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Using Outdoor Lighting Elements to Accentuate Your Northern Virginia Deck and Landscape

Your Northern Virginia deck is meant to be an inviting - and safe - space for friends and family to gather for meals, events, and special occasions. To ensure optimal deck safety, incorporate deck lighting into your design. Not only will deck lighting extend the time you can use your deck, it will also make it a safe, secure place with an enjoyable nighttime ambience. What's more, lighting is a simple and inexpensive way to find the right atmosphere and allow the right function for any outdoor area. To tie your deck into your home's surrounding landscape, also incorporate outdoor lighting around trees and other structures to create a continuous, natural effect.

Homeowners can choose from a wide array of outdoor lighting options that each provide different lighting effects and purposes. When choosing outdoor lighting, keep in mind how you'll be using your deck. Cooking areas should have plenty of light, while conversation and seating areas are better accentuated with low lights to avoid any glare. To complement certain parts of your deck, use the following types of outdoor lighting:

• Flood lights can light up an entire outdoor area.
• To draw attention to a certain area of the deck or landscape feature, opt for spotlights and accent lights. There are even water-resistant accent lights made to be used around ponds, fountains, or other water features.
• A fantastic choice for decks, recessed lighting is mounted right into the surface of the deck, walkway, posts, or railings to make the area safe to walk through at night.
• If your deck is connected to your house and has a ceiling over it, consider using a wall wash light to project light onto the ceiling and help connect the deck to the house visually.
• To accentuate your deck's railing, install cap lights on the deck posts.
• Step lights are a great safety feature and can make your deck's steps appear as if they're floating.

Turn to Deck Doctor when looking to light up your Vienna, Oakton, McLean, Arlington, or other Northern Virginia area deck. Specializing in custom deck design, repair, maintenance, and construction, Deck Doctor believes deck design - or "archi-DECK-ure" - is a true art bolstered by an eye for design, quality craftsmanship, beautiful materials, and interesting accents.