Desert landscapes blend nature's beauty with sustainable principles, offering limitless options for visually stunning and eco-friendly designs. They are growing in popularity, especially in areas with a hot and arid climate. An outdoor landscape lighting design can enhance these landscapes, allowing your clients to enjoy the space at all hours of the day or night.
This week’s blog post offers guidance, tips, and tricks on how incorporating outdoor landscape lighting will enhance your clients’ desert oasis.
Key Principles of Desert Landscaping
A desert landscape is sleek and low-maintenance, while centering the natural beauty and needs of the surrounding environment. Primary aspects of a desert landscape include:
- Opting for drought-friendly and native plants: These types of plants thrive in arid conditions and temperatures. Popular plants include ornamental grasses, red yucca, flowering plants like lavender and coneflower, and succulents like
- Bringing in Visual Interest with Hardscapes: Gravel, rocks, and boulders act as a functional, low-maintenance design that seamlessly blends in with native and drought-resistant They can also be used to carve out spaces for gathering with loved ones. With so many different sizes, colors, and shapes, it is easy to choose a hardscape that will suit any personal preference or taste.
- Textures and Space: Desert landscapes are usually expansive with carefully thought out spaces for plants or a hardscape. This blend of organic and non-organicmaterials can create a stunning desert oasis perfect for any outdoor
- Earthy color palette: Desert landscapes typically have a warm color palette, with brown, red, orange, and yellow. These colors are found in a natural desert setting, in the rock, soil, and flowers. Desert plants can bring in cooler colors such as green or silver,and desert flowers can add purple or pink, providing a pop of color.
- Low Maintenance: As there is little need to tend to or water a desert landscape, it cuts back on maintenance time and expenses used to keep up the
A desert landscape is a beautiful and sustainable choice for an outdoor space as it is designed to conserve water, enhance local biodiversity, and reduce the need for irrigation and fertilization.
Outdoor Landscape Lighting’s Role in Desert Landscapes
Incorporating outdoor landscape lighting makes a desert landscape shine. Below are a few ways to bring out the beauty of your clients’ desert oasis.
- Accentuate natural features: Cacti are an extremely popular plant and come in a variety of different species, shapes, and sizes. Some are even flowering, which can add a pop of color to a neutral landscape. Up lightsare great to highlight these plants or any other tall features such as statues or flagpoles.
- Create a Moonlit Haven in the Desert: If the outdoor space has trees like desert willow, acacia, and mesquite, consider installing down lightson them. Down lights will give a moonlight effect, which can create an ethereal and majestic atmosphere to the space below.
- Put a Spotlight on Focal Points: If the landscape has sculptures, large rocks or boulders, water features, or fire pits, install outdoor lights to enhance their visual appeal after dark. Doing so will turn these ordinary features in the day into stunning features at night. For example, installing underwater lightscan give a water fountain an enchanting feel.
- Highlight Hardscapes: Add depth and dimension to hardscape surfaces such as walls and steps by installing hardscape lights. These lights will emphasize the texture, pattern, and other details in the stone or gravel. They can soften harsh edges and blend together natural and non-organicelements to create an inviting overall space.
- Lead with Light: Illuminate any gravel or stone walkways with path lights.Path lights provide a soft glow that ensures safe navigation. They also add aesthetic appeal by creating contrast between the path and its surroundings. Path lights highlight the texture and color of the gravel and stone, bringing more visual interest at night.
- Set the Mood: Color light temperature playsa large role in creating the ambiance for an outdoor space. For a welcoming vibe, consider installing warm-toned lights in the space. They will complement the color palette of desert landscapes and give a cozy and intimate ambiance.
Outdoor landscape lighting greatly enhances the aesthetic appeal and safety of a desert landscape at night.
Practical Tips for Lighting Contractors
Designing the perfect outdoor landscape lighting layout for your clients’ desert landscapes requires a combination of practical techniques and creative solutions. The tips below will guide you in transforming your clients’ desert landscapes into a shining beacon in the night.
- Choose the Right Outdoor Light Fixtures: Outdoor light fixtures made from brass means that they are durable and weather-resistant. An outdoor landscape lighting system with this type of light fixtures will be long-lasting and illuminate desert landscapes for decades to come.
- Be Energy Efficient: To cut back on power usage and reduce your clients’ energy bills, consider incorporating LED lights.
- Layered Lighting:A well thought out and balanced outdoor landscape lighting scheme combines task, accent, and ambient lighting to create depth, enhance usability, and bring out the beauty of the desert landscape.
- Customization is Key: Each desert landscape will have its own unique look and features.Work with your clients to design an outdoor landscape lighting system that will bring out the best of their particular desert landscape and meet functional needs.
Brighten Desert Oases with Tailored Lighting Solutions from LightCh8in
A desert landscape is not only uniquely stunning, but environmentally conscious. It is low-maintenance and can save on time and costs. Thoughtfully placed outdoor landscape lights can increase the aesthetic appeal and safety of these landscapes.
Sign into your LightCh8in account or register for a free account today. We’ve got brass outdoor light fixtures such as up lights, down lights, path lights and more, premium direct burial cables, energy-efficient LED lamps, and lighting accessories. Explore our vast inventory of everything outdoor landscape lighting to provide your clients with innovative lighting solutions and transform their desert outdoor spaces.