Landscape lighting trends

Lighting can enhance any landscape by extending the amount of time people spend in outdoor spaces, highlighting unique features, adding ambiance after dark and safely illuminating tripping hazards.

With so many outdoor lighting options to consider and so many types of fixtures to choose from, consumers rely on experts to steer them toward the right system for their space. This requires contractors to stay up on the latest lighting design trends and technologies, so they can recommend the best solutions.

Here are some of the biggest trends in outdoor lighting right now, with a look at the sales tools contractors use to upsell landscape lighting.

Smart controls. The most obvious lighting trend of 2018 is the advanced technology that allows property owners to control lights from a smart device.

“One of the biggest trends in residential lighting projects is smart app automation,” says Ty Rosser, lighting designer at Landscape Lighting Pro of Utah. “People can just log into their accounts on their phones to program their lights, rather than having to depend on a timer or control system inside their transformer.”

“Smart technology is becoming extremely popular,” says Faulkner Bell, founder and president of Bell Outdoor LLC, a landscape design/build firm on St. Simons Island, Georgia. “The convenience of a mobile app allows people to (access) more customized settings than a typical transformer.”

Read more from our September issue here.