The Essential Role of Tulsa Landscape Lighting Design

Often, when people think of an outdoor living space, they only think of the landscaping or hardscape features of the outdoor space. But there’s another important aspect of landscape design – outdoor lighting. 

Landscape lighting is an important part of your Tulsa landscape design. Landscape lighting serves many vital functions in your landscape, especially when homeowners often just get to enjoy their homes at night or on the weekends. If you don’t have outdoor accent lighting, then you’re not getting the full benefits from your outdoor living space. 

Outdoor lighting offers safety. One of the most important advantages of having Tulsa landscape lighting is the added safety and security it provides.  With properly placed outdoor lighting, guests can walk safely down a stone pathway or garden stairs. Visitors can also be safely guided to your front door or down your driveway with the right landscape lighting. If your children get home late after practice, outdoor lighting can also help to keep your children safe as they enter the home. 

Burglars are often also deterred by a well-lit home and landscape. It’s important to keep areas by doors and shrubs well-lit so as to prevent thieves from having a convenient hiding place. Landscape lighting can also help prevent your home from looking unoccupied and thus more of a target for burglars. 

Landscape lighting showcases the beauty of your outdoor environment. Outdoor lighting can help to accent certain important aspects of your home or outdoor living space. It really can transform the look and feel of your landscape and make it come alive even more. 

“Soft lighting in a dark outdoor environment is nothing short of magic. It provides a warm, inviting ambiance that beckons us outdoors,” The Landscaping Network noted. “It creates mood, romance, and drama. It adds interest and intrigue to any settling.” 

No wonder then that, as The Landscape Network added, nightscaping is “one of the hottest trends in outdoor home improvement today.” 

But as they went on to mention, landscape lighting can be a challenge for homeowners to install by themselves. Knowing where to place the lighting and what landscape elements to highlight can be tricky. Professional Tulsa landscape lighting installers like those at Oklahoma Landscape use specific methods and techniques to achieve the right look and feel for outdoor lighting. The style of the landscape lighting should really complement the architecture and personality of your home. 

Balanced lighting can really enhance your pool, outdoor kitchen, or other landscaping or hardscape features, but this landscape lighting also needs to take into account changes that could happen to your landscape over time or throughout the various seasons. 

Outdoor lighting allows you to get full use out of your outdoor environment. Tulsa landscape lighting is key to getting the most benefit from your outdoor living space. Especially when the days get shorter, landscape lighting can help you to still be able to entertain family and friends outside comfortably. Outdoor accent lightingalso creates the perfect atmosphere for entertaining, bringing a lively feel to your outdoor living space. 

There are so many great reasons to have landscape lighting designed and installed in your outdoor environment. From increasing safety and security to allowing your landscape to really come alive at night, custom outdoor lighting is a must for your Tulsa home and landscape. Talk to our Tulsa landscape lighting specialists today about the custom designs they can create for your home. 

(First photo by Stephen Calsbeek)

Entertaining in Your Tulsa Outdoor Environment - Tips for Memorial Day Weekend

Entertaining in your Tulsa outdoor environment this Memorial Day weekend? As the unofficial start of the summer season, many will be starting the grill and relaxing outside with family and friends as they celebrate the holiday. Check out these tips to aid in entertaining in style.

Check to see if your pool is ready! As the start of summer, many will be opening their pool for the first time this season. Make sure your pool is safe, clean, and properly maintained so that everyone can have a enjoyable time in the water. Check out our blog article on pool maintenance and cleaning for tips on how to get it ready for guests.

You bring it, we grill it. Outdoor kitchens. A Tulsa outdoor kitchen makes cooking and entertaining easy and fun. Instead of providing all the hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken or fish, tell guests that if they bring it, you’ll grill it! You’ll have a greater variety of foods at your picnic, and you won’t have to figure out what everyone likes, or worry as much about guests’ dietary restrictions (some could even bring veggies to grill). They’ll have brought what they like and can eat. Then, you just have to provide the sides and drinks.

Easy snacks. A built-in mini fridge is one of the numerous features of an outdoor kitchen that make it perfect for entertaining. With the days starting to warm up in Tulsa, keeping cool beverages close will be essential. The refrigerator in your outdoor kitchen will be ideal for keeping poolside drinks cool as well as fresh fruit and veggies crisp.

