Tag: Lighting

You’ve got a beautiful home, and complementary landscaping which can be enjoyed year-round. How do you showcase these assets? The best way to display your property and surrounding land is to add illumination.

Aesthetic landscape lighting is a wonderful way to accent your home and grounds, provide safety to walkways, entrances and to your property overall, as well as increase the total property value.

With low voltage LED lighting, home illumination systems have become easier to install, use, and maintain. Most systems are custom designed around your particular needs rather than a one-size-fits-all system and are often paired with smart home systems. These systems can be controlled with apps and timers, and can be set for different seasons, and events.

Why Light it Up?

There are several great reasons for adding lighting your home and landscape. First, you’ll be able to add visual interest by highlighting architectural features and points of interest in your landscape, like flowering trees or a water feature.

Lighting your outdoor spaces will allow you to enjoy your property longer in the day and into the evening; you won’t have to head indoors when the sun sets, and you can use more of your property when it’s well illuminated, instead of some areas being dark voids in the periphery.

Security considerations should also be taken into account when contemplating landscape lighting. You can illuminate doors and windows, making it easier for your security system to capture clearer images. Strategic lighting also gives the appearance of someone being home. And, by illuminating pathways and walkways, you can insure safer passage around your property for family and guests alike.

Why Low Voltage LED?

Low voltage LED systems are primarily used in home lighting systems because they’re safe and cost-effective. With low voltage systems, there’s little chance of shock and the installation is quicker and easier. You can install an LED low voltage system on your own, as it’s relatively easy to learn, but for a larger home or a complex system, we suggest hiring a professional installer.

LED fixtures and bulbs use very little power, so the impact on your electricity bill won’t be as great with a low voltage LED system. The bulbs also last longer, so you won’t have to replace them as often.

LED lights come in a wide variety of colors and lenses, so you can design the lighting that works best for you and your home. The days of hot, bright floodlights are over! You can highlight some areas, have other areas softly illuminated, and of course, dimmers and timers on lights can be installed wherever you deem necessary.

Low voltage LED lights don’t get as hot as regular lights, even when they’ve been on for several hours, so they won’t add to the heat during the hot summer nights, nor will they affect any plants you may have surrounding them. And LED lights reduce light pollution, as the light they cast is more focused than regular bulbs.

How Should You Get Started?

After deciding to add lighting to your property, the first thing you’ll want to do is to create a landscape lighting plan:

First, decide what you want to light or showcase. Include any or all doors, windows, garage doors, pathways, and sidewalks to and from your house. Are there any areas in your yard or landscaping to which you’d like to draw attention? Flowering trees, decorative shrubbery, fountains and water features are popular choices, as are beaches, pools, and retaining walls.
Select the appropriate lighting techniques. Most plans have a good mixture of several techniques. You can: highlight a feature; create shadows; place a light a few feet away to “wash” the object in light; uplight or downlight with more directed beams of light; “moonlight” an area by placing a feature high up in a tree or light pole, and have soft light come down on the area; light up your path with lights running alongside walkways and drives; and place lighting in surfaces themselves, like stone walls or steps.
Choose the fixtures, bulbs and accessories that give you the desired effect. Again, this should be a good combination of several different items customized to your individual needs. Choices include spotlights, path lights, wall mounted lights, lights with motion sensors and/or dimmers, ground lights, and hanging lights.
Connect it to your smart home system and apps and set up a schedule for daily/nightly use, as well as vacations or other times away.

At Stephens Landscaping, we can work with you to create a lighting plan and install low voltage LED lighting systems that will fit your property’s needs and unique aesthetic. To get started, give us a call at 603.707.0630 or email info@stephenslandscaping.com.

The holiday season is upon us! While New England can look perfectly picturesque under freshly fallen snow, you can add to the charm of the holidays and winter season by adding a festive touch to your home—both inside and out.

No matter what holidays you celebrate, you can add a cheery charm to your home by bringing a little bit of the outside indoors with thoughtfully designed pieces of décor and a comforting, warm glow through your lighting design. Home exteriors and landscapes can look beautifully luminous decked out with greenery and a mix of ribbon, berries, twinkle lights, with loose boughs or arrangements in varying sizes.

This time of year, when the leaves have fallen from the trees and there may (or may not yet) be snow on the ground, the lack of color can be a bit, well, dull. The easiest way to bring color and a bit of nature into and around your home this holiday season is to decorate with fresh greenery.

Decorating Outside

Wreaths and baskets on a front door are traditional holiday décor, but you there are many ways to customize these items to make it your very own, and better fit with your home’s design and surrounding landscape. Of course, you can match the ribbon to your door color, add a ribbon of your family’s tartan, hang a wreath or basket with your family’s name written on it or on the hanging ribbon, use two or three smaller wreaths or baskets instead of one large one…there are many possibilities!

The outdoor entrance lights installed next to the front door are great places to hang wreaths or garlands that match or complement the wreath on the entrance, as are any lamp posts that flank the walkways around your property. Adding large bows to the greens can add a nice pop of color to your outdoor space.

A beautiful way to illuminate your home for the season is to weave weather-resistant, battery-operated light strings into wreaths or garlands that are hung on the outside of windows. They’ll bring a festive glow to your home and the surrounding landscape for the holidays. Adding window boxes filled with mixed greens, red berries, ribbons, and tiny lights are another way to include your windows to your holiday decorating plan.

Indoor Décor

The holiday season is a social season. It’s the time of year when we spend the most time with family and friends, with many people hosting or attending parties and open houses. It’s the perfect opportunity to decorate your entire home from top to bottom, and the possibilities here are almost endless. Every room can get into the holiday spirit with a little greenery and accent lighting.

The kitchen and dining room are great places to incorporate some greenery-based décor. Garlands strung with lights and intertwined with fruit and berries look great on top of kitchen cabinets and laid out across tables, extending from holiday centerpieces. Sprigs of greens, berries, and pinecones tied to chair backs add a festive touch to a dining room. And, arrangements of all shapes and sizes can complement your aesthetic.

In other parts of the house, garlands surrounding artwork, mirrors, and fireplaces can add a pleasant focal point to a room. Small arrangements interspersed with statues and/or candles and lights, and thoughtfully placed on bookcases, tables, and bureaus add to the overall charm of your holiday décor.

Candles are an indispensable part of many holiday celebrations, and it’s easy to add a bit of greenery and colored ribbons to candelabras to match with your family’s observances. Candles create such a warm glow adding a holiday ambiance to a dark winter’s evening.

And finally, kissing balls are a traditional holiday favorite, and can be used in both indoor and outdoor designs—they look great hung on a doorway lintel, from a chandelier, above a fireplace mantle, in front of a mirror, and outside near a front door, on a porch, on a driveway light pole, or even on a mailbox.

Getting Creative

At our Garden Center in Moultonborough, we have greenery and arrangements ready for purchase. We’re also happy to work with you in designing something that’s just right for your home. You can also bring in your own planter or container, and we’ll create a stunning piece for you. If you’d prefer something already premade for your home or for gifts as you visit family and friends this season, we carry many beautiful arrangements of varying size and design from which you can choose.

Our new holiday hours at the Garden Center are: Monday through Saturday 9 – 5, Sunday 10 – 3 from November 22 – December 24. Please call the Garden Center at 603.677.9100 or reach out if there’s anything in particular you’re looking for or would like custom designed by one of our creative team members. And, of course if you’re in need of assistance preparing your landscape for the holidays or winter ahead, let us know. We’re here to help!