3 Outdoor Accent Lighting Options

No matter the size or complexity of your landscaping, outdoor accent lighting is used to highlight certain architectural and stylistic features of your home's exterior, lawn and garden. Accent lighting is not flooding an area with light. It is the artistic placement of light that creates atmosphere without being garish. Much of what is done to adorn an outdoor space with light is designed to imitate the soft, warm glow of the moon, casting shadows yet illuminating select features of those objects caught in its gaze. Necessary to the aesthetic placement of accent lighting outdoors is an artistic eye and a philosophy of natural sparseness. 

3 Accent Lighting Ideas for the Outdoors

You have many options for accent lighting, from solar post lights to recessed walkway lights and everything in between. Consider some of the following ideas.

Uplighting

A nice way to illuminate attractive trees, shrubs and architectural fixtures is to use ground lighting that shines upward, an accent known as uplighting. Conically-shaped ground accent lights produce a glow from the ground up. As the light expands out it softens. It need not be glaring, but it should have enough wattage to provide delicate yet visible illumination. Ground lighting should not be placed where it is danger of being trod upon by either feet or lawn tools. Remember, too, to hide the source of the lights if at all possible. Ground light fixtures are made to be unassuming, but if you can stealthily position the fixtures behind obstacles, all the better. 

Path Lighting

If your lawn and garden contain a pathway of some kind, whether it's flower-lined, surrounded by decorative foliage or simply winds through the lawn, lighting up the path with soft solar lantern lights or recessed lights creates both a lovely atmosphere as well as a measure of safety. The one catch of using solar lights is that they must be completely exposed to the sunlight during the day in order to recharge. Either that, or they must be part of a set connected to a single, large solar panel that sits in the direct sunlight. Recessed lights are partially buried in gravel or mulch, creating a warm glow that defines the features of the path so you don't trip over pavers or steps. Lantern lights hung on small stakes create a similar glow, but they are higher off the ground. In addition, lantern lights are contained in decorative fixtures, so there is no need to hide the source. 

Downlighting

A lighting style that produces the opposite effect to uplighting is downlight: illuminating surfaces and landscape features from the top down. Downlighting overlapped with other accent lights when they shine down, up or along surfaces help to make shadows appear softer in the dark. Downlighting is especially when the source of the lights is concealed. Place the lights in a tree or along the roof of a gazebo or arbor.

There are numerous options for outdoor accent lighting that can help to turn your outdoor landscape into a softly-glowing nighttime panorama. Outdoor accent lights help with security as much as flood lights, but they are not nearly as obtrusive. Consider what you have to work with then start exploring the options.