Landscape lighting is a necessity. Although the days are getting longer, your get-together will probably linger until after dark, so having landscape lighting in your Tulsa outdoor environment is a must. You could have custom landscape lighting designed for your poolside area or front walkway and landscape, or colorful balloon lanterns in maybe a red, white, and blue pattern.

Help guests stay cool. If you don’t have an outdoor structure such as a covered deck or patio to relax under, remember to provide a shade and fans for your guests to sit under. Pergolas are a great landscape design element that provides some shade while also permitting light through and adding an sophisticated flare to your outdoor living space.

Add some memorable décor. While there is often a patriotic theme with Memorial Day events, you can also subtly include Americana features into your party theme.

“Pick any theme and just incorporate some American pride elements,” the Nest recommends. “A California picnic? Think avocado and sprouts on a flag tablecloth. Or even a Hawaiian luau – just incorporate island native President Obama’s favorite nuts like pistachios and almonds into the menu.”

Activities. While some may enjoy playing sports or just relaxing by the pool, you could have some diverse interactive activities to spice up the day – like a fun photobooth where guests can take home playful photos of themselves to remember the day.

Have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend as you enjoy your Tulsa outdoor living space!

Tips to Improve your Outdoor Lighting for your Tulsa Home

Although the days are getting shorter, you can still enjoy your outdoor environment in Tulsa with custom outdoor landscape lighting.

From the front door to the backyard deck, lighting plays an important role in the beauty, usability and safety of your outdoor living space. Small changes in lighting can have a big impact on your home’s curb appeal and your ability to enjoy outdoor living. Oklahoma Landscape’s lighting experts can help you ‘find yourself outside’ and enjoy the fall nights with outdoor lighting. Here’s a few tips on how to improve exterior lighting.

Light the Way

“Night-time visitors should feel welcomed with light as soon as their car stops in front of your house,” Daniel Auer, a lighting expert with LightingShowplace.com, says. That means driveways and walkways leading to your front door should be well-lit enough to ensure safe footing, yet not so bright that they overpower the main lights above or beside your front door.

At the door, if your home currently has just one lantern next to the door, consider replacing it with matching lanterns. Flanking the door with matched lights will create a warm, even glow while assuring the safety of those who enter. If your home has a porch or overhang, you have even more options: a recessed, chain-hung or ceiling fixture.

Light the Landscape

“When it comes to landscape lighting, many homeowners tend to forget about the backyard,” Auer says. While simple canister lights, directed on key landscape elements like trees or planting beds, can create drama for your home, don’t overlook the value of more whimsical choices or of lighting your back yard.

More powerful, practical path lighting makes sense for front areas where guests may be walking from car to house. In backyards, consider using more delicate path lights to highlight areas, like water features and seating arrangements.

Deck it Out

If the kitchen is the heart of the home, a great deck is its crowning glory. Americans are now building and expanding decks more than ever before, as the trend towards great outdoor living spaces continues. Just as you employ lighting to create usability, mood and appeal in your kitchen, the right lighting outdoors can enhance the safety and enjoyment of your deck.


“There are numerous ways to light your deck, from lanterns that sit on the post caps of your deck rails to outdoor lamps that work with your outdoor furniture much as lamps do indoors,” Auer says.

One of the hottest trends in deck lighting plays to a hot trend in deck construction – decorative rails, all the rage right now, require decorative lighting. From strand lighting designed to mimic the twinkling of the stars overhead to sconces shaped like flowers and animals, the options for adding light to deck railings have boomed in the past few years.

You’ll be a Fan

Overhead fans are a great way to add multiple layers of lighting – not to mention comfort – to outdoor spaces like gazebos, screened porches and decks. Any fan that you love indoors can easily be used outdoors with the proper wiring. What’s more, most fans offer dimmer options so you can adjust light levels to match the mood of your gathering.

Fans with blades that evoke the look of leaves or fern fronds are particularly attractive in outdoor settings, helping underscore the natural appeal of the space.

Courtesy of ARAcontent