Adding outdoor lighting to your backyard helps to create the perfect atmosphere for entertaining all year round. Bring your garden to life at night and make your outdoor space last longer into the night. Lights can be used for more than just lighting up a dark space. Lights can change the mood, atmosphere and create security.
Add lighting to a tree, sculpture or artwork
For a tree up to 2.7 metres, a light such as; Firefly 3Watt Uplight is perfect due to their compact modern design. These lights are also great to highlight water features, laser cut wall art and screens and sculptures. Small trees such as bamboo, ferns and magnolias benefit from using a couple of uplights positioned either side to capture the canopy and to create depth. For larger trees, up to 5 metres, an uplight such as Lotus 5Watt is great to give more impact and give a larger spread of light, whilst still being discreet in the garden due to its short body. Adding fairy lights along a balcony or pergola is a great way to make your garden look magical. The twinkling of the fairy lights is a lovely touch and it’s super easy to install.
Light up your pathways and entrance way.
Not only does lighting your pathways and entrance provide safety and security, it can make them look more aesthetically pleasing, and easier to approach the property on late nights. Spotlights, lanterns, bollards and strip lights are perfect for lighting a pathway. They can be placed anywhere long the pathway. Pathway lights, especially strip lights are typically placed in a straight line right by the path however, they can be placed wherever it is functional. For the entrance way, add motion sensor lights that detect someone passing through. This can be a deterrent for burglars as well as making sure you feel welcomed and safe by having the driveway to front door well-lit. A well-lit outdoor area is a secure one.
Use Solar Powered lighting wherever you can.
Lighting up your outdoor area with solar powered lights in a great way to make it more environmentally friendly and save on electricity bills. Solar powered lighting, which are powered by the sun offers warm and subtle accent lighting. A solar powered light is charged throughout the day, receiving its energy from the sun. At night, the battery activates and the light automatically turns on. They don’t require wiring or any other power source making them easy to place in the ground. Perfect for lighting up a pathway and safe to place around a swimming pool or pond since they do not have any wires. Solar powered lighting is long lasting as the LED bulbs run up to 100,000 hours (which are unfortunately unreplaceable) and the rechargeable batteries last up to 2 years (you can easily buy replacements at the hardware store or online). Solar powered lighting is weatherproof and designed to handle all temperatures. However, it is recommended to have plastic instead of glass lighting if you have a lot of rain or snow. Keeping them clean is important so they have a longer life span and making sure the solar panel is optimised. Most solar lights expect to have 4-8 hours of illumination on a full charge. Wall lights, stake lights, deck lights and fairy lights are just some of the solar powered lights that are available.