As landscape lighting professionals, we firmly believe that vacation homes need and deserve outdoor landscape lighting just as much as full-time residences do. There are even instances were vacation properties require landscape lighting even more than your primary residence. Here are the top four reasons to install landscape lighting at your home away from home.
#1 Turn Your Outdoor Space into Entertainment Central
When you travel to your vacation home, you generally replace your laptop and cell phone with a margarita and a spatula for grilling. After all, vacation homes are built for prime relaxation and entertaining. Thus, it’s essential to install outdoor lighting to maximize your outdoor entertainment space. Whether it’s your primary residence, your summer home, or your vacation getaway, landscape lighting becomes a must. In fact, the No. 1 fastest growing area in our industry is outdoor living space. Homeowners like you are investing a great deal of time and money into outdoor kitchens and living rooms, dining areas with fire pits, wet bars, pools and water features, koi ponds, hardscape patios, wooden decks, pergolas, and other recreational areas. (We could keep going on, but we think you get the idea!) The results are always stunning, but the space becomes unusable at night without the proper outdoor lighting. As a general rule of thumb, lower level light fixtures work best to create usable outdoor living spaces. Additionally, creating separate zones for certain tasks or moods is another key factor to consider. Giving homeowners the flexibility to turn some lights on or off or even dim certain areas while brightly illuminating others is a desirable feature for landscape lighting. For instance, an outdoor kitchen may need to be lit up while cooking for safety and to grill food properly, while the patio or dining area may be a little darker to create a more laid-back mood.
#2 Make Intruders Think Twice
Landscape lighting is one of the most effective ways to prevent trespassing and theft.
The thing about a vacation home is that you may not always be there to make sure it is secure. So, what do you do to make sure intruders keep walking? Install landscape lighting as your first line of defense. An excellent way to create a secure environment is to light the border of a property—in addition to many other molecular design and installation details—to dissuade trespassers from even stepping onto it.
Outdoor Lighting Adds a Sense of Confidence and Comfort
The other thing about vacation homes is that they are sometimes in remote or secluded areas. This can make homeowners feel a little uneasy after watching a scary movie and they hear something spooky rustling in their pitch black backyard. A vacation home is about relaxation, not added anxiety. This unwanted and very unneeded stress can all be eliminated with the installation of outdoor lighting. Along this same line of thought, another key factor regarding security is the ability to see all areas of your property from the safety of your home through windows and doors. Unfortunately, it’s common to see only your reflection when the lights are on in your house. This is known as the mirror effect, and it isn’t the most settling feeling when you’re trying to look outside when you hear something unusual. A professionally installed landscape lighting system eliminates this effect and helps homeowners feel more comfortable in their vacation home tucked away from neighbors and society.
#3 Keep Everyone Safe & Happy
We’ve all been there—you’re having a great time with your party guests and they may have one too many drinks at your Fourth of July get-together, or the kids are running around playing a spirited game of manhunt in the backyard. It’s one of the best parts of owning a vacation home: Having fun with friends and family. But, it’s important to keep everyone safe when enjoying themselves in your outdoor space. When we refer to safety, we’re talking about homeowners and their guests’ ability to safely navigate your property—to clearly see any obstacles or landscape features that could cause harm—stubbing a toe on a natural rock feature, tripping over or walking into an ornamental statue, rolling an ankle on a cobblestone path, or falling to a pond or pool. This can be particularly dangerous when dealing with over-celebratory adults or unattended children. However, many of these scenarios can be avoided by illuminating walkways, landscape features, elevation changes, slippery bluestone patios, and of course, pools and water features. This keeps everyone safe, having a great time, and ready to come back year after year to make it an annual tradition!
#4 Winning Style Points & Staycation Beauty
There’s certainly a reason why you have a vacation home: To take a load off and to escape everyday living. This could mean taking a leisurely swim in your pool, sipping on a cocktail as you watch the sunset, reading on your patio with your Sonos sound system playing soft tunes in the background, or finishing up an afternoon on the slopes and lighting up the firepit for s’mores and hot cocoa. And all those amenities should extend to or transition flawlessly into night time living. The point of a vacation home is that “staycation” vibe of being able to enjoy all these little luxuries no matter the hour from the comfort of your home. Adding landscape lighting achieves this goal effortlessly. It also amplifies the beauty of your space—highlighting your carefully curated landscape design—and helps homeowners like express your personality with custom lighting design. Light can add drama, warmth, and many other emotions. It’s all customizable to your vision.
Home is Where the Light Shines
As you can see, installing landscape lighting at your vacation home can be a very rewarding investment. It can help keep you and your guests safe, your home secure, and your property prime for entertaining and making memories. With that said, we leave you with one final thought: Home is where your light shines brightest.
