We spend a lot of time trying to make our houses look nice. Hedges trimmed, grass mowed and the porch swept, we don’t need pressure from the Homeowners Association to keep our home looking fresh. We just like keeping our space pristine.

I mean really, who feels good about pulling into the driveway of a house with a dilapidated sweeping porch and a sun-bleached lawn? The answer is no one. There’s a reason we all like having new, nice things—it just feels right. When you work long hours and sacrifice some of your weekends, you deserve to come home after a long day’s night to a space that’s modern and clean. Otherwise, why are you working so hard?

Once the summer ends and dusk hits at 5 o’ clock, pulling up to a house swallowed by darkness is going to make working those late hours a pain. Not just that, but you won’t even get to sit out and relax in the backyard, something that’s become one of your nightly rituals. It doesn’t have to be this way. All it takes is some imagination, outdoor lighting and a little elbow grease to make your outdoor space a retreat.

Get Lit!

Have you ever seen a beautifully manicured yard go to seed because the owner wasn’t willing to splurge for exterior lights? It’s such a waste. A finely designed landscape shouldn’t “go dark” once the autumn and winter months hit simply because we’re too cheap to install some outdoor lighting. Let’s look at three outdoor spaces that you shouldn’t think twice about bathing in light.

When in the process of deciding whether or not to go with installing outdoor lighting (though you already know you should), SFGATE  recommends that homeowners consider the following four things in their landscape lighting endeavors.

– Appearance

– Functionality

– Personal Safety

– Home Security

How else can these four things be categorized? As advantages. Exterior lights improve the appearance of our homes, make those stairs less perilous to navigate in the dark and keep vandals at bay.

Lighting up our exteriors will bring attention to the architectural details of our home and dress up our landscape. Besides, what suburb doesn’t appreciate when their residences add some curb appeal to the neighborhood?

Highlighting Trees

Do you remember watching Snow White as a kid and being terrified of those spooky trees? The forest was way less scary after the Snow White’s harrowing night. Maybe this is why you don’t like going outside after dark: the trees just seem too ominous. Highlighting your trees with ground or mounted lights will bring out the arbor’s strong features and make your landscape look more pronounced. In highlighting or backlighting the trees and shrubs on your property, you are adding an element of flair and character to the surrounding space.

Dressing Up a Flower Bed

How many hours have you spent down on your hands and knees planting, weeding and fertilizing your prize-winning azaleas? Countless no doubt. Doesn’t it seem a shame that they’re not on show 24/7? Better Homes and Gardens tells us that a trick to implementing opulent outdoor lighting is through framing our flower beds. Rope lighting can be easily molded around the space and fitted with special gardening accoutrements for a soft, opulent glow.

Lighting the Garden Path

We can’t truly enjoy our nightly garden walks if we can’t see where to take that next step. The American home improvement outlet, This Old House, recommends that we overlap and layer our light sources to create a gentle pooling effect using low-voltage lighting fixtures. This will light the path while providing for a lovely visual aesthetic.

Who knew that dressing up our home after dark was as easy as lighting up a few key areas?

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