Navigational Lighting

Custom Landscape Lighting

There are many reasons to consider installing a custom outdoor lighting system. Architectural lighting will highlight the architectural features of your home while landscape lighting will highlight hardscape and softscape features of your property. Exterior lighting can also provide an additional layer of security for your home and make outdoor living spaces more usable and inviting after dark.

Exterior Navigational Lighting

Today we’re focusing on navigational lighting – outdoor lighting that facilitates safe navigation throughout your property. Navigational lighting can be as simple as installing a few path lights along the sidewalk leading to the front entrance of your home. Other situations, where ground lights are not an option, may require more strategic placement of lights in trees or mounted to other structures like trellises and pergolas. We also encourage lighting steps, stairs, and areas surrounding patios or decks that can be hazardous after the sun goes down.

The options for navigational lighting are vast and can dramatically affect the aesthetics of the different areas of your property. We’ll walk you through a few of the options we offer using some of our previous projects.

LED Path Lights Day & Night

Path lights are a beautiful addition to any sidewalk or path! Not only do they facilitate save navigation, but they also add a little extra pizazz to your walkways, day and night!

Traditional Path Lights

Traditional path lights are quite versatile and work with almost any type of path. From basic sidewalks to stamped concrete and pavers or even stepping stone paths, traditional path lights provide the perfect amount of light for navigation as well as ambiance.

Lighting Steps with Path Lights

Path lights can also be used to illuminate steps. They look especially beautiful when the steps are surrounded by landscaping beds!

Low Profile Path Lights

In situations where the path or steps do not have an adjacent landscaping bed, we like using a lower profile path light like the Rainer Path Light pictured below.

Creating Curb Appeal with Path Lights

Think beyond safety. The goal of a well-designed lighting system is to create depth and interest with light. When combined with architectural lighting and accent lighting, path lights provide the bottom layer of light necessary for a beautiful and balanced lighting design.

Deck Lighting is Navigational Lighting

The purpose of deck lighting, besides creating ambiance, is usually to facilitate safe navigation from one area of the deck to the other. The most common options for deck lighting are post lights and undermount lights. Post lights are usually circular or half-moon shaped and mount directly to the posts of deck and stairs. While post lights make an obvious design statement and are appropriate in certain situations, recently, we’ve seen more and more homeowners lean toward the less conspicuous undermount light. Undermount lights are small lights that are mounted under the railings. These lights are becoming the preferred option because the light source is hidden which makes the design more timeless.

Of course there will be certain situations where undermount lights are not a viable option and this is when lighting designers can get creative. In the example below, the homeowners wanted to illuminate this unique section of stairs for safety reasons. The undermount lighting we used elsewhere was not an option because the railing was too high. After some discussion we ended up with a small halfmoon light mounted lower on the post to illuminate just that section of stairs. (Shout out to our amazing Limelight installation crew! They are masters of hiding wires and flawless installation!)

Moonlighting for Navigation

Moonlighting is a specific type of downlighting that simulates natural moonlight. Fixtures are typically mounted high in trees to allow the cooler light to shine through the branches and leaves and gently illuminate the ground below. We specifically recommend moonlighting in areas that need low-level lighting such as driveways but they can also be used as navigational lighting when path lights and ground fixtures are not an option.

Outdoor Lighting Design and Installation

Navigational lighting is one type of outdoor lighting that may be best left to the professionals. Sure, anyone can pop a few solar path lights along their sidewalk, but, unfortunately, solar lights tend to give off less light than LED path lights. This can be a problem, especially as the lights fade over time. With a little extra cost upfront, you can have a professionally designed and installed LED outdoor lighting system that is energy efficient and will last for years to come.

Every outdoor lighting project is unique! Consider hiring an outdoor lighting contractor that has the knowledge, skills, and tools necessary to install the fixtures that will work best for your home and property.

Looking for an Outdoor Lighting Contractor in Charlotte, NC?

At Limelight, outdoor lighting is all we do. We offer design, installation, and maintenance services and would love to help you design a system that lets you make the most of your landscape — day and night.

We are a fully insured, family-owned company with a passion for well-designed outdoor lighting! Furthermore, we understand that client satisfaction is the key to our success, and we enjoy working with our clients throughout the process to deliver an outdoor lighting system that fits their vision and budget.

Getting started is simple.

Call Limelight Outdoor Lighting at (704) 989-3635 or follow the link below to get a FREE quote for your landscape lighting project.