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Rustic Outdoor Lighting Enhances Your Great Outdoors

May 29th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Perhaps you’re looking for a relaxed, informal, natural style in your outdoor décor. Using rustic outdoor lighting is a good way to create a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere in your outdoor areas. Lighting can go a long way to set the mood for your outdoor living areas, so you want to be sure to match the right style of lamps to the concept.

Setting the Rustic Mood with Lighting

When you use rustic outdoor lighting you are working to establish the feeling of being outdoors in the country – of being in nature where you can feel relaxed, casual, comfortable and secure. This can be a wonderful concept when using lighting outdoors. Rustic outdoor lighting is supposed to be down to earth, friendly, and simple - kind of like being at home on the farm, or at the campground under the stars.

You’ll want to use old fashioned looking lamps, nothing shiny or bright looking, or overly matched and identical.  Dull-finished metals, earth tones, iron, wood, are good materials to start with.  Rustic outdoor lighting calls for lamps that complement the scenery and décor without standing out.  Nature-themed lights and lamps, featuring pictures of trees, bears, deer;  or incorporating natural elements such as antlers are all very popular.  Light intensity should not be overly bright, yet warm and inviting.

Choose Rustic Outdoor Furniture to Complete the Look

You want to follow through on the nature theme by combining your rustic outdoor lighting with outdoor furnishings and accessories that match it, such as rustic deck chairs or rough-hewn benches you can relax in. You may also want to use plants to enhance the rustic feel. Success with rustic outdoor lighting comes when you achieve consistency with both your lighting schemes and outdoor furnishings.  You can have the feeling of camp and country in your backyard.  Kick off your shoes and unwind with your new rustic outdoor lighting.

Light Up The Night, Tastefully, with Outdoor Lighting

May 16th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Here’s a great article that talks about using outdoor lighting to artistically highlight and enhance your home’s beauty, define and illuminate outdoor living spaces, and enhance your property’s safety.  Outdoor lighting is so much more than just lining your walk or driveway with lights.  Think about a beautiful outdoor chandelier hanging in your gazebo or porch for nighttime dining or socializing. Or lovely downlighting to enhance your deck and stairs.  Used correctly, residential outdoor lighting doesn’t have to be garish or invade your neighbor’s privacy.  It can make your home a more beautiful and visually exciting place.

Outdoor Solar Lighting: Earth-Friendly Illumination

May 14th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Outdoor solar lighting does two important things.  It brightly illuminates outdoor areas for security and safety; and does so without consuming excessive energy.  The expense of lighting large areas around a home or business could add up very quickly, but huge costs can be avoided by using outdoor solar lighting.  Thanks to recent advances in technology outdoor solar lighting is more practical, affordable and stylish.  Lighting designers and electricians are responding to increasing demand for lights that do not consume huge amounts of energy and are environmentally friendly.

Outdoor solar lighting collects energy drawn from the sun, converts it to electric power and stores it for later use.  Solar lighting can illuminate shadowy areas around a home or business, deterring thieves and vandals.

Outdoor Solar Lighting Is Attractive and Affordable

The use of solar energy has been possible for many years, but there was not a great demand for this type of energy due to expense and appearances.  In the past, solar energy collection required huge, expensive and unattractive panels that detracted from a property’s appearance. There have been many efforts to provide solar energy without the unsightly, bulky devices used to collect the sun’s energy.  Lamps and light fixtures powered with solar energy were not attractive either because there weren’t enough consumers interested in energy conservation or using renewable energy.

People nowadays are more aware of and sensitive to the environment and energy costs.  Technology has advanced to lower the costs of solar. In response, home improvement and hardware stores are now full of many attractive solar lighting fixtures that work effectively and efficiently.  There are striking outdoor solar lighting fixtures that look like beautiful lanterns.  Some outdoor solar light fixtures have very attractive modern shapes that produce a beautiful lighting pattern on the surrounding area.  There are other outdoor solar lighting fixtures designed to be unobtrusive, blending in with the surrounding environment.  You should now be able to find many solar energy lighting fixtures to illuminate your outdoor living areas.

Outdoor Stairway Lighting: Safety After Dark

May 13th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

There’s a style and type of outdoor stairway lighting available to match your landscape and stairway type.  Many decks have been added to homes over the years and some of them are in areas where lighting is difficult to place. Adding outdoor stairway lighting to your deck’s steps increases their safety; and can make your deck more welcoming.

