Pathway Lighting Guides you Home
Pathway lighting is one of the first types of exterior lighting homeowners will attempt to install themselves. Drive into any neighborhood and you are bound to see several homes with a row of cheap, solar-powered stake lights along a walkway. Their intentions are great – they want to guide their guests with a safe way up the driveway or walkway to the front door. Unfortunately, homeowners are seldom pleased with the result of these cheap fixtures. The fixtures don’t put out enough light and to counter this issue, customers will often install path lights on both sides of the walkway creating a runway-type effect that is great for an airport but not for your home!
Pathway lighting done correctly can be very visually appealing and can create a safe, well-lit path.
Good lighting can reveal tripping hazards avoiding injury to you and your guests. It is especially important if you have steps or stairs on your walkway. Homeowners are often surprised that when installing a high-quality, LED path light, you need a lot LESS fixtures than you would think. Along a walkway, we recommend placing path lights in a crisscross pattern across the walkway. An example of this can be seen in the picture above where there is a light placed every ~4 feet going back and forth across the walkway creating a well-lit and safe walkway especially highlighting the step up in the middle. While safety is the most important factor in the design, this design is also visually appealing and allows highlighting of plants in the landscape beds.
Bollard Lighting
Another important point is that good pathway lighting doesn’t have to be accomplished with path lights. Maybe your space won’t work with path lights or maybe you are looking for a unique look. Landscape Lighting Guru can help you create a lighting plan for your exterior and can help you find the best way to light your walkways. Alternatives to regular path lights are these bollards which create amazing design and shadows to your space while also creating a safe walkway. These artistic and creative pieces look great during the day too!
Another alternative is to use surface mount or cored-in fixtures. These are often the best option on a long set of stairs or on a walled area. These small fixtures can offer a lot of light and can blend right into your stonework.
One of our favorite ways to light a walkway is with down lighting! If you have trees in the general vicinity of the walkway, placing downlights high up in the trees creates a subtle moonlighting effect that looks natural and illuminates the walkway.
