How Many Landscape Lights Do I Need? A Practical Guide for Memphis Homes

If you’re thinking about adding outdoor lighting you might be wondering How many landscape lights do I need? Thinking about what areas you want to light before meeting with a landscape lighting designer can play a big role in guiding the process.

In this article, we’ll help you understand what factors impact the number of lights your Memphis property needs and what you should be thinking about before hiring a designer.

We’ve put together this Memphis landscape lighting guide to answer a lot of the commonly asked questions around adding lights. At the end of the day, we want to help you make smart choices that will set you up for success.

Jump to:

• Is There a Standard Number of Landscape Lights for a Yard?

• Why More Landscape Lights Isn’t Always Better

• What Determines How Many Landscape Lights You Need?

• Examples of Areas That May Need More or Fewer Fixtures

• Why a Professional Lighting Design Starts With Goals, Not Fixture Count

• Get the Right Number of Landscape Lights for Your Memphis Property

Is There a Standard Number of Landscape Lights for a Yard?

No, there is not a standard number of landscape lights that is needed for a yard.

When it comes to how to plan outdoor lighting, the correct number of lights is going to be different for every property. There are a variety of factors that come into play when determining the right number of lights in landscaping.

The goal for landscape lighting should be to create layers of light. Not all areas of the property need to be illuminated evenly. But it also boils down to what effect you’re looking to have and how you’ll be using that space.

Why More Landscape Lights Isn’t Always Better

More lights does not always add up to better lighting. That might sound contradictory, but we’ll explain.

For one, too many lights can actually create glare and light pollution. You want to be able to see where you’re going or what you’re doing when you are outside, but you don’t want to be in a space that is overlit.

When too many lights are placed close together, particularly on a path, you also run the risk of harming the aesthetics. This can create what looks like an airport runway instead of an attractively lit walkway. You’re just trying to safely navigate your property…you’re not trying to land a plane!

Instead, the best outdoor lighting designs focus on quality, placement, and balance as opposed to the total number of lights.

In the landscape, you don’t want to light up every single tree and shrub. Instead, you want to focus on illuminating strategic areas and highlighting architectural features. And when it comes to lighting up an outdoor living area, the focus should be on how the space is used. The brightest lights should be in areas where you’ll be cooking and preparing food.

What Determines How Many Landscape Lights You Need?

When it comes to how many landscape lights you need, there are some key factors that will come into play.

The Size of Your Space

One of the biggest factors in determining the number of lights is the size of the space that you’re lighting up. Oftentimes, a bigger space will need more lights. But that’s not always the case since it also depends what type of scene you’re trying to create and how you use that space.

For instance, a patio area might be a smaller space than a side yard that perhaps you just want lit up for security purposes. Since you want your patio to be functional it might need a lot more lights.

The Purpose of Your Space

How you’ll use your space is also important, particularly in an outdoor living area. In these types of spaces it’s not just about making everything look nice, it’s about making the space functional.

Do you need to light up a kitchen area and be able to see what you’re doing as you prepare food? Will you be serving meals in a dining area where people also need to be able to see what they’re eating? Or, is it more of a chill spot, like a fireplace area, where you want just the right mood lighting.

The nice thing about high-quality lighting installed by a lighting professional is that your lights can also be controllable meaning you can set different “scenes” for different situations (even in the same space) by controlling the brightness.

The Type of Lighting You Desire

There are also different types of lighting like security lighting, architectural lighting, and landscape lighting.

In other words, the lights themselves also serve a purpose. If you’re just lighting up the architectural features of your home for curb appeal that’s going to need a different number of lights than if you are lighting up your landscape to use at night (like we talked about above).

A single property might have multiple types of lighting in different parts of their yard. It’s important that you’re working with an outdoor lighting professional who can offer you customization in your lighting design with these different lighting applications.

Examples of Areas That May Need More or Fewer Fixtures

Your home is unique and how many landscape lights you need will be dependent on your exact property. But there are going to be some areas that tend to require fewer light fixtures and others that will require more.

Here are some common examples.

Areas that May Need More Light

• Walkways and driveways: These areas need to be safely navigated in the dark and having enough light will be critical. Walkways (particularly long or windy ones, or ones with steps) can be trip and fall hazards. And driveways need to be navigated both on foot and in vehicles.
• Outdoor living spaces: These are spaces that need to be highly functional, particularly if there is an outdoor kitchen or cooking area. You need to be able to see what you’re doing so more light might be necessary.
• Mature trees: If you have a Memphis property with tall, mature trees, they may end up needing more light than a property with smaller or ornamental trees.
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Areas that May Need Less Light

• Narrow or short paths: If you have a really simple or short walkway, it’s probably not going to need as much light. In fact, this is an area where people often go wrong with too many light fixtures. Pathways are the most likely spaces to be overdone. As we’ve mentioned, you don’t want to turn it into an airport runway.
• Small landscape areas: If you have small trees and shrubs or minimal landscape areas, you probably won’t need a lot of light fixtures to highlight them nicely. These areas can be strategically lit in an attractive way without overdoing the lighting. If landscaping is more compact to just certain areas, that’s going to require a lot less lights than a property that has expansive and spread out landscaping. Of course, it also depends on how much you want to actually light up. Not all landscaping features need to be lit.
• Modern home designs: Clean, architectural lines in modern home designs look better with simple and fewer lights.
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Why a Professional Lighting Design Starts With Goals, Not Fixture Count

Landscape lighting for Memphis homes is so much more than just a fixture count. The truth is, more is not always better. As we’ve discussed in several sections, overlighting your property with too many fixtures can actually make it less appealing.

It can also contribute to glare and light pollution, making it harder to see and defeating the purpose.

Ultimately, you want to work with a landscape lighting professional who is focused on your goals as a homeowner.

• What are you looking to light up?
• How do you plan to use your property?
• What will add the most aesthetic value and curb appeal?

The answers to these questions are going to differ for everyone. If you’re not working with a landscape lighting company that is taking a customized approach like this, there’s a problem. It shouldn’t be a cookie-cutter process.

It should be designed specifically for you and your home.

Get the Right Number of Landscape Lights for Your Memphis Property

We know that it can be easy to get caught up on a certain number of landscape lights.

But in reality, you should be less concerned about the number of lights and more concerned with what you’re trying to achieve.

Why are you thinking about adding outdoor lighting in the first place? You want to make sure that all of your wants and needs are being addressed.

It’s that critical information that will help your landscape lighting professional to create the perfect outdoor lighting design for your home. That means a design that is both custom and original for your property.

When you work with the best landscape lighting services in Memphis, you can feel confident that you’re going to be happy with the end result. That also means not worrying about the number of lights but instead just enjoying how the entire design comes together.

Are you ready to create a secure, functional, and beautiful property at any hour of the day? If so, let’s meet and discuss some bright ideas.