Your outdoor space is likely one of the most commonly used family entertainment areas in your home. Outdoor entertainment areas provide a cosy, ambient atmosphere that welcomes friendship, connection, leisure and relaxation. Lighting plays a key role in a home’s welcoming ambience and overall feel. This is especially true for common areas such as the kitchen, dining areas and outdoor spaces. Sprucing up your outdoor space with some well-lit lighting features can help create the desired feel and ambience that welcomes, comforts and entertains.
Create the beautiful space of your dreams with these 5 outdoor lighting tips:
1. Bring the indoors, out!
Outdoor spaces are more commonly being turned into beautiful, modern oases, often used as an extension of internal living spaces. When well-lit and styled properly, they become used more often than the typical indoor family room or dining space. The indoors are being brought outside onto decks and patios, with weather-indurant rugs, furniture and decorative lighting creating a cosy and ambient atmosphere while enjoying the surrounds of nature and plenty of fresh air.
The trend of styling outdoor spaces with traditionally indoor lighting products has definitely increased in momentum over the last few years. With a splash of creativity and a dash of innovation, your outdoor space can be turned into a dreamy modern oasis, where you’ll likely spend most of your time at home relaxing. Don’t be afraid to get cosy on your deck or patio – almost anything goes!
Most electricians will recommend using weather-resistant and outdoor appropriate lighting, but that doesn’t mean you need to stick to the basics. A beautifully crafted outdoor pendant light coupled with some dimmable down-lights will create the warm, relaxed atmosphere you’re going for.
Some great options for outdoor lighting features include:
- Outdoor chandelier
- Outdoor Pendant lights
- Solar floor lights
- Moon lights
- LED string lights
2. Light it up
Ensuring there is adequate outdoor lighting along entrances or pathways is important for people’s safety. Small pathway or step lights appropriate for outdoor use can be purchased from local electrical stores such as Bunnings, at an affordable price. Depending on how many you need, be sure to space them quite closely to ensure sufficient lighting for those not-so-easily-visible areas at night. Adding foot-height lighting to your outdoor steps is also an excellent way to ensure you’re keeping your family and guests safe when navigating stairways and other tricky areas at night.
We suggest the following lighting fixtures for outdoor use along pathways, outdoor entrances and steps: - Individual step lights that are mounted on a post or stair railing
- Flexible LED strip lighting, cut to size for each step
- Under-tread lights
- Post lights
3. Garden Features
If you’re a green thumb, ensuring your garden looks beautiful both during the day and at night will be a fun project for you to undertake! There’s something so relaxing about sitting on a back deck, enjoying a glass of wine while listening to birds chirp away while staring into a lush green oasis. Adding some outdoor “fairy” lights to your garden will provide a beautiful addition to your outdoor space. If you have a striking tree or bed of roses you love, why not make the most out of it and add some feature lighting?
4. Water Magic
Water features offer a special opportunity for styling outdoor areas. The addition of lighting to your swimming pool, hot tub, pond, fountain or water feature will create a truly unique and beautiful atmosphere to compliment your outdoor living space.
5. Security lighting
Adding motion sensors in your outdoor lighting areas, while not a “stylish” solution, will provide safety and securing to your home while you’re enjoying the great outdoors. The purpose of outdoor sensor lights is to alert you of anyone who walks on to your property. Generally, we’d recommend having a sensor light at the front, sides and back of your home; but considering animals, shadows and swaying trees can sometimes alter sensor motions, we would suggest keeping sensor lights away from bedrooms.
