can be mounted on stakes, like tiki torches, or on table-top stands. If you want to add garden lanterns or garden torches to your outdoor lighting, don't forget the fuel: tea lights for lanterns and liquid or gel fuel for torches.

Creating the right atmosphere

Placing your outdoor lighting and using the right power source are just as important as which lighting to buy. You want your lighting to accent, not overpower, your yard. For path lights, space evenly along the path every few feet, depending on how bright your path lights are. Try to avoid overusing spotlights, downlights and uplights, since an overuse can ruin the effect for which you are aiming.

The intensity of your lights will also make a huge difference. High-powered low-voltage lighting is a great choice for most landscapes. They are bright enough for many areas of the garden but low-voltage lights are more compact with smaller light bulbs and fixtures. The smaller size means you can hide them within the landscaping so they aren't visible during the day. Low-voltage downlights and backlights would be ideal, since these lights are meant to be out of sight.

Whichever garden lighting you decide to add to your home and garden, you're sure to give yourself and your family a sense of security and a place to relax after the sun goes down.

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