Most homeowners give almost no thought to their driveway lighting.
In fact, many of them simply place a huge high-voltage flood light on their house that turns on either with a switch or a motion detector.
However, doing this over lights your property with harsh light and can even temporarily blind incoming drivers if they do not know the light is going to turn on.
Instead, there are several other more attractive, subtle options that you can use for lighting your driveway.
Here are three of the best.
The first, and most popular type of alternate lighting fixture are called "market lights".
These lights are very low to the ground, either placed direction on the ground or mounted on tiny stakes.
These lights have the advantage that they keep all of their light right where you want it, on the ground, and do not risk shining any up into a driver's eyes or into other areas of your landscape that you want to be kept dark.
While these lights are great to have, you do have to be careful when you're installing them.
If you place them too evenly on direct sides of each other, you can make your driveway look like a runway! You can avoid this if you alternate the sides that you place your lights on.
If you want lights that are a little bit higher, you can opt for post lights that are between three and four feet tall.
These lights will cast a wider, brighter light so you won't need as many of them to light up your driveway.
Just make sure that you keep the lights shielded so that the light is on the ground and no shining into a driver's eyes.
The final type of driveway light that you can use is a pole light that is seven to eight feet high at the end of your driveway.
While this type of light will not create a line that will lead people to your home, it will provide a lot of light so that other cars can see your driveway and also if you opt for a stylish fixture, it can look very appealing.
These work great on all driveways, but especially on small, suburban driveways where you might not need to have several light fixtures leading a person into your home or garage.
In fact, many of them simply place a huge high-voltage flood light on their house that turns on either with a switch or a motion detector.
However, doing this over lights your property with harsh light and can even temporarily blind incoming drivers if they do not know the light is going to turn on.
Instead, there are several other more attractive, subtle options that you can use for lighting your driveway.
Here are three of the best.
The first, and most popular type of alternate lighting fixture are called "market lights".
These lights are very low to the ground, either placed direction on the ground or mounted on tiny stakes.
These lights have the advantage that they keep all of their light right where you want it, on the ground, and do not risk shining any up into a driver's eyes or into other areas of your landscape that you want to be kept dark.
While these lights are great to have, you do have to be careful when you're installing them.
If you place them too evenly on direct sides of each other, you can make your driveway look like a runway! You can avoid this if you alternate the sides that you place your lights on.
If you want lights that are a little bit higher, you can opt for post lights that are between three and four feet tall.
These lights will cast a wider, brighter light so you won't need as many of them to light up your driveway.
Just make sure that you keep the lights shielded so that the light is on the ground and no shining into a driver's eyes.
The final type of driveway light that you can use is a pole light that is seven to eight feet high at the end of your driveway.
While this type of light will not create a line that will lead people to your home, it will provide a lot of light so that other cars can see your driveway and also if you opt for a stylish fixture, it can look very appealing.
These work great on all driveways, but especially on small, suburban driveways where you might not need to have several light fixtures leading a person into your home or garage.