So you want to light up your outdoor space-great idea! The best way to do this is by creating amazing outdoor lighting.
You can create a beautiful, welcoming atmosphere that will make your guests feel as if they’ve stepped into a fairy tale, or you can create a warm and inviting ambiance that will make them want to stay until the wee hours of the morning. In this guide, we’ll cover how to create amazing landscape lighting so that you can make your outdoor space as beautiful as possible.
Gather Lighting Inspiration
Landscape outdoor lighting can set the mood for your backyard or patio, draw attention to your garden, and even help you find the right path through your property at night. But how do you get started? The first step in creating landscape outdoor lighting is to gather inspiration from other sources—whether they’re photos or videos of other people’s lighting setups or just drawings or sketches you’ve made yourself. Take note of what catches your eye and why it speaks to you; then try to communicate those ideas to a landscape designer.
If you’re starting your inspiration journey, why not visit the Eichenlaub Outdoor Living Studio and view some of our different lighting options?
What Types Of Outdoor Lights To Use
Here is a list of different types of outdoor lighting that you could use in your outdoor space.
Bollard lights – these are small lamps that fit into the ground along paths and driveways so you don’t have to worry about tripping over them when walking around your garden at night time;
Floodlights – these provide light over large areas such as patios or swimming pools;
Spotlights – spotlights are ideal for highlighting trees or plants in your garden;
String lights – perfect for adding a dreamlike quality above your patio or in your trees
Outdoor Lighting Techniques
Accent Lighting
A small spotlight or spotlights can illuminate one specific area of your landscape. This is often used to highlight features such as trees or plants by illuminating them from behind. Accent lighting can also be used to draw attention to other things like walkways and steps leading into your home.
Shadowing
Shadowing is when the light source is placed at an angle so that it casts shadows onto the ground. This effect creates depth and dimension in your landscape design and makes it look more natural since shadows happen naturally in nature all the time (especially during sunset). Shadowing is typically used as an accent lighting technique but can also be used throughout your entire yard as well if desired.
Cross Lighting
This technique involves positioning lights at an angle across one another, with each light shining down onto the other. This creates a “starburst” effect that looks great on trees or other plants.
Uplighting
Uplighting is similar to cross-lighting, except that it uses up-facing lights instead of angled ones. The result is usually less dramatic than cross-lighting because the light shines upward rather than across, but it still looks nice in small areas such as flower beds or walkways.
Diffused lighting
Diffused lighting is like cross-lighting with one big difference: Instead of using individual bulbs for each fixture, you use one large fixture that diffuses the light across multiple bulbs at once. This creates a softer effect that’s perfect for highlighting shrubs or flower beds.
Where to put the lighting
You want to place your lights where they’ll have maximum impact without being too obtrusive; look at how much light is needed in each area before deciding where best to install them. It’s important that you don’t use too much light in any one area—the goal is to create an atmosphere that feels inviting and comfortable, not blind!
For example, if you want to highlight a particular plant or tree with some extra pizazz, spotlights might be a great choice because they focus all their energy directly on one spot. If you’re looking for general illumination throughout an area like a pathway or patio area where guests will be walking around at night time then flood lights may be better suited.
Lighting is one of the easiest things you can do to create a dramatic, professional-looking landscape. If you’re looking at lighting up your outdoor space at night, get in contact with the team at Eichenlaub, we’d be happy to help.
