Outside Lights for More Than Just Security

Maybe it is just me, but people seem to decorate more and more each year for Halloween. It is not just a few ghosts and goblins, but elaborate displays utilizing large arrays of outdoor lights, carved pumpkins and ghouls of every kind imaginable. I suppose it is just a product of people's fascination with the use of outdoor lighting for everything imaginable. I will admit that the lights do draw my attention to people's homes and I notice the architectural and landscaping features on the property that would otherwise go unnoticed during the nighttime hours.

In the past, with the exception of Christmas, outdoor lights were used primarily just to provide some security for people's property. The lights now guide us through some extremely beautiful landscaping and along the paths and walkways which lead to some gloriously well lighted entry ways. I am sure that in addition to the striking appearance this lighting presents, they are installed to add a safety element to the property as well. Where most homes built prior to the last 25 years or so utilized straight walks and driveways, more recently constructed homes utilize winding paths that change elevation and meander through various displays of high value landscaping. In order to prevent guests from becoming injured while approaching their homes, property owners utilize this outdoor lighting practically as well as for its attractiveness.

However practical these lighting themes may seem, you know they are installed primarily for the way in which they enhance the property. If it were just a matter of safety and security, I bet the way many of the lights shine up through the trees and against the house would be either altered or eliminated all together. Once these outside lighting plans are in place and all the landscaping matures, some of these properties truly take on majestic like appearances. Their outside lights are surely much enhanced when compared to the homes I was accustomed to growing up in the 1960s and 1970s.