‘We enjoy helping people and lighting up their lives’: Dixie Outdoor Lighting can illuminate your life

CONTRIBUTED CONTENT — As people are spending more time at home and enjoying their backyard spaces, they are realizing that improving or adding outdoor lighting will not only make their houses more beautiful and livable but can also be essential for safety and home security.

Outdoor lighting project by Dixie Outdoor Lighting, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Justin Harwood, St. George News

For seven years, the experts at family-owned Dixie Outdoor Lighting have been illuminating Southern Utah with their lighting designs. From Christmas light installations to custom landscapes for home and business, they can help create a system to fit any need or lifestyle.

“We enjoy helping people and lighting up their lives,” said Justin Harwood, who is a co-owner of Dixie Outdoor Lighting. He told St. George News that no matter the size of the lighting project, if you have an idea, they can make it happen.

“It adds value to the house,” Harwood said. “Just from an aesthetic standpoint, when someone sees your house at night … it makes the house look a ton better.”

Harwood got his start in the lighting business installing Christmas lights with his brother Ty, but soon their reputation for quality designs spread throughout the area, and they decided to make the transition and try taking on lighting landscapes as well.

Landscape lighting has changed immensely in the last few years. With new LED lighting and lower wattage requirements, landscape lights are more efficient and cost-effective, and it is easier to install fixtures in a variety of interesting ways.

Outdoor lighting project by Dixie Outdoor Lighting, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Justin Harwood, St. George News

Harwood said homeowners who have older lighting systems often complain that they can never get their lights to work properly, but once they call and make the switch to LED, their problems are eliminated. From one volt all the way up to 15 volts, the lights still work the same. 

“A lot of the systems that we upgrade are incandescent, and there’s a really tight tolerance with the incandescent lighting. You have to be between 10.5 volts and 11.9 volts at the light so that the light doesn’t keep burning out.”

At Dixie Outdoor Lighting, they are always researching and staying up to date on the latest technology and products. The lights they now use are FX lights, which are zoneable and dimmable.

“You can create different ambiances or moods for your landscape and your house,” Harwood said, adding that the dimming feature is especially useful for the transition from daylight to dusk to night. The FX lights also have color change options, enabling some really distinctive accents to homes.

“You want your tree to look a little more green? You can put a little green hue in the light, and all of a sudden, instead of just a warm white, it’s a green hue making your palm tree look even greener.”

Outdoor lighting project by Dixie Outdoor Lighting, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Justin Harwood, St. George News

Their systems can be installed completely automated for homeowners who don’t want to have to worry about it, or they can be paired with an app for owners who want total control.

Apart from the value of increasing curb appeal and creating customized ambiance, Ty Harwood said another significant benefit to adding lighting is the additional safety and security it provides.

Properly placed exterior lights at night lets people think the home is occupied, increases visibility and offers homeowners peace of mind that they can utilize their whole property, he said.

“It lights up the areas of your home so that people can’t sneak around. It’s less inviting for thieves and more inviting for friends and family,” he said. 

Justin Harwood added that everybody who puts in lights says whenever friends or family see it, they ask, “When can we come over?”

“That might be a plus or minus, depending on who their family and friends are,” he joked.

One of the brother’s favorite projects this year was a residence that included Christmas wreaths and lanterns along the walkway, ridge line lights and several accents. The home was so impressive that even Disney shared a photo of their completed work on their official Instagram account.

Outdoor lighting project at Stucki Farms by Dixie Outdoor Lighting, location and date not specified | Photo courtesy of Justin Harwood, St. George News

Along these lines, permanent Christmas lights are their latest offering at Dixie Outdoor  Lighting, and Harwood said now is the perfect time for people to get their houses decorated and save the trouble when the hectic holidays arrive.

“The permanent lighting is really cool because every bulb is controllable. Each bulb is an RGB bulb, so it can be 16 million colors.”

He said they offer a few different types, from undermount to forward facing, and that most of the lights are also zoneable, dimmable and color changing.

“Random, blink, fade, twinkle … It’s mind blowing the different options.”

The Harwoods understand that everybody is on a different budget, and they only use the right products and solutions for each individual client. For anyone considering adding landscape lighting, they said to reach out for a quote and let them help come up with a great plan.

“Usually we don’t have people pay until they are 100% happy,” Ty Harwood said.

“We’re in it for the long haul. We plan on doing it forever,” Justin Harwood said. “We don’t see an end in sight. We enjoy it.”

For more information, call Justin or Ty Harwood at 435-277-0399. To see more examples of their designs, visit the Dixie Outdoor Lighting website, Facebook or Instagram page.

Written by ANDREW PINCKNEY, St. George News.

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