Outdoor lighting not only adds value to your home but also improves your home’s safety and security. We have compiled a list of creative backyard lighting ideas, from string to LED lights. These will guide you on how you can enhance the feel of your backyard.
Need expert Electrical Installation Services? Wilson Electric’s certified Whitby Electricians and Durham Region Electricians handle lighting, rewiring, and new builds across homes and businesses.
Whether you’re planning a party or simply wishing to extend your living space, these lighting ideas will do the trick. However, installing outdoor lighting can be tricky, and it’s best to leave it to the experts. That is why you should hire home electrical contractors to make installation easy and quick. Therefore, they can install outdoor lighting that meets your needs while keeping your family and property safe.
Let’s explore these eight unique outdoor lighting ideas to make your home stand out.
Path Lighting Ideas
Path lighting is a type of safety and landscape lighting that is not too bright but soft to moderately bright. Its main purpose is to assist you in navigating walkways while providing an attractive highlight to them. Install path lights on both sides of walkways, from the back door to the fence door, for proper illumination and safety.
To accentuate their contours, these outdoor lighting fixtures will lead to a backyard feature, such as a fountain or flower beds. These lights stay bright for hours after dusk, whether your walkways are in the shade or not.
Moonlighting
Moonlighting has gained significant popularity in recent years as a unique lighting technique that mimics the natural appearance of moonlight. This technique uses downward-facing floodlights to create a soft, gentle glow that creates an enchanting ambiance of a moonlit night. Typically, one installs it in a tree at a high point, roughly 20-25 feet high.
This will create a dappled lighting effect through the tree’s canopy. Moonlighting primarily aims to enhance the visual appeal and create a certain ambiance rather than serve safety or security purposes.
An outdoor lighting contractor can help ensure that it is installed in the right places while minimizing any negative effects. Hiring an experienced contractor is vital. They balance function and aesthetics and create custom lighting plans for your needs.
Security Lighting
Bright security lighting deters intruders and animals, illuminating large areas for safety and preventing potential damage. It illuminates main walkways and backyard fence entrances from high locations, like the eaves or above the garage.
Mount motion-sensing floodlights on exterior walls or siding for optimal security. These floodlights typically contain two or three-bulb housing units that are triggered only when built-in sensors detect movement in the area.
String Lighting
Soft, low-voltage accent lighting, or string lighting, creates a warm and intimate atmosphere, particularly suitable for entertaining. Brighten up outdoor areas with string lights, perfect for illuminating patio furniture or creating ambiance in an outdoor kitchen.
When searching for hanging lights, it’s best to opt for options that an outdoor lighting installation company provides with long-lasting LED bulbs. Eliminating extension cords, lighting remote corners without outlets, and safe operation in the rain – these lights have it all.
Outdoor Wall Lighting
Low-voltage outdoor wall lighting illuminates small recessed yard areas where shadows can be a problem for safety and accent lighting. Mount these lights on vertical surfaces like pergola interiors, stairs, around pools, sunken seating areas, and low-lying spots.
Use wall lamps with an open-bottomed design to achieve maximum lighting and cast light downward onto recessed areas. These lights are functional and add a decorative touch to the outdoor living space. Timers, sensors, or dimmers can control them to create a personalized ambiance.
Deck Lighting
High-intensity lighting that operates at standard voltage and is specifically intended to illuminate decks during nighttime is known as deck lighting. It serves the dual purpose of providing safety to people moving around the deck by preventing tripping hazards and highlighting nearby garden features.
These lights are often installed on decks by home electrical contractors. Placing them in grooves on the deck’s surface allows individuals to safely walk over them without feeling protrusions underfoot. Deck lights are usually placed on the deck’s edge, between stair steps, and along stair railings for illumination.
Spot Lighting
Spotlighting involves using standard-voltage fixtures that emit narrow, moderate- to high-intensity beams of light directed upwards. People commonly use this type of lighting to highlight plants or ornamental features in a garden or landscape. Position spotlights at ground level or above it, beneath tall trees or lawn ornaments to accentuate their statuesque appearance.
Choose bullet lights with adjustable heads to project bright light pins at your preferred angle above ground. To illuminate shorter distances, one can insert garden lights that work best for smaller features, such as shrubs.
Decorative Lanterns
Lanterns can provide gentle, low-voltage lighting that accentuates architectural details or decorations on a small section of an outdoor wall. Typically, people install them near the back door to draw attention to elements such as transom windows, arches, or ornate wreaths above the door. Most lanterns have a glass and metal exterior attached to an arm that is fixed to a wall plate and semi-flush mounted.
Battery-powered tabletop lanterns offer eye-level visual appeal, softly illuminating items used for outdoor gatherings like snacks, beverages, or board games. To ensure that the lanterns don’t distract from other backyard lighting fixtures, it is advisable to choose ones with translucent rather than clear glass coverings, which will provide diffuse and glare-free nighttime lighting.
Wrapping Up
You can create a cozy and inviting outdoor space for entertaining guests or relaxing by strategically placing light fixtures. Select from various outdoor lights like string, path, and floodlights to illuminate your property and enhance its charm.
If you’re considering installing lights yourself, taking safety precautions and ensuring you have the necessary tools and knowledge is important. However, hiring an outdoor lighting contractor to install your outdoor lights can save you time and ensure the job is done correctly.
Improve the home’s exterior, increase value, and enhance outdoor spaces with lighting- a great way to make them enjoyable. So, go ahead and start exploring your exterior lighting options today!
