Outdoor Lighting for Sarasota Homes: Design, Safety & Style

Let’s take a minute to imagine your tropical outdoor space once the sun goes down:

Festive bistro lights twinkle over your expansive paver patio. Tiki torches flicker in the twilight. Soft pools of light show off your stunning tropical plants, while your treasured bottle palm gets its own distinctive glow. Sleek strip lights lead the way to your outdoor kitchen fridge, so you can grab the chocolate-dipped strawberries you stashed there earlier.

This enchanting scene of bliss is brought to you by landscape lighting.

Landscape lighting design in Florida brims with possibility in Sarasota, Siesta Key and Longboat Key, from illuminating our fantastic tropical plants to the tiki huts that shelter our entertaining to adding a glow to our midnight dips in the pool.

It brings up a few questions, too. What’s the best landscape lighting for homes? How to use landscape lighting for security? And how much does landscape lighting cost?

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get to it. It’ll be dark soon.

Table of Contents

• Why Outdoor Lighting Is Important for Sarasota-Area Homes

• Landscape Lighting Ideas: Uplighting, Wall Washing and Making Your Own Moonlight

• Backyard Landscape Lighting Ideas: New Trends You’ll Love

• How Much Does Landscape Lighting Cost?

• DIY vs Professional Landscape Lighting

• Frequently Asked Questions About Landscape Lighting in Sarasota

• Why Choose Tropical Gardens for Landscape Lighting in Sarasota, Siesta Key, and Longboat Key

1. Why Outdoor Lighting Is Important for Sarasota-Area Homes

If you keep daydreaming about landscape lighting ideas

and saying you should get around to it “someday,” there’s a reason “someday” should be now.

A few reasons, actually:

Landscape Lighting Boosts Your Curb Appeal

Curb appeal matters, especially to homeowners of luxury estates in high-value coastal areas like Siesta Key and Longboat Key. Landscape lighting highlights your high-end landscaping features and impressive architectural details and makes your home look welcoming, luxurious, secure and valued.

Landscape Lighting for Safety

Intruders are looking for easy, low-risk targets, so any landscape lighting discourages them from your home and sends them to a darker, easier target.

Dark areas around your home give intruders places to hide, like behind bushes or fences, or near dark entryways. Lighting solves that problem.

Landscape lighting is for your personal safety, too. Maybe you pride yourself on your keen eyesight, sense of balance and ballerina-like grace.

Still, that’s no match for an uneven paver, an exposed tree root or that rubber ball your dog left on the path to the pergola.

Landscape lighting along your walkways, driveway, paths, steps, and stairs keeps you and any guests on your property safe.

Landscape Lighting Boosts Your Home Value

Real estate experts will tell you that homes with professional landscape lighting look more luxurious, attract more buyer interest, and sell faster.

Expert Florida outdoor lighting design highlights your home’s special architecture, makes trees look fancier, lights up your driveway and adds an obvious boost to your home value.

Potential home buyers like to imagine themselves at the homes they view.

When they see your Siesta Key yard beautifully illuminated, they can imagine strolling the twilight garden paths; hosting fun neighborhood parties beneath strings of bistro lights; letting the kids stay up late for family swims then s’mores at the fire pit. (When can we move in?)

There’s an automatic sense of safety that landscape lighting brings, too. Everybody wants to feel safe and welcomed at home.

Florida Evenings Are Magical — Get Outside!

One of the best things professional landscape lighting in Sarasota can do for you is extend your enjoyable time outdoors.

Outdoor kitchen lighting means you can grill burgers to perfection at 9 p.m. because your grill area is perfectly lit. No more raw burgers. (Don’t forget the grilled onions.)

Outdoor lighting for patios and pools creates the ambience you need for fun entertaining, romantic candlelight dinners or midnight swims.

Your charming pergola, dressed up in twinkling lights, beckons you for cozy cocktails for two. (Or one. You deserve some alone time.)

