Outdoor Lighting Schemes
The end of the summer is one of my favorite times of year, and it’s not just because the kids go back to school! No, this is my favorite time of year because the evenings are still warm enough to have supper outdoors, but it gets dark earlier and earlier every night, so now is when my backyard outdoor lighting gets turned on earlier and I get the chance to enjoy it all evening.
During the longer days of mid summer, it seemed that I could cook and entertain relatively late without worrying about turning on the lights. Safety is a big issue for me, and I like having stairs and pathways of my back yard lit well enough so my friends and family don’t end up in a bush. But now that the days are shorter, I just enjoy turning on the lights so that my evening guests can enjoy the ambiance as much as I do.
We started to create our outdoor lighting scheme about 5 years ago. My spouse and I were charmed by the simplicity and beautiful effect of the outdoor lights of a French restaurant we visited in Mexico. Since that time we have experimented with many different types of outdoor lighting designs. Our scheme is a work in progress and it gets refined each year. Some years we use a lot of string lights while in other years we use spot lights and twinkly lights. We generally tend to stick to white lights although we sometimes use the odd colored spotlight.
When you decide to come up with a lighting scheme for your backyard or patio, you will want make sure that you design with safety in mind. People unfamiliar with your outdoor space won’t be expecting changes in surfaces, or won’t be familiar with how many steps from your patio to the backyard. Improper lighting could create safety hazards that are easily avoided with some planning. Consider adding extra lighting at doorways, stairs, and any areas that are main traffic areas.
Once you have taken care of the safety aspects of outdoor lighting you can concentrate on creating mood or an ambiance. I personally prefer a softer type of lighting. I like to make things light enough so I can see where I’m walking and I can easily make out my guests and food but dark enough that some candle light can be appreciated. One of my favorite lighting techniques is using rope lighting or string lighting on the trees at the back of my yard. This type of lighting provides almost no illumination but provides a very pretty whimsical effect.
A well thought out backyard lighting scheme can double your use of your outdoor space, by turning an unlit and unused outdoor space into a spectacular evening focal point that your family can enjoy all year round. Using your outdoor space is one of the cheapest ways to expand your living space, and a little time with some inexpensive outdoor lights will probably be one of the best decorating jobs you do to your house. The bonus is that it is also very flexible – if you see some new ideas that you like, it is simply a matter of moving a few lights and you have a whole new outdoor lighting design!
No related posts.