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Building a mountain home in one of the gated communities near Asheville NC affords you the opportunity to enhance both the structure and its surroundings with carefully chosen lighting features that blend with the scenic beauty.

Landscape Lighting for Your Mountain Home

The idea behind landscape lighting is to create a treat for the eyes. It’s smart to highlight your home and property in a way that presents an attractive and interesting picture to people driving by.

There’s a huge gap between what the average person tries to do and a well thought out, professional approach to lighting installed outdoors.  And it all boils down to a few simple principles.

Let’s start with path lighting. That’s something we rarely do well.  The availability of inexpensive solar-powered lights prompts many people to illuminate the approaches to their front doors for the sake of additional safety and enhanced appearance.  Unfortunately, almost everyone installs more lights than are aesthetically pleasing and ends up replicating the look of an airport landing strip.

This is definitely a case in which “less is more”.  What you want to do – especially with our North Carolina mountain homes that are nestled in such interesting natural settings – is provide just enough artificial illumination to guide your eye.  Keep the lights relatively far apart, and even use different styles for variety.  Some can be right on the path, while others may simply cast light onto it.  Remember that there will be moonlight to help, as well.  Check occasionally for burned-out bulbs and new plant growth that may be in the way.  And consider that uplighting trees and downlighting your house may be sufficient to illuminate the walkway as well.  As a rule of thumb, don’t overdo the use of path lights.

Another concept you might want to embrace is “moonlighting”.  Install lights 30 or 40 feet high in the trees on your property.  That provides the dual benefits of keeping the fixtures hidden from view and augmenting the “woodsy” feel we want to maintain when building a mountain home.  And using a blue filter will intensify the green of the foliage.  Moonlighting eliminates the “on stage” effect of ground-level illumination and produces a much more intimate ambiance for you and your guests.

Hardscape features such as outdoor kitchens and fireplaces, hot tubs, walls, etc., are perfect for the application of LED tape, which is encased in silicone to prevent moisture intrusion.  It’s a subtle, indirect lighting product with uses that are limited only by your imagination. 

If you have a water feature on your land, take into account the entire view when deciding how to highlight it.  Keep in mind that water found in nature is never illuminated from within.  Here, soft downlighting is your best option.

Balance is paramount when you’re lighting the exterior of your home. Illuminating trees behind the house helps to avoid the “shoebox effect” you get by putting all of your efforts into the structure itself.  Uplighting trees and statuary can add depth and softness.  Here again, moderation and the overall look you want to create should guide your decisions.  And don’t forget that shadow can be as interesting as light.

Outdoor Speakers

Some of the gated communities near Asheville NC are blessed with year-round mild weather, and that means folks at places like The Coves can spend a lot of time outside.  And state-of-the-art technology allows us not only to take our music out of the house but to do so in a way that offers breathtaking, audiophile-level performance that can fill nearly any space. 

We’ve come a long way from the days of simply hanging up a few speakers.  North Carolina mountain homes can now have 10” and 12” below-ground subwoofers that, when coupled with an array of smaller satellite units, deliver a jaw-dropping, smooth blanket of sound directed exactly where you want it.

When looking at outdoor audio, take into account what kinds of music you enjoy.  Will you be playing it at near top volume, or is a background effect more your style?  You’ll want to get some professional advice before deciding what to install.

Possibilities are Endless

Your home at The Coves Mountain River Club will be a virtual palette for design ideas.  Like most of us, you may have developed mental lists of what you didn’t like about where you lived before and what you would do if you had the chance to start from scratch.  Here, your property’s beautiful features will spur your imagination.  You’ll see what others have done and start to think in terms of “what if”.

From creating your dream home to deciding how to spend today, tomorrow and the next day, life here in the foothills is rich with possibilities.

Just stop by The Coves Mountain River Club when you’re in the area and let us show you examples of fantastic outdoor light and designs.

Call 828.754.0700 to schedule a tour!