Lighting isn’t an optional add on. It’s an essential element for really enjoying your outdoor space.

In fact, even if you don’t ask us for a landscape lighting plan as part of your Longboat Key landscape design, we’ll get one ready for you anyway. That’s how much we know you’ll love it.

2. Landscape Lighting Ideas: Uplighting, Wall Washing and Making Your Own Moonlight

There’s a whole dark yard out there.

You need more than just one type of lighting to illuminate your outdoor life.

Let’s break it down:

Uplighting

Let’s start with an easy one. Uplighting is everywhere, but if it’s done right, you probably won’t notice that the light is coming from down below. You’ll just notice that whatever it’s lighting looks great.

Your neighbor’s triple-trunk foxtail palm. Your other neighbor’s pretty pergola. Your other neighbor’s elegant fountain. Hmmm, why did all the neighbors in Siesta Key get impressive landscape lighting before you? Looks like you got here just in time.

How to highlight trees with lighting? Meet uplights. We’re famous for our stunning palms here in Florida. Don’t leave them in the dark. Uplights are great for large specimen plants, too. It’s one of the best ways to add instant curb appeal.

Wall Washing

This outdoor lighting offers a soft “wash” of light, casting a soft, even illumination over a wide surface, spreading light in about an 8 by 8 foot area.

Don’t think you have anything that needs wall washing? Chances are, you do:

• Does your Longboat Key home have a beautiful front facade with intriguing stonework or stucco? Wall washing shows it off.
• Do you have dense hedges or planting beds against a wall or fence? Backlighting them with wall washing creates a beautiful nighttime backdrop.
• Do you have pathways running parallel to walls or fences? Wall washing boosts your safety.
• The smooth, even glow of wall washing creates the visual illusion of a larger, more expansive outdoor space. Who doesn’t want that?

Path Lighting/Downlighting

Outdoor lighting in Sarasota always includes path lights. They light your path, aiming the light down and to the side of the fixture so you don’t trip and fall. That’s an important task, so bring ‘em on.

But don’t stop there. While uplights shine up at things, path lights cast their light down. And there’s plenty down there worth illuminating, from intriguing ground covers to beds of pretty flowers to intricate artistic paver designs. Did you just get an impressive pedicure? Show it off!

Do you have interesting paver patterns bordering your driveway? Path lights can do double duty here, highlighting the artistry and making the edge of your driveway obvious so nobody trips.

Bistro Lighting

Time for some fun.

These strings of festive lights create an instant party. Yes, add them over your patio for an instant festive glow. They’re a classic when it comes to patio lighting ideas.

Then, keep thinking:

• Add bistro lights to your pergola. Now you have an instant magical retreat once the sun goes down. Line the pathway out there with lights, too, to illuminate your stroll.
• Add bistro lighting to your outdoor kitchen, to supplement your task lighting. It’s already cool hanging out in an outdoor kitchen, serving fresh-air fajitas and sipping mango margaritas. Add the sparkle of string lights overhead and you’ve achieved the perfect vibe.
• An evening dip in the pool gets extra sparkle with poolside bistro lighting. Bonus: the gentle glow makes everybody look good in their swimsuits. You get bonus host points for that.

Pro tip: There’s no reason to connect these string lights to the rest of your outdoor lighting. If you keep them on all the time, they’ll compete with your other landscape lighting.

Have an electrician install an outdoor outlet with a switch inside the house so you can turn them on only when you want to use them.

Fake Your Own Moon

You can’t always depend on the real moon to illuminate your yard with a gentle glow. So, fake it, with moonlight you create.

Outdoor lighting fixtures installed high above in your trees spill light down on your patio or garden paths, creating a gentle wash of romantic illumination. The rest is up to you.

3. Backyard Landscape Lighting Ideas: New Trends You’ll Love

Thomas Edison knew he was onto something when he invented the lightbulb back in 1879, and he wasn’t even thinking about your dark patio or how cool your foxtail palms would look illuminated at night.

