Outdoor Patio Lighting
April 13, 2011
Outdoor patio lighting provides lights and a natural glow. But that’s not all it does. Patio lighting makes any patio or porch more welcoming to your guests. It also gives you a wonderful ambience to soak into whenever you want to sit back and relax. Let’s get started with the basics on decorating your patio with lighting.
Step Lighting
When planning to decorate with outdoor patio lighting consider step lighting. This is one of the first things you should think about. Step lighting enables everyone to locate and see where they are going when using your steps. This means prevention of tripping or falling for you and your guests.
Step lighting doesn’t just provide more safety, but beauty as well. A tip is to put step lighting underneath railings, buried in the steps or on upright posts. Doing any of these will add a natural glow to your steps without the glare.
When planning to decorate with outdoor patio lighting consider step lighting. This is one of the first things you should think about. Step lighting enables everyone to locate and see where they are going when using your steps. This means prevention of tripping or falling for you and your guests.
Step lighting doesn’t just provide more safety, but beauty as well. A tip is to put step lighting underneath railings, buried in the steps or on upright posts. Doing any of these will add a natural glow to your steps without the glare.
Deck Lighting
The next thing you should consider is of course deck lighting. Deck lighting is a way to improve the ambience of your whole patio. You may have flush lights on the decks or mounted lights on deck railings. With deck lighting, you have a lot of choices from many types of deck lighting fixtures. There are both practical and decorative deck lighting.
If you often hold parties in your patio, consider a stand-alone lighting fixture. This can provide sufficient outdoor patio lighting for larger crowds or areas and can also make a great statement. A tip on using outdoor deck lighting is to make sure it doesn’t cause too much glare. Glaring light should not reach a driveway or neighbor’s garden, as this could both ruin your privacy as well as annoy your neighbor.
How about adding more life to your garden fountain? You’re fountain may be quite an attractive sight, but what about at night? No one will be able to see your fountain unless you have lighting for it. Fountain lights can make your fountain look just divine during the night.
There are some things you can do. You can illuminate a fountain by lighting its pond from underneath, accenting its statue or emphasizing a nearby plant or tree. You can even choose the color of your lighting. Just make sure to keep things simple and not circus-like or glaring. Never let light shine directly against the water as this can cause a lot of glare.
There are many ways you can use outdoor patio lighting. Use up-lighting to light up plants or objects from below. Use spotlighting to highlight statues, sculptures and other structures. Place some shrubs nearby to prevent too much glare. For that mysterious fantastical look, use moonlighting. This means placing light over trees and other tall objects to make it seem like natural moonlight is streaming through downwards.
There are many more techniques out there. There’s path lighting, silhouetting and shadowing. These techniques involve playing with light and shadow as well as preventing too much glare. It would be interesting to cast some shadows of beautiful plant structures on the exteriors of your home. Even plants that naturally don’t have leaves can cast very interesting and elegant shadows.
There is so much information online on outdoor patio lighting. You can research on techniques alone or on how to install the patio lighting you just bought. Lighting can definitely make your patio a true extension of your home.
There is so much information online on outdoor patio lighting. You can research on techniques alone or on how to install the patio lighting you just bought. Lighting can definitely make your patio a true extension of your home.
