Tips on Using Floodlights to Enhance your Outdoor Living Space

Floodlights are not just used for sports fields, recreation centers or other huge public spaces. Some types of floodlights are designed for home use, such as for security or landscapes. Floodlights are often used to illuminate a broad area though there are more focused kinds used for stage lighting. They range in a wide variety of fixtures. Floodlighting can be used in a home’s outdoor area to highlight architectural structures, enhance security and more. Typically, they are placed low and directed upwards. Find out how you can make the most of this type of lighting to improve your outdoors.

One is not enough

Floodlights are not meant to stand alone. They are excellent combined with other lights for layering or balance. You can light up your front entrance then add washes of light across it to highlight the architectural features of your home. Floodlights work well as down lighting for pathways or flowerbeds and up lighting for some garden trees.

Keep it balanced

Balance is important even in lighting, especially if your aim is to enhance the look of your home from the outside. It is not proper to flood the walls with light. You only use floodlights to illuminate a broad area and create a night-time effect in a symmetrical pattern. Consider using narrower beam angles to emphasize vertical features and wider angles for horizontal structures.

Choose the right fixtures

There is a wide range of floodlights available in the market today, and you can surely fine one that perfectly suits your need. The style might not be your priority if the lights will be hidden, so go for high performing bulbs such as LEDs. The fixture should fit where you want to place it. In addition, if the space is a high traffic area, you can consider in-ground lights to avoid them being trampled.

There are compact floodlights ideal for lighting bushes, garden beds and low walls. You can also use fixtures with replaceable lamp beams that can widen differently and are suitable for up lighting wide bushes. Typical rectangular floodlights perform well as up lighting for trees in your garden, too. LED floodlights are an outstanding choice for security flood lights for less energy consumption.

Where to use floodlights

Floodlighting is applicable to house sidings to create shadow effects and provide the right contrast to light or dark or silhouette effects when projected behind a plant. Wall mounted floodlights can also be used to illuminate second floors when placed on the edges of roofs or gutters. Floodlights can also be positioned near plant bases. Mount these lights on the wall if you are lighting your deck, sitting area or patio.

Floodlights are powerful, so choose the right brightness that minimizes glare. There are fixtures that have glare guards to address this issue. Artistic floodlighting is essential if you want a tasteful, polished outdoor area. Do not just pick out a couple of floodlights and install them outside your home. Choose the right blend of lighting for subtle washing and not just floodlighting to beautify your home.