We bet Tom would love some of the latest innovations in landscape lighting.

You will, too. Take a look:

Control Lighting by Zone from Your Phone

Group your Florida landscape lighting into different zones, illuminating your Siesta Key front yard, backyard, and patio independently. Then, turn them on or off individually with an app on your smart phone.

Leave the Lighting to Alexa

Smart transformers and apps allow voice commands via Alexa/Google.

If you love bossing Alexa around, this smart outdoor lighting opens up a whole new world of possibilities:

“Alexa, please turn on the pergola lights but don’t tell anybody I’m heading out there with a pint of mint chocolate chip.”

Contemporary Fixtures Offer a Cool, Modern Vibe

Nothing against mushrooms, but they’re not the most sophisticated shape for an outdoor lighting fixture. Meet new sleek, modern lighting fixtures that look great with the contemporary aesthetic popular in Sarasota.

Matte black, brushed metal, or geometric-shaped fixtures complement contemporary architecture.

Sleek, long linear lighting is popular now, too, outlining the edges of your landscape for a sleek, contemporary look.

Astronomic Timers for Your Inner Nerd

Astronomic timers automatically control your Sarasota landscape lighting based on daily, location-specific sunrise and sunset times.

They automatically update for seasonal changes and Daylight Savings Time, too. It’ll impress any science geeks at your next dinner party.

Celebrate with Colorful Lighting

Add some dazzle to your outdoor entertaining with lights in a multitude of colors.

Color-changing lights let you easily celebrate holidays without putting up temporary decorations. Create a spooky Halloween vibe with orange and purple lights. Add patriotic red, white and blue lighting to your July Fourth bash.

Bluetooth-enabled landscape lighting allows for wireless, smartphone-based control of color, brightness and scheduling, typically within a 30-foot range.

Use Lighting to Connect with Nature

Biophilic lighting mimics natural light patterns, shadows and color temperatures to help connect you to nature, easing stress and boosting relaxation.

If nature isn’t cooperating, your lighting steps in, replicating leaf-patterned shadows, flickering firelight, sunlight filtering through the trees or moonlight shining down from above.

4. How Much Does Landscape Lighting Cost?

How much should you expect to pay for landscape lighting in Sarasota?

It depends, of course, on the size of your property and the number of transformers and fixtures you’ll need, but expect to pay anywhere from $5,000 for a basic outdoor lighting installation to $85,000 for a deluxe design for a large coastal luxury estate.

Here’s a closer look at what the cost includes:

A $5,000 Basic Landscape Lighting Plan

A basic outdoor lighting design with a few path lights and a few uplights starts at about $5,000.

This includes:

A $1,000 transformer. We only install smart transformers. They automatically adjust to Daylight Savings Time and adjust as it gets darker at different times throughout the seasons.

Your transformer runs the whole show. It should be powerful enough not just to handle your current lighting load, but have enough oomph to provide extra power in case you want to add to your outdoor lighting design later.

We install transformers that can handle double the voltage you need now, so adding more landscape lighting is no big deal.

High quality brass fixtures with a lifetime warranty at $160 each. Can you get cheaper fixtures? Sure. But lower-priced fixtures have integrated light bulbs that you can’t remove and change. If a bulb goes out you have to replace the whole fixture. Much better to be able to replace just the $35 bulb. Also, Florida’s challenging climate can ruin cheaper fixtures, with our sun, heat, humidity, and salt spray.

The wiring that’s buried underground and grease-filled connectors. The connectors used in your Sarasota landscape lighting wiring are really important. They should be high quality and sturdy, but not everybody uses the best.

Cheap connections won’t hold up over time here in Sarasota, where we can get 10 inches of rain in a day during the rainy season.

Wire nuts and pierce connectors aren’t designed to go underground, but plenty of companies use them in landscape lighting installation anyway. Then they loosen and corrode.

