Perfect Pool Landscaping

Swimming pool lights are more than boring safety features. The right lighting design can do a lot to enhance the ambiance for those late-night dips. With the news types of lights available these days, installing pool lights is an easy DIY job.

Go with fiber optic pool lights

While incandescent and halogen quartz pool lights of both 120-volt (at 300 or 500 watts) and 12-volt (at 100 or 200 watts) are still on the market, there are a few reasons to choose fiber optic lights instead.

With fiber optic lights, there’s no electricity near the water, they’re easy for a DIYer to install, maintenance is easy because the light is accessible (specifically, it’s not underwater), and for a little something different, you can add a color wheel to your remote light source.

Install safety lighting first

Traditionally, a single incandescent light is located at the pool’s deep end, 18 inches to 4 feet below the surface. Nicheless lights, which attach directly to the pool walls, are one option to consider for this. To add lighting around the pool’s perimeter, a decorative strip of fiber optic lighting can be use to frame the pool in light and also works well on steps.

External lights

The lights in the pool itself are a must, but you don’t have to stop there. Enhance the look of your patio or deck area by using attractive landscape lighting. It could be something as simple as hanging lamps along your privacy fence or adding a street-light style hanging lantern on your deck.

Remember, too, that swimmers will probably be walking around the yard with bare, wet feet, so make sure all your paths are well lit to decrease the likelihood of falls.

Don’t overdo it

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Making sure the pool area is well lit is critical for safety reasons, but at the same time you don’t want a glaring flood light blinding you during your midnight swim. If you plan your lighting during the day, it’s easy to get carried away. A better way is to first choose your must-have safety lights, then go take a look at your pool around dusk to decide if there are any other areas that would benefit from extra lights.

Have fun with fountains

If you haven’t seen the selection of pool fountains on the market lately, you’ll definitely want to take a look. A lot of these put on great little light shows, too. Granted, some of the cheapies can look a little tacky, but there are also quite a few elegant designs out there. The right pool fountain can add an air of luxury to even the simplest pool. If the colored lights are a little to “Las Vegas” for you, try just white or white, blue, and green lights.

There are literally hundreds of swimming pool lights and lighting design ideas out there, so make sure you browse around a little before you make any decisions.