How to Include Landscape Lighting with Your Pool or Outdoor Water Feature
So you’ve made the exciting decision to install an outdoor pool or water feature on your property. Before you grab your swimming goggles and dive into the planning, take a look at landscape lighting projects to include in the water feature’s design sketches. You see, lighting should never be an afterthought. Installing one while being mindful of the other allows you time savings and a future headache of rewires, missed fixture opportunities, and (worst of all) project tear down and redo.
Landscape lighting adds drama, beauty and security to your home’s pool or water feature in the evening. When you’re installing water-related products into your property, follow these steps to enhance the look of this investment.
Draw Out the Landscape
It’s standard practice to sketch out a blueprint of an outdoor landscape space.
When you, or your professional designer, is sketching, be mindful of the size of the space, key structures, safe walkways, trees, foliage, existing and dreamt decor, existing light fixtures, and the water feature. Get these all down on paper or in a technology system and then highlight the main focal points that attention should be drawn to. If you don’t know what these points should be, hire a trained professional to help you.
Now that you have these points sketched out, you can start drawing in light fixtures and logistics.
Where to Place Landscape Lights Around a Pool
Most professionals illuminate steps, walkways, walls, water features, patios, seating areas, plants, statues and decor, gardens, and landscape perimeters.
Light Fixture Options
Path and area lights are ideal for illuminating walkways for safety and welcoming guests along a trail. Often these are 12-24” off of the ground, but a trending application is coring fixtures into the concrete so the light fixture is a mear ½” above grade.
Spotlights are adjustable features that are perfect for precision. You can angle them up or down onto various features to create different ambiences onto pillars, tree trunks, art pieces, and more.
Wall wash lights create even splashes of light across wide areas like hedge rows, evergreens, walls and fences.
In ground lights (Well Lights) are great for convenience because they can be walked or mowed over without being affected. They shoot lengthy trails of light up into the air to illuminate tall structures and trees without creating glare.
Moon lights (Down Lights) are placed at the top of high structures & trees that cast light over a specific feature or large area. Typically clients like having the option of the ‘Moon-Lighting’ effect or a brighter light for functionality, these fixtures will be installed with a dimmer or variable color options to create the desired output.
An installation that is unique to pool settings is torches. These should be used with caution. Open flames are naturally a fire hazard. There are many electric, battery, and solar-operated torches that you can use as an alternative to an open-flame tiki torch.
String lights aren’t used as much for lighting as they are for ambiance. Fairy lights are a beautiful addition to a pool area when suspended in the air or wrapped around planters and pergolas
Post Lights are making a comeback! And they’re not grandma's coach light designs either, the updated post mount fixtures are modern, sleek, and full of flexibility. These fixtures add terrific usable light and often look like a piece of art!
Run the Wires
As you’re laying out the water feature’s plumbing, electric wiring, and logistics of your water feature you can run landscape lighting’s wire and power supplies at the same time.
Create an Ambience
If you’re still feeling confused about how to create the proper ambience, think about a resort pool. They’re cast with subtle and attractive lights. They avoid harsh, runway lighting on their walkways. Sometimes, they’re even illuminated by colored lights. This will create an added layer of drama and emotion.
Illuminate the pool area and then some. Deploy lights onto features surrounding the water. Showcase attractive trees and gazebos. Give yourself control of the lights with app-controlled sensor set ups. Give yourself peace of mind by installing automatic timers.
Enjoy Your Water Feature
Now that you’ve installed a water feature or pool into your landscaping and it’s properly illuminated, it’s time to dive in and enjoy this beautiful investment.