February is the month of love, and at Coastal Outdoor Lighting, it will be love at first light.
With everyone spending more time at home, outdoor lighting has never been more trendy. As we dive into 2021 and look for safe ways to entertain guests, add additional security, and showcase some beautiful landscaping and architectural home features, it’s going to be the perfect time to look into outdoor lighting and what it offers.
Some of the top trends for the new year include pathway lighting, light fixtures that evoke bygone times or far away places, dock lights, and color-changing lights you can control with your smartphone, making it fast and easy to deck out your landscaping with reds and pinks for Valentine’s Day or switch to green in March to celebrate your Irish ancestry.
At Coastal Outdoor Lighting, our designers help our clients design outdoor lighting plans that not only enhance your outdoor entertainment areas but add a level of safety and ambiance to the darkest areas of your landscaping. Here are a few stylish outdoor lighting options that will add flair to any size home or yard in the new year.
Down Lights
Hanging die-cast aluminum or brass down lights along the top of your pergola can softly illuminate your comfortable outdoor living space. They also can be placed along the eaves of your home for a more subtle form of outdoor illumination. The benefit of down lighting is that it can mimic the way the moonlight plays over your landscaping even on a dark night, creating beautiful shadows of branches and leaves across your backyard living room. This helps evoke a more cozy and intimate Zen setting.
Path Lighting
A quick and easy way to add style and security to both your front and backyards is to install in-ground path lighting. Technology has advanced so much that homeowners can change the color of the lights installed along their pathways based on a specific holiday, the time of year, or their own personal whim. The lighting is subtle, so it doesn’t blind your guests as they wander through your garden during an outdoor gathering. The biggest benefit of in-ground path lighting is that your visitors won’t trip over them and your landscapers won’t have to trim around them to keep them looking tidy.
If you want to light your pathways but don’t want to replace your existing pathway, there are many styles of fixtures that offer curb appeal and safety. These fixtures are typically low to the ground, casting a small arc of light down onto your pathway. These come in many styles and can illuminate stairs as well.
Bronze is one of the most popular materials for pathway lighting because it can look both modern and traditional. It also can withstand Southwest Florida’s varied weather conditions. Black and titanium are also popular.
Dock lights
For years, dock lights were installed for purely safety reasons, but with more people seeking the outdoors for entertainment purposes, dock lighting has evolved to not only safely illuminate the pathway but to create wonderful nighttime fishing locations and enhanced outdoor living spaces. Docks aren’t just for boats anymore. With our outdoor dock lighting options, you can dim your dock lights when not in use, change their color, or add lights to attract fish at night. Many people have added outdoor living spaces to their dock, so soft lighting can be added on dock pilings or poles to illuminate these gathering spots.
LED Landscape Lighting Technology
At Coastal Outdoor Lighting, we use FX Luminaire’s Luxor Control System for our outdoor LED landscape lighting and outdoor lighting. With this system, you can illuminate different zones of your yard, dim the lights, or control the color of your lighting from your smartphone. Each zone in your yard can be pre-programmed into preset groups. Some can be at 100% capacity and others can be dimmed down a bit, depending on how the lights are being used. Choose from 30,000 different color choices. You can save 250 of these lighting choices in your system so that even when you are not at home, you can set your landscaping and outdoor lights to fit your mood, a special occasion, or even to show off your team colors during football, baseball, or basketball season.
If you are interested in taking advantage of the latest outdoor lighting trends, give Coastal Outdoor Lighting a call today. We provide professional design, installation, and repair for most every type of outdoor lighting product on the market today.