The amount of light you want for your stairs will determine the type of outdoor stairway lighting you add. For some, a bright pole-mounted light installed near the steps will suffice. For others, lighting fixtures mounted on an adjacent wall, or in the stair risers, is more aesthetically pleasing.  Yet others will opt for miniature flood lights that illuminate two or more steps at a time.

Supplying a power source for outdoor stairway lighting may be difficult in some cases, if not impossible. If running electric lines proves too difficult or expensive, solar-powered lamps may be used. They are simple to install and require no knowledge of electricity. Sensors direct them to come on during the evening and shut off during the day while the solar batteries recharge. Just place them where illumination is needed and turn them on.  Another option to consider is fiber optic lighting.  Fiber optic has the benefit of adding color choices to your light options.

Keep Power Costs Down With Automatic Sensors

You can have your lights connected to a conventional on/off switch, or an automatic sensor.  If you don’t have solar powered lights, having your outdoor stairway lighting connected to an automatic sensor can save money on electricity. Having them turn on at dusk and off at daybreak can provide the light you need, when it is most needed. A timer can also be used to have stairway lights come on and turn off at preset times.

Flush-mounted lights fitted into the stair risers are popular; but call for carpentry skills as well as knowing how to wire them in. Installation of this type of outdoor stairway lighting is usually left to professionals, as electrical problems may occur if done incorrectly.

Short, lamp-style fixtures can be used for your outdoor stairway lighting if it’s a better match for the landscape. Whatever style you choose, you, your family and guests will benefit from outdoor stairway lighting.

Fiber Optic Outdoor Lighting: Color Options Enhance Your Home

May 12th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

Lighting a fountain in an outdoor pond or the spray from a vertical pump in your pool is easy with fiber optic outdoor lighting.  Color choices can quickly be made to change with the seasons. Imagine being able to change your fountain’s color to alternating red and green for Christmas; or to a red, white and blue theme for Fourth of July. Your home can be the envy of the neighborhood with the decorative options available to you using fiber optic outdoor lighting.

One of the biggest advantages of fiber optic outdoor lighting is the lack of electric power running through the installation. Fiber optic cables are simply run from the light source to the destination. The cable itself reflects the light from a source such as an LED or other illuminator. So there’s no electric current involved to create the potential for short circuits or fire and there’s no heat involved, which is especially safe when running the optical cables through a wall or under water.

In addition to lower installation and maintenance costs over time, fiber optic outdoor lighting offers the added benefit of being able to change colors in an instant. Most are tested in extreme hot and cold weather and can provide lighting options in otherwise inaccessible outdoor entertaining areas.

Installation of fiber optic outdoor lighting should be well thought out as placement in bright sunlight or near high ambient lighting can make the optic light appear washed out and nearly invisible. The color of the light you choose can help with visibility.  More cable strands can increase brightness; and the length of different cables running from the same light source can affect the brightness of each strand. Fibers come in glass or plastic. You may wish to choose plastic because of its lower cost and flexibility in bending and cutting.

Outdoor Deck Lighting: Create the Perfect Ambience

May 12th, 2007    Subscribe To Our Feed

More and more people are transforming their backyards and decks into chic and comfortable outdoor living spaces that are extensions of their homes. And one of the most relaxing ways of unwinding after a long and hard day’s work is to be able to pull up a chair and sit outside enjoying cool evening breezes. Illuminated by appropriate light fixtures, outdoor deck lighting can turn your private deck into a warm and appealing place to hang out.

You Can Have Wonderful Ambience, But Not At Your Neighbor’s Expense

Outdoor deck lighting, properly planned, creates the ideal relaxed atmosphere. You have the choice of mounted lights on deck railings, or flush lights mounted on the deck. You must, however, ensure that your outdoor deck lighting does not infringe on your neighbor’s garden or yard, which would detract from your setting, and may also spoil your privacy.

There are a number of low voltage fixtures to choose from. You can get a contractor to install them for you, or you can do it yourself. If you decide to go with a DIY project, you may want to get hold of a few design manuals and select the best lighting materials required for your deck’s layout as well as for the environment you’d like to achieve. In many cases, the deck is simply an attachment to the house. In this case, all you need to do is to harmonize the outdoor deck lighting with your home’s exterior.

If you intend to use your deck for entertaining as well as relaxation, you should account for that use in your outdoor deck lighting plan. You shouldn’t have any difficulty in finding many ornamental as well as practical outdoor deck lighting options to fit in with your outdoor design and budget. If you are careful enough to choose the proper outdoor deck lighting you should find great satisfaction in expanding your living space outdoors for the evening and thus find greater enjoyment and relaxation.

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