Tropical Gardens lighting pros crimp connectors and use dielectric grease that repels moisture and protects electrical components against corrosion. It also helps keep dirt and water out of your landscape lighting installation electrical components.

These waterproof, self-sealing connectors filled with conductive grease prevent connection failures in wet conditions.

Yes, regular wire connectors cost about 40 cents each, while the grease-filled connectors cost $2. But quality — even where you can’t see it — makes all the difference.

Next Up, the Higher End

A larger outdoor lighting system for an expansive luxury coastal estate property can cost up to $85,000.

This includes:

A deluxe transformer with the capability for zoning, dimming and changing colors. There’s a higher cost here, at about $3,200 instead of $1,000.

Keep in mind larger properties typically need several transformers to avoid voltage drop. Voltage drop is the natural decrease in electrical voltage as power travels down a wire from the transformer to the light fixtures. It results in uneven brightness and dimmer lights at the end of a long wire run. The longer the wire and the thinner it is, the more "friction" or resistance the electricity faces. Using multiple transformers prevents this.

High-end transformers also include the capability for a multitude of different colors. Why would you want to have different colors in your outdoor lighting design?

When holidays roll around, you don’t have to worry about the hassle and expense of installing holiday lighting. You already have it at your fingertips.

And if you live in a coastal area, don’t forget about the baby turtles.

A higher-end transformer offers zone control so you can easily

activate amber, turtle-friendly lighting as needed and control it separately from the rest of your Siesta Key landscape lighting.

If you’re new to Florida, you should know that special lighting is required along Florida coastal areas during sea turtle nesting season May through October to prevent bright lighting from disorientating baby sea turtles headed for the ocean.

Baby sea turtles use the moon's reflection to find the ocean. Artificial, bright white lights lure them off course inland.

More high quality brass fixtures with a lifetime warranty. Larger landscape lighting designs include much more than the path lights and uplights included in a basic design. Homeowners typically want pool area landscape lighting and lighting for patios, tiki huts, outdoor kitchens and separate outdoor rooms.

Thicker wire to help with voltage drop. Upgrading from 16-gauge to 12-gauge or 10-gauge wire will significantly reduce the electrical resistance over long runs that leads to voltage drop.

5. DIY vs Professional Landscape Lighting

That guy in the YouTube video makes it look easy, right? He’s got a shovel, a big spool of wire, and using that rubber mallet looks kind of fun.

How to design landscape lighting?

There are plenty of YouTubers happy to walk you through the basics.

But professional landscape lighting in Sarasota requires way more than the basics.

Let’s take a look at just a few of the things pros do that you might not learn on YouTube:

• Landscape lighting pros know to leave a few extra feet of wire tucked away in your outdoor lighting installation. Sometimes a root grows and pushes the landscape lighting wire up out of the ground. We leave extra feet of slack to allow for that.
• Lighting designers are artists, using light and shadow to create magic out there. They know to light not just the trunk of your majestic oak tree, but also several spots high up in the canopy, for a truly stunning effect. Landscape lighting techniques matter.
• Did the YouTube guy tell you to install a transformer powerful enough not just to handle your current lighting load, but have enough oomph to provide extra power in case you want to add to your Longboat Key outdoor lighting design later? We will.
• Skilled landscape lighting installers use those grease-filled wire nuts we mentioned earlier in Florida outdoor lighting design. If you use anything less, your outdoor lighting wiring will be vulnerable to moisture and shorts.
• The best lighting pros encase the buried wires in protective conduit sleeves so they don’t get sliced by landscape maintenance equipment like those sharp 4-inch edger blades. The wires that cross from your lawn into your planting beds are always getting whacked, when plant roots push the lighting wiring up closer to the surface. Even some skilled landscape lighting installers might not think about this. But Tropical Gardens is also a full-service landscape maintenance company, so we’re on top of it.

The best landscape lighting pros take extra steps to make sure you have high quality landscape lighting installation designed to last.

