10 Landscape Lighting Ideas For The Front of Your Yard

One of the first things visitors will see when they come over is the front of your home. You want to make that first impression count by creating an inviting and welcoming ambiance.

The lighting you use for your front yard can have a big impact. You can emphasize your home’s best features and draw people's attention to the landscaping of your front yard.

We created this guide on lighting ideas for front yards to inspire you to beautify your home. Read on to discover our 10 landscape lighting ideas for your front yard.

1. Front Door Lights

There are aesthetic as well as security considerations for the proper lighting of your front door. The security considerations are rather straightforward; people who try to break into homes will avoid well-lit areas where passersby could easily see them.

From an aesthetic standpoint, your front door lights should provide illumination that adds to your home’s general design and highlights its architectural features. 

Lighting fixtures like lanterns and pendants are perfect for entryways. Similarly, you could illuminate your front door by placing our directional CAST Classic Niche Light in the eaves above your porch.

The type of lighting as well as the bulb you choose are crucial to setting the right mood. For example, while cool lighting with incandescent bulbs brightens the entrance, a warm light bulb can create a friendlier mood.

2. Home Exterior Lights

Exterior lights are great for showing off your house’s architectural details. Wall and wash lights can cast a soft glow around your home.

Wash lights will illuminate nooks and crannies around your house where shadows gather. Meanwhile, you can mount wall lights around your deck and above stairways. You can highlight the interior features of a pergola with wall lights, too. 

You can use wash lights to light up large sections of the exterior of your house. You can place them at ground level to provide upward lighting or hide them in the eaves of your home for downward lighting.

There are many types of exterior lights to choose from. Our CAST Mini Flood Wash Lights are beautiful and versatile and can help accentuate your home’s key exterior features. 

3. Path Lights

Path and walkway lights are fixed along the pathway to the front of your house. They help illuminate the path from the road to your home, which is useful for both you and visitors. 

People coming to your house at night should have adequate lighting to guide their path to prevent trips and slips. No one enjoys walking in the dark.

The common practice is to install pathway lights along both sides of your pathway. However, you can also install them among plants or any other area you would like to feature. After all, pathway lighting and step lights come in various shapes and sizes.

If you want to mount your lights on a fence post, stone wall columns, or capstones, go for lights like the CAST Classic Small Mushroom Canopy Mount Area Light. 

Alternatively, opt for larger path lighting, like the CAST Classic Large China Area/Path Light, to light pathways, driveways, garden beds, and steps.

4. Staircase Lights

There’s a good chance you have some stairs on the path to your home. You might even have stairs from your garden to your porch or deck.

If your house’s exterior steps are a vital feature, it makes sense to use staircase lighting. Staircase lights can be fixed on walls, beside stairs or vertical surfaces, or recessed into the walls or the ground.

Staircase lights will give your visitors a warm welcome into your home. There’s also a practical side to this common lighting type: navigating stairs in the dark can be dangerous. The illumination provided by staircase lighting reduces the chance of people slipping.

5. Garage Lights

If you have a garage, it’ll undoubtedly be a prominent feature of the front of your home. So why not use lighting to highlight its exterior? There are many ideas to consider.

Many homeowners use recessed lighting to light up their garages and garage doors. Recessed wall lights with a wide beam will give the perfect glow that will blend with your garage’s style or design.

We offer a range of recessed light fixtures that are suitable for illuminating your garage. For example, Recessed Up Lights and Recessed Mini Narrow Spot Up Lights are popular among homeowners.

You can also use floodlights that face the garage for illumination. However, if you choose this approach, ensure your floodlights don’t create a glare that could blind you when entering or exiting your garage.

6. Ground Lights

Consider installing ground lights if you’re landscaping the front of your yard. 

Ground lights create a soft glow highlighting plants, flower beds, tall trees, and other outdoor fixtures in your garden. They bring out your front yard’s beauty and add a touch of elegance to your house’s overall aesthetic.

Like path lights, ground lights can also illuminate walkways or pathways. 

CAST offers a range of ground lighting features. For example, we have the Craftsman Series Bronze Ground Lights and the MR-16 Well Lights. You can place these light fixtures in turfed or landscaped areas of your yard.

7. Deck Lights

A deck can be your property’s most prominent feature. Chances are you’ll be relaxing on the deck in the late afternoon or enjoying a meal or a drink with friends or family in the evening. That means deck lights are necessary for your house.

There are various ways you can illuminate your deck. We covered this topic in detail in our recent article 10 Outdoor Lighting Ideas to Beautifully Capture Your Deck. 

You can use spotlights, well lights, uplights, deck lights, recessed lights, and downlights to highlight the exterior of your home.

Deck lights will provide just the right illumination so you can enjoy your deck regardless of the time of day. Deck lighting will also help you highlight a beautiful feature of your home.

8. Underwater Lights

If you have a front yard with a stream, a waterfall, or an artificial pond, you can use strategically positioned lighting to highlight your water features. 

There are various types and designs of underwater lights that will work perfectly for your front yard.

The SOURCE by CAST Underwater Light is a great option to light up your water features at night. In addition to making your grounds more visually appealing, underwater lights can help you avoid accidents. 

Good lighting is even more crucial if you have young children who like to run around your front yard in the evening.

9. Landscape Lighting

When considering lighting ideas for your yard, be sure to consider security. After all, that’s the number-one role of lighting. You want to know your property is well-lit at night to keep intruders at bay.

Landscape lights will remove shadows and illuminate your front yard at night, making it less likely that unwanted guests will approach your home. Landscape lighting can also be a great way to illuminate the front of your home tastefully. 

10. Spotlights

Spotlights are a great way to show off the landscaping of your garden or your home. While floodlights cast wider beams that are excellent for illuminating large areas, spotlights cast narrower beams. 

You can use spotlights as garden lights or landscape lights to highlight trees, plants, and other parts of your front yard. They’re also excellent for illuminating the exterior walls of your home.

It’s a great idea to be strategic about the positioning of your spotlights. For example, consider focusing the spotlight’s narrow beam on a tree in your yard or an ornament. A professional landscaper or lighting professional can help you create a landscape lighting plan.

Be sure to use spotlights selectively. They are a type of accent lighting, after all.