The first step in landscape lighting design  is to determine what exactly you want to illuminate. One of the most common sites for lighting placement is along driveways and walkways. This provides excellent visibility for these high traffic areas in low light conditions. You should also consider adding lights around the perimeter the house, or using directional lighting to light up dark doorways. This type of accent lighting helps make your home look more attractive and also enhances its security. Another popular location for lighting is at the base of trees, along flower beds, and around swimming pools. Lighting these locations allows you to highlight the different areas of your yard and helps to draw attention to its natural beauty.

When it comes to lighting hardware, there are two main options available to homeowners: LED’s or incandescent bulbs. LED’s have certain advantages over traditional incandescent blubs. They offer a longer life span, burn cooler, and are more durable then their incandescent counterparts. However, because of their technology, LED systems tend to be more expensive in their initial cost when compared to an incandescent system. This cost, as well as long term maintenance costs, needs to be considered when deciding which type of system to purchase.

Most of the lighting systems available today are designed for easy self installation. Installation can be as simple as individual outdoor landscape light that use a built in rechargeable battery to power the unit overnight. One drawback to a solar system is that the battery cells tend to lose their strength over time, which results in lights that gradually grow dimmer as their charge dwindles.  Westinghouse solar landscape lights are a popular product in this sector of the market.

A more common, and inexpensive, self installation systems are Hampton Bay landscape lighting products which include a low voltage system that uses a power converter that plugs into an existing outdoor outlet. This system works well for small lightning designs because the number of lights is limited by the capacity of the converter.

To add more lights to this system, you simply purchase a larger capacity converter. If your lighting design plan calls for an elaborate layout, you may want to consider hiring a professional electrician to install a 120 volt system that would operate off of your homes’ electrical system. If you are thinking really big then you really need to be considering contacting a professional landscape lighting business to help plan and install your outdoor lights.

Landscape Lighting
Candles may be romantic -but they are certainly not pracitcal or safe for lighting your outdoor patio! Instead you need to consider an outdoor landscape lighting scheme which will will be both practical and enhance the area. A popular option is low voltage landscape lighting becasue this type of lighting can be installed easily by an amateur and does not require a sophisticated outdoor power setup. Even easier, and a green alternative, is solar powered landscape lighting – this is particularly useful for lights that are only required for a few hours after sun-down – which is often most of your external lights. Although not that bright, solar-powered lights can be adequate for paths and border illuminations.

Outdoor Furniture
When it comes to outdoor furniture there is a bewildering range of choices – but its probably best to start with the larger pieces and decide an overall look for yoru outdoor space – just like you would a room inside your home. Modern outdoor furniture comes in every style from resin wicker furntiure, to solid teak furniture to cheap and cheerful plastic outdoor sets. Outdoor dining furniture are often the center piece of a patio area and you probably want to spend most of your budget on a good quality dining set. An outdoor bar and BBQ are also popular additions to your outdoor room.

Outdoor Furnishings

Just like rooms within your house you can soften the look and make the outdoor space more inviting by using outdoor furntiure cushions and indoor outdoor rugs.  Choosing the right fabric is critical particularly if you keep these items outdoors all the time. Another option is to have a storage unit or trunk for cushions where they can be stored when not in use and protected from the elements- particularly the sun which will fade bright colours quickly in many parts of the country.  If you are going to leave outdoor seat cushions in place all the time you should ensure that they are wind-proof and tie them firmly to the chairs so the wind doesnt’ rearange them for you!