If you have a long or curved driveway, you might feel like it’s unsafe and difficult to navigate at night. But curved or long driveway lighting can pose its own challenges. You don’t want it looking like you’ve created an airport runway.
Often, when driveway light placement is in perfectly symmetrical rows, and when lights are too bright, it can start to look more like you’re trying to land a plane rather than just park a car. Over-lighting your Memphis home can not only reduce the overall visual appeal, but it can also create glare which can be counter-productive.
In this article, we’ll talk about how to light a long driveway so that you can make the best decisions for your Memphis home.
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What Makes Driveway Lighting so Important
There are some very important purposes that a driveway lighting design aims to achieve. In order to be truly effective, it should succeed in checking all of these boxes.
- Improved Visibility: First and foremost, good driveway lighting should make it easier to navigate the space. When a driveway is long or curved, it can be difficult for the driver (or even someone on foot) to see the end of it, and that can make it challenging. Great driveway lighting helps to naturally guide a vehicle down the path.
- Safety: Obviously being able to navigate a driveway properly is a safety issue. There’s a lot of different scenarios where things can go wrong when people can’t see what they’re doing. On a curved driveway, a driver could run off the path or into something. On a long but poorly-lit driveway, a driver might not see something in front of them that was left in the way. Plus, it’s not just driving but also walking that can be unsafe with poor lighting. You don’t want your driveway to become a trip and fall risk.
- Aesthetics: Well-done driveway lighting also contributes to curb appeal. A beautifully lit driveway makes the front of your home more aesthetically pleasing. A smart driveway lighting design will complement the home’s architecture.
Understanding Driveway Light Placement
Fixture placement has a lot to do with creating the right visual effect. As we mentioned in the beginning, when lights are in perfectly symmetrical rows, it tends to create more of that runway look that you’ll want to avoid.
Often, less is more when it comes to lighting, as long as your lighting designer is being strategic about placement. Spacing should be adjusted based on driveway width and curves. Lights also generally look better staggered than mirroring one another on each side, though this might depend on the exact design.
The height and angle of the light beam will also be critical when it comes to avoiding glare. It’s always important to protect driver visibility and to avoid positioning lights so that they are pointing into drivers’ eyes.
The best ways to avoid glare include:
- Shielded fixtures
- Proper beam spreads
- Correct fixture height
- Warm color temperatures
- Avoiding direct line-of-sight into light sources
Different Forms of Driveway Lighting
We find that homeowners commonly think of two main ways to light their driveway. They think of one big spotlight that they hope will light everything up (but often tends to be glaringly blinding) or they think of a bunch of lights in a row.
But there are so many different and more creative ways when it comes to considering how to light a dark driveway.
Directional Lighting
Directional lighting involves placing lights that are shining on to a driveway, even if not installed right alongside it. With this form of lighting, you don’t necessarily even see the source of where the light originates from. Rather, you just see the light itself. It’s a lot more subtle and helps you to avoid that airport runway look.
Often, directional lighting becomes part of a layered lighting strategy that combines more than one lit area. The lighting used for your landscape and architecture can also shine over toward the driveway and ensure it is lit for effective navigation.
Downlighting
If you’ve read any of our other articles or seen our work, you probably know that we love using downlighting in landscape lighting designs. This involves shining the light from above (just as the name implies). In the case of lighting for a long driveway, it can be a really effective way to avoid that runway style look of having all the lights in a row.
When you use downlighting for a driveway, you’ll be able to see where you’re going when pulling into or out of your driveway without having lights shining in your face. This is one of our top ways to light a driveway when it’s possible to do.
Core-Drilled Marker or Other Built-in Lights
Another form of lighting involves using lights that are built into the driveway itself. These lights help people see where they’re going or what’s ahead. It’s like a subtle guide, pointing to what is ahead.
While built-in lighting is not going to be enough to light an entire driveway, it can be an added strategy on a curve or on a long driveway that helps to achieve your lighting goals. If you happen to have a retaining wall along the driveway, built-in lighting also helps ensure people don’t accidentally run into it.
Driveway Entrance Lighting
The entrance to your driveway might have some special features that warrant consideration as you make decisions around lighting your driveway. If you have a long driveway, you might have one of these features that can be lit in a way that makes your entrance even more appealing:
- Columns
- Stone walls
- Gates
- Mailboxes
- Trees
- Boulders
- Statues
- Address markers
The opening of your driveway is a great opportunity to boost your curb appeal with attractive lighting that makes your home even more welcoming. There’s also a security factor with a well-lit entrance as it makes your home look occupied, even when someone isn’t actually there. This can deter unwanted visitors to your property.
Special Considerations for Curved Driveway Lighting
So far we’ve mostly focused on long driveway lighting, which is where the runway effect tends to frequently occur. But curved driveways pose their own challenges. The shifting angles that occur as a person moves through the space does make a curved driveway more difficult to properly light. There can be hidden edges and awkward lines to work with on a curvy driveway.
Some of the considerations to keep in mind include:
- Following sight lines rather than pavement edges: This helps the driver to look ahead at where they’re going rather than just following the pavement edge. This is important as curves can be misleading when only the edges are lit. This also reduces the “runway effect” since even curved driveways can look bad when there are too many lights in a row. The goal should be to emphasize curves naturally.
- Guide drivers through bends: The main objective of curved driveway lighting must be to guide drivers through the curves as naturally and safely as possible. Sometimes light spacing has to be adjusted for perspective, such as going through tighter curves.
- Using landscape features to soften transitions: The landscaping around your curved driveway can be helpful when it comes to lighting, helping make the space feel brighter and also easy to navigate without solely relying on a bunch of lights in a row. A lighted landscape can provide visual context for navigating the shape and direction of the driveway. Be sure to illuminate vertical elements like trees, stone walls, and shrubs, particularly if they line the driveway or are located very close by. This helps to create important visual landmarks.
FAQs About Lighting Long and Curved Driveways
How do you light a long driveway without making it look like a runway?
The biggest consideration is to avoid using too many lights and having them all in a row. There are many other lighting techniques that can be used. Plus, less is more when it comes to lights. A lighting designer will know exactly how many lights to use and how bright to make them.
Do lights need to be on both sides of the driveway?
Not necessarily, but this is hard to answer as every driveway is unique. It’s important that your driveway lighting design is customized specifically for your property. The goal should be to provide visual direction, not to have perfectly symmetrical lights.
What makes lighting a curved driveway challenging?
The change in direction is the biggest challenge with curved driveway lighting. The lighting should help a driver anticipate the curve.
Choosing Professional Driveway Lighting in Memphis
To truly get the most out of your driveway lighting design, it’s important that all areas of your property are considered.
The key to your success will be working with a landscape lighting professional who is skilled at handling driveway lighting, even when it’s complicated due to being long or curved. You have options, so it’s important to do your research. It’s a big decision but when you choose wisely, you’ll gain peace of mind that you’ll be happy with the results.
At Mid South Outdoor Lighting & Audio, we know that outdoor lighting is more than just something that “looks nice.” While there’s no doubt it will add tremendous aesthetic appeal, it also brings functional value by allowing you to get more use out of your space.
When it comes to lighting up your driveway, it’s essential that every detail is considered. These are critical areas of your property and the lighting should help enhance them both aesthetically and functionally.
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.
