Creating Magical Outdoor Lighting Effects With Water in Raleigh

When outdoor lighting is added to homes, trees and plant materials near any type water feature, pond or pool, as a bonus to the feature itself looking stunning, the outdoor lighting will usually create a beautiful mirrored effect onto the surface of the water.

Give us a call today 919-518-9950 to see your home in a whole new light with outdoor lighting in the Raleigh NC area.

 

 

The Art of Outdoor Lighting in Raleigh NC

Nothing beautifies your home more than outdoor LED lighting. Low voltage LED lighting’s purpose is to unify your home and the surrounding landscaping into the evening hours. There are few things that will impact your home’s value and curb appeal better than a correctly designed and professionally installed outdoor LED lighting system.

The many advancements in today’s LED out lighting fixtures have made your choices even more attractive and can add long term value to your property.

 

When designing your outdoor lighting,we take into account your personal style and adapt your exterior environment to evoke a particular mood or place that is soothing to you.

Even modest homes or those with limited yards can benefit from outdoor landscape lighting.

You have a substantial investment in your home and homeowners are looking more and more to outdoor landscape lighting to increase their outdoor living spaces well into the the evening hours.

Call us today to get started with your outdoor lighting project ,the summer evenings are already growing shorter in NC

 919-518-9950

 

 

Working with an outdoor landscape lighting designer in Raleigh NC

Accent lighting,which is light gently grazing the surface of the stone, stucco, and brick will add depth and dimension your home’s architecture as well as showing the features. This home is a great example.

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Accent outdoor lighting such things as an arbor, fence a statue or structure and trees will give you a dramatic and attention-getting visual lighting effect, creating a lighting scene with a backdrop as well as mimicking moonlights natural effects.

Water feature lighting.

Illuminating a water feature, pond or pool combines 2 effects, you might have some trees or plantings near the water that will look interesting with up lighting. You also get stunning mirrored images on the water’s surface, creating dreamlike effects rippling across the water’s surface.

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Accent and illuminate a bridge over a water feature with outdoor lighting to highlight it’s features and create safety.

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Path way outdoor lighting will create a sense of security along stone pathways and lawn walkways as well as adding a hint of intrigue to plant beds and boulders along the way.

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Down lighting with lights placed up in trees shining thru the trees creates stunning shadows on the ground below mimicking moonlighting effects.

Patio and deck lighting will feature and accentuate all of the architecture, beauty and detail of your deck, patio, outdoor kitchen, hand railings, steps and more while creating safety.

Hardscape outdoor lighting brings out your stone features along with your outdoor kitchen, retaining walls, steps and more.

Call us Today 919-518-9950 Lite Visions Outdoor Lighting and Landscape Lighting Professionals Raleigh NC

5 Ways to Determine the Cost of Your Landscape Lighting

5 Ways to Determine the Cost of Your Landscape Lighting

By: Brandon Kuehler, CLVLT, COLD
http://blog.lightitright.com/blog/5-ways-to-determine-the-cost-of-your-landscape-lighting

When it comes to landscape lighting there is no standard cost structure – it is not a One Size Fits All world. Pricing of lighting can and does vary from State to State, City to City, and Provider to Provider – everyone uses something different and designs very differently than another. So when looking at landscape lighting and what you think the system of your dreams is going to cost take these 5 tips into consideration.

1) Quality of Materials

First and foremost – Quality of the materials being used by a certified lighting designer over a landscaper or handyman are going to be substantially higher and of higher and the warranties will meet the demands of these designers. Lighting designers have taken the time to increase their education in lighting and the differences in fixtures and their proper uses, LED options, quality installation methods, and have mastered the fine art of tricky installs. All of this training has taught designers how to spot a quality fixture over a cheap one and they prefer to use the best quality they can get to give their customers the experience they expect, and demand. Remember fixtures are NOT all the same – many are made of plastic or powder coated aluminum, and depending on the climate where you live those materials will crumble in a few years. For example, if you are in Houston, we have salt in the air from the Bay and that salt will eat away aluminum before you know it. You should be looking for fixtures made of SOLID brass or copper – those will withstand any climate and…..yardcrew!

Solid Brass FixtureSolid Copper Fixture

2) Design

Are you looking for something straight forward or something with more detail? Depending on the difficulty of the design and installation your cost will vary. If you are looking just to up light the front of your house and there are only flower beds in front, well for most certified lighting designers that would be considered a straightforward installation. Now on the other hand, if you are looking to up light the front of your house, driveway with concrete, backyard with waterfall lighting in your pool and fence lights around the whole perimeter, and then add some lights into your fire pit that would be trickier and take a true expert to install so expect the cost of that to be substantially more than the straightforward up lights.

LED Putting Green

3) Special Features

Do you have a Fire Pit? Waterfall? Fountain? Putting Green? If you do and you want to highlight them to be able to enjoy them at night that takes extra time, special lighting, and special installation techniques. The end result is beautiful, but does cost more than just placing a light in the ground as a fair amount of labor goes into making these lights look like they have been there all along.