You’ll miss a lot of this stuff if you try to install your Sarasota landscape lighting yourself.

6. Frequently Asked Questions About Landscape Lighting in Sarasota

Q: What type of landscape lighting is best for Florida homes?

A: You’ll need a combination of lighting for your Florida landscape lighting design, including uplights to highlight trees and landscape structures; wall wash lights to cast a wider, gentle glow; path lights for safety and bistro lights to add festive ambience. Other light fixtures might come into play, too, like overhead fixtures or strip lights if you have an outdoor kitchen.

Q: Where should landscape lighting be placed around a home?

A: The best landscape lighting for homes is installed strategically around your home for a balance of safety, security and aesthetic appeal. That means lighting paths and your driveway; entrances; trees and other garden features. Light outdoor entertaining areas like patios, tikis and pergolas. Don’t forget pool area landscape lighting, too.

Q: Can landscape lighting improve home security?

A: Absolutely. If your outdoor lighting is designed well, you don’t need separate landscape lighting for security.

Landscape lighting illuminates shadowy areas, making it harder for anyone to lurk unnoticed.

Landscape lighting deters people from looking in your windows or lurking in the bushes. And it makes it easy for neighbors to spot any would-be prowlers.

If you have security cameras at your Siesta Key home, landscape lighting helps them do their job, too. Cameras work better with adequate illumination, capturing clearer footage and making it easier to identify faces, vehicles, or suspicious behavior.

Q: How long do landscape lighting systems last?

A: Professionally installed lighting systems should last 25 to 30 years. After about 12 to 15 years bulbs will likely start needing replacement, depending on the amount of hours they run.

The entire system should be pretty much maintenance free during that time period, if you’re using smart transformers and timers and quality equipment.

The outdoor lighting fixtures that Tropical Gardens installs have a lifetime warranty; bulbs have a 50- thousand-hour warranty; and transformers have a 5-year warranty.

Q: How much will outdoor lighting in Sarasota affect my electric bill?

A: Less than you might think. We did a test on our own home with 22 lights running from dusk until 10 pm, and it added less than $5 per month to the bill. Today’s LED bulbs are 90 percent more efficient than older incandescent lighting.

7. Why Choose Tropical Gardens for Landscape Lighting in Sarasota, Siesta Key, and Longboat Key

If “get landscape lighting installed” is on your to-do list, that’s exciting. It also means you’re a list person.

Why hire us to do your professional landscape lighting in Sarasota?

Here’s a list of good reasons:

1. We care about quality. Your Florida landscape lighting goes through a lot out there. We insist on quality cast brass fixtures and impressive warranties on all components. You’ll never have to worry about paying to replace lifetime-warrantied lighting fixtures.

2. We’re a customer service company that does landscape design and installation. The customer service part comes first. You’ll always be able to reach us. You’ll even have the company owner’s cell phone number.

3. We’re a full-service landscaping company. Yes, when you’re having landscape lighting installed you want a creative lighting design team with impressive backyard landscape lighting ideas and installers who do skilled, painstaking work. But chances are, you need other enhancements, too. We’re also horticulture experts, irrigation pros and landscape designers who can handle all your landscaping needs.

4. Our landscape lighting is artistry. Ask to see examples of our work.

5. This will be easy for you. We’ll meet you at home, on your schedule. Initial consultations let us get to know your property, and you’ll get to know our skilled and friendly team. Then, we handle all the details. You don’t need any more stuff on your to-do list, right?

Easy peasy. Prepare to be wowed.

Ready for Expert Sarasota Landscape Lighting? Talk to Us

Great landscape lighting changes everything.

Why let the best landscaping features of your Sarasota, Siesta Key, or Longboat Key home disappear when the sun goes down?

No reason.

How to design landscape lighting? Call us.

It all starts with a relaxed conversation with one of our landscape designers, and a bunch of fantastic ideas.

Give us a call today! We can’t wait to meet you.

It’s looking brighter out there already, right?