Just because daylight has a limited number of hours doesn’t mean you should limit your time outdoors. You can extend your enjoyment of your landscape through the careful selection and installation of a landscape lighting system. Outdoor lighting surrounding the walkway within your Yorktown, NY, property would enhance the landscape in a variety of ways.

Directing the Eye

Outdoor Lighting Yorktown NY - Enhance Your Walwkay

Any changes you make to your landscape should enhance the appearance of the property, no matter what time of day. Outdoor lighting will maximize the curb appeal of the home at night as well as make a lasting impression your guests and anyone who rides by your house in the evening hours. With outdoor lighting lining the walkway leading to your front door, you’ll direct the attention of onlookers to where they need to traverse as well as the fine materials you have chosen to create your walkway. You could extend the lighting scheme to highlight well-defined trees within the yard, a water fountain, or some other focal point—the point is to bring attention to your landscape’s best features.

Indicating Direction

By lining a walkway with outdoor lighting, you make it easy for visitors to know the designated areas for walking and see where to go. Think through where guests are likely to wander and consider whether lighting is needed there. The walkway leading to your house could be well-lit as if it were a magical welcome for those who venture toward your home’s front door.

Ensuring Safe Walking

Lighting is not only for aesthetic reasons but for safety as well. Well-lit walkways prevent falling or stumbling in the dark. Part of being a homeowner is considering the steps necessary to welcome guests safely, so upkeep of the grounds and proper illumination is key.

Consider the Steps and Adjacent Walls

Any stairs and walls near your walkway could use illumination as well. These common landscape features are necessary for multi-level grounds, erosion prevention, navigation, and aesthetic reasons. Every one of your steps could have its own light; up close, your stairs lighting would prevent stumbles in the dark, and from afar, the outdoor lighting on your stairs will create a particular mood and glow. Seating or retaining walls could use string lights to designate their borders and set a tone for the adjacent area, while uplights could call attention to beautiful masonry work. Outdoor lighting certainly offers both aesthetic and functional benefits.

Add Post Lights

Your walkway can be perfected with the addition of a balanced scheme of post lights. These standing lights will nicely complement your landscape’s walkway. Make sure that they remain balanced by placing them in pairs along the walkway.

Highlight Nearby Landscape Features

If you have plantings near the walkway, think about highlighting them at night, for an interesting effect. The leaves will create their own shadows that shift in the breeze.

Keep the Light in Balance

The effect that landscape lighting has on your walkway and surrounding areas should be just one aspect of an overall nighttime landscaping plan. You’ll want to make sure that the lighting applied to the walkway remains balanced in context to the overall landscape. Experts in outdoor lighting can take a big-picture view of your landscape to ensure that everything will look appropriate—and beautiful—at night.