Create a Jaw-dropping Atmosphere With These Exterior Lighting Ideas

By Land8: Landscape Architects Network on November 7, 2016 No Comments / 5493 views

In this article, we explore exterior lighting ideas to help you transform your outdoor space and make it a multi-layered experience. If you are someone like me, you really enjoy the outdoors. I mean, by day, you can have the warm sunshine on your back and the soothing wind refreshing your senses. However when the night starts to set in, the garden seem as though it’s turning into a dark, uninviting area like those places your mother used to tell you to stay away from when you were younger. It doesn’t have to be this way. You can easily turn your night garden from a sleepy-hollow to an uplifting, hip and cosy area that your friends and family will want to hang out. By the end of this post, you will start arranging mid-week barbecues and weekend get-togethers to show off your new chillout zone.

Exterior Lighting Ideas

Build a Fire Pit

There’s something about the light from a fire that attracts companionship. The soft light and warmth that is emitted from the fire is a great option to add to your garden. Expect stories to be shared, jokes to be told and friendships to be bonded. There are several fire pit designs that you can opt for. After installing the fire pit, be sure to add seating arrangements around the exterior. The colours and shadows from the fire pit should create a warm, inviting ambiance.

From the Asia series. Credit: Fire Pit Art

Reflect Light Off Your Trees, Gardens and Walls

It sounds simple, but it is so effective. Reflective lighting is an amazing way to light up your garden’s exterior. Consider investing in outdoor LED lights for the garden that are powerful enough to illuminate a bright light (ideally, as close as possible to sunlight) off the garden’s walls, trees or garden beds. The lighting ambiance should be bright enough to provide an inviting social setting.

Exterior Lighting Design. Licensed under CC0 Public Domain, image via Pixabay – source.

Use LED Rope Lights Rope lights can be used in a number of different ways in your garden. You can wrap the light around tree trunks or branches or you can line the lights along the edges of paths and walkways. If you want to create a contrast with shadows, you can also line them underneath benches or tables.

Licensed under CC 2.0. Image by Wonderlane, via Flickr – Source.

Use candles Candles are a great way to create that instant, “Sense of enchantment” in your garden. The candles can be placed around the garden with a naked flame or it can be placed inside a lantern to emit a glowing effect.

Exterior Lighting Design. Licensed under CC0 Public Domain, image via Pixabay – source.

Use String Bulb Lights These lights are great for adding a layer of soft light along walls or the main social areas in the garden. You can see an example of string lights being used below.

Exterior Lighting Design. Licensed under CC0 Public Domain, image via Pixabay – source.

Things You Should Keep in Mind If you choose to use electronic garden lights, there are garden lights that claim they will run on solar power, however many of these lights don’t receive enough solar energy during the day to make them illuminate throughout the night. Therefore, it is better to use a lighting product that can be connected to a main power source so that it will illuminate throughout the night.

Remember to use Different Types of Light to Make Your Exterior Appear More Interesting

Good light design uses a mixture of shadows and different levels of lighting. So it is important that there is a good level of contrast in the area. Below is a good example of an outdoor area that has implemented an interesting light design.

Licensed under CC 2.0. Image by MIKI Yoshihito, via Flickr – Source.

As you can see, it isn’t too difficult to create an amazing exterior by implementing an interesting light design. Take a look at your property and see how you can apply some jaw-dropping lighting design ideas today.