LED Fire Pit Lighting

4) Concrete?

Do you have concrete in the way of where lights need to go to up light your house, along your pathway, do you want lights on your garage? Many think that because there is concrete present a light can’t go there….NOT TRUE! Now, is it easy – for a real professional lighting designer and their crew – YES! It does take a little more time but with the use of proper tools and experience, getting a light into already existing concrete is doable. Of course if you are in the process of pouring concrete and know you want lighting where it will be poured have your lighting expert get the prep work for your lights in before the pour happens, that will save you money and your lighting team time. NOTE: Not all lighting companies can do this – if you are quoted a “core” ask to see examples that company has done if they did not show you one at the time of your onsite meeting.

Core Lighting

5) Scale

How large of an area are you looking to add lighting too? Do you just want the front of the house for security? Looking to have soft lighting in the front and back? Do you have a pool, putting green, dog run? Is your yard on a small plot or are you on acreage? The size of your home, property, and your end goals will really give you a better idea of what your lighting system cost will be. If you are acreage you should expect to spend more than someone in a master planned community. If you go into your onsite meeting thinking OK for my 5000 sq foot house on 1 acre with a pool I should expect a quote for $2500 you are going to be very surprised and sticker shocked when your quote comes in. Now if you go into your meeting thinking I will be looking at about $10,000 then you will be close to the ballpark. But, if you are only looking for certain areas to be done let your designer know this up front so that they do not provide you a quote for everything – you may want to see everything quoted, but don’t do this because you will just be hurting yourself in the long run and wasting the designers time as you will then decline their quote since it was more than you wanted to spend – even though they did exactly as you asked, showed you EVERYTHING when you really only wanted the front yard.

Large Scale Landscape Lighting

Landscape lighting can cost you $2500 or it can cost you $200,000, it is all up to you and what you want done and want to spend. Keep these 5 tips in mind when you start searching for your lighting designer. Remember hire a certified lighting designer and you will get the best product, design, and service for the right price – this is an investment, not something you should be redoing every few years (read this article to learn how to find the right expert). Nothing is apples to apples and professionals are not going to compete with your landscaper or handy man on price or materials, and there is a reason why, we know what we are doing and it is all we do.

We Fix Outdoor Lighting Installed By Landscapers or Homeowners

One of the sad things in this industry is how many outdoor lighting manufacturers trying to push their products by giving a short class to landscape industry companies who stick lights in the ground and never come back to focus them properly and do not use good installation methods. Here are a few recent examples of what we fixed.

VOLTAGE PROBLEMS Outdoor lights getting 16 volts to a 12 volt light fixture and blowing bulbs on an old halogen system, we corrected the voltage and then installed all new LED lamps.

BAD WIRING  Outdoor older halogen system browning out due to getting only 8 volts to some of the lights, there was corrosion in many wire splices and poorly done wire connections. We fixed the voltage and now they have an energy efficient LED system.

NO MAINTENANCE, system not working due to tree roots damaging cables and lights actually growing into tree roots. We ran some new wires replaced fixtures and re-lamped with new LED lamps.

DIFFERENT LAMP TEMPERATURES, lamps had been purchased at several different chains and were not all the same color temperature or beam spreads. We took out and reinstalled all new same color temperature LED lamps and the system looks brand new.

WHITE LIGHTS ON CREPE MYRTLES : There are several different color temperatures of LED lamps, some DO NOT look right on certain trees. We installed correct color temperature lamps along with a filter and now the Crepe Myrtles look natural lit up at night.

A Lighting Designer is someone who understands the science of working with light and shadow,using a pallate of many different outdoor lighting fixtures,lamp types,different color temperature lamps for different purposes as well as different lamp beams and shields, filters or louvers to shield light from peoples eyes so they can see only the effect, not the source. He might only use one fixture from a certain manufacturer that does one thing better for the specific outdoor lighting job.

A customer recently called and asked if I could look at updating their older lighting system and that they were getting a quote from their landscaper also after telling him about their lighting interest, I said No Problem I can guarantee my quote won’t be as low as his but feel free to call me to fix the landscapers work as I do it all the time.

A lighting designer installs the outdoor lighting system correctly the first time, with the bulletproof waterproof connections that will not be a problem down the road. He also checks to make sure all the light fixtures are getting the correct voltage and comes back the evening after the lighting install to properly focus the outdoor lighting system.

As a Lighting Designer who only installs outdoor lighting , we stand behind our outdoor lighting installs and use the best-LED lamps available to the professional outdoor lighting designer,I have overheard pond people and landscapers talking about once they pickup their check they simply do not care how long the lights last.

We are a member of the Association of Outdoor Lighting Professionals, we are one of only a small handful of professional lighting designers in the NC area.

