As darkness settled over McHenry on a pleasant summer night, you and your guests are sitting indoors thinking how nice to sit outside on an evening such as this. After all, you have that wonderful brick paver patio, why not use it? The answer to that question is you never added landscape lighting to your McHenry backyard and brick paver patio.

It’s a terrible waste to have a splendid brick paver patio in back of your McHenry home and not include landscape lighting. It’s years since the Cubs added lights to Wrigley Field; it’s time you add lights to your brick paver patio, too, don’t you think?

When the Cubs add lights to Wrigley Field, they didn’t just throw some lights up. They had engineers design the lights determining what types of lights to use and where to place them. Such consideration is equally important in your backyard by your brick paver patio, or even if you don’t have a patio.

Proper installation of landscape lighting will turn your brick paver patio and backyard into a twilight paradise. Done wrong, however, and you could have yourself a nightmare.

Instead of embracing you in a soft and luxurious light, if landscape lighting is done wrong, you’ll have blind spots and shadows. If you’re not lucky, your landscape lighting will illuminate all the wrong places. But, if it’s done right, landscape lighting will create a desired atmosphere and set the tone for your preferred outdoor, night-time activities.

To achieve your desired landscape lighting effects, it’s best to call in an expert – someone who knows landscape lighting. Imagine trying to design your landscape lighting yourself. Would you plug lights in with an extension cord and try them in different places?

A qualified landscape designer knows how lights work. A qualified landscape designer knows what kind of lights to use and where. Without trial and error, they’ll design your landscape lighting to highlight areas of your brick paver patio and landscape that you want to highlight. They’ll create lighting that is functional and aesthetic.

Functional landscape lighting means it properly illuminates areas where people will gather. It will show pathways so people can safely negotiate your property. Of course, at the same time, landscape lighting will discourage thieves and others who are up to no good. They prefer the shadows and landscape lighting is not conducive to their goals.

On the other hand, landscape lighting utterly transforms a darkened landscape – backyard, front yard, brick paver patio, walkways and more – into something out of another world.

People who turn to a qualified landscape designer to design their landscape lighting, often turn on the lights outside just to gaze on their yards. Then they smile. Of course, when they’re entertaining or using their landscape lighting, they have even more reason to smile.