Please read our 5 star reviews on Google and give us a call about seeing your home in a new light

https://www.google.com/search?q=lite+visions+raleigh&oq=lite+visions+raleigh&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60l3.7727j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x89ac596758afaaab:0xe909f0828895089b,1,,,

919-581-9950

Creating a private escape in your own backyard

Magical Outdoor Lighting In Raleigh NC

Outdoor landscape lighting offers Raleigh NC homeowners an incredible chance to expand their useable outdoor living space well into the evening hours. Outdoor lighting can also add a magical view into the the landscape from the interior spaces. After working in the Live concert lighting industry as a lighting technician and lighting designer for most of my life,my transition into outdoor lighting design and installation was a very simple one. Painting the landscape at night with different outdoor lighting effects is not only something I enjoy but I also feel like I am leaving some of my creative visions for people to enjoy for many years to come. I love what I do and enjoy creating emotional responses from the people who appreciate my visions for their property at night.

Ambience is everything

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 I come from working in a creative field my whole life, I sometimes visualize things other people simply can’t. I feel I have been blessed with this gift.
Years ago when I talked to my mom about a privacy fence in the backyard she just said no way. After it was installed, the first thing her and my sister said was WOW, we never really noticed the plant material in the yard. Yes, I said, do you know why?
We simply took some material and created a backdrop for the plants that were already in place.
We sometimes do the very same thing with outdoor landscape lighting. Why would you have beautiful landscaping or hardscaping that you paid good money for only to have it all disappear in the evening hours? By using several different lighting techniques we create depth and dimension and pull your eye away from looking into your neighbor’s yard. Have you ever noticed a home with all the lights on inside? If your home has outdoor lighting, peoples eyes are pulled away from the inside lights when they see your home with outdoor landscape lighting. Let us create some outdoor evening ambience for you to enjoy tonight.
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a few of our recent outdoor lighting reviews

Outdoor Lighting, One of the Best Investments You Can Make in Raleigh NC

Outdoor Lighting is one of the Best Investments

a Homeowner Can Make

One of the fastest and easiest ways to boost your curb appeal and show off the beauty of your Raleigh NC home is to add outdoor lighting in the areas that will provide maximum impact. By highlighting the best features of your home, not only you can be sure it looks its best, even after night falls; outdoor lighting can also be used to show off the other investments you’ve made to improve your curb appeal.

Taking the time to properly light the exterior of your home can showcase your home and call attention to the features you love most, without making expensive changes to the structure of your home or yard.

Highlighting Your Home

with Outdoor Lighting

Some of the changes you make to the exterior of your home won’t even be visible after dark unless you highlight them with your lighting choices. outdoor lighting is one of the least expensive ways to boost curb appeal and makes a big impact on your home’s exterior. With lighting, you can pick out and highlight your home’s best features – while leaving those you’d prefer not to show off or that are in need of attention in the dark.

Home During the Daylight Hours

Same home with Outdoor Lighting providing Safety & Security

Show off Your Landscape Features

with Outdoor Lighting

The landscape, garden, even that beautiful statue or water feature will shine after dark if you highlight them with the right lighting. Exterior lighting enhances all the other improvements you’ve made and improves your home’s appeal, even after dark. By highlighting your improvements with up lighting,tree lighting and other lighting effects, you can be sure you get the most from your curb appeal investment.

Landscape Lighting Raleigh NC

Outdoor Lighting Boosts

Safety and Security

An investment in outdoor lighting does more than just make your home look great; by illuminating your lawn and yard you make your home a less appealing target to potential burglars and those possibly wishing to do you harm.

Lighting up the areas around windows and doorways and walkways can and will enhance the look of your home and boost your security as well.

Outdoor lighting is about more than crime prevention; by using lights to illuminate walkways and paths, you make your yard safe and easy to navigate. Your family and guests will appreciate being able to navigate the yard and reach your home without safely in the evenings.

Whether you want to enhance your curb appeal, show off the unique features of your yard and home or improve your home’s safety, outdoor lighting can help. Call  Lite Visions today at 919-518-9950 to find out how easy it is to make a lasting impression with the right outdoor lighting. We  can help you decide what you need to showcase your home’s best features and to give you peace of mind about the safety and security of your home, too.

Outdoor lighting installed on bridge over water feature and walkway providing safety in the evenings.

Call us Today 919-518-9950 Lite Visions Outdoor Lighting and Landscape Lighting Professionals Raleigh NC

Creating a private escape in your own backyard

Beautiful landscaping, a backyard patio area, and a water feature already highlight your backyard space. Perhaps even a walled privacy fence with some beautiful plant material in front of it. Could life be any better?
The answer is yes, with outdoor landscape lighting you cannot only enjoy that area into the evening hours, but with the right lighting, you can create your own personal backyard escape.
Imagine walking down your newly illuminated pathway with a glass of wine enjoying the moonlit effect heading down to the softly lit gazebo to chill out and listen to the crickets and frogs singing beside the now artfully highlighted bridge over your water feature.
You sit back, enjoy your glass of wine and ask yourself why you did not do this eight years ago. Life is good in your new private backyard escape.