Attractive Landscape Lighting Ideas and Tips — Outdoor Lighting Guide for Beginners
There are easy ways to design your outdoor area with stunning lighting designs. The list below will give you ideas of what you can do to turn your outdoors into an attractive, eye-catching spot when the sun goes down.
Facade Lighting Ideas
The facade of your house is important. It gives the first impression of who you are. One way to amp up the appearance of your facade is to have good outdoor house lights
1. Inviting Touch to Your Front Door Lighting
Front doors are usually lit by wall sconces, chandeliers, floor lanterns, and other lighting design ideas. Nothing wrong with those front door lighting ideas.
However, you add an inviting touch to your front door. Hang festoon lights on your porch. It definitely adds a homey feel to your landscape lighting.
2. String for Cozy Patio or Deck
Some patios or wooden decks can be tricky to dress up with lights, but nothing complex can beat the use of solar fairy or string lights. These lighting fixtures are:
- easy to install and remove
- have multiple layout designs to choose from
- have different colour bulbs available for you to choose from
You can line them up to the border of your patio or criss-cross them on your ceiling. You can also use white or black Edison droppers here and there for an added wow factor. Same lighting accessories, multiple designs. Your patio or deck can look different anytime you want.
Another plus factor is changing the bulbs to whatever size and colour you want. Simple and multi-faceted. The buck doesn’t stop there; using string lights is not limited to your patio or deck only. Imagine the things you can do with these.
3. Use the Bullet Lights
Imagine walking down the pathway to your house. You gaze at the path lights and then slowly veer towards your home. You would tell yourself, “That corner needs a complementary light.” And here I would say, “a bullet light would be most recommended.”
Bullet lights fitted with bulbs projecting a 12-degree spread will fit the need. It can be focused on a large plant or any appealing exterior features of your home.
If you don’t have any of those, highlight the corner of your house. And if you are worried about the gap between corner lights, installing wash lights with soft beams will do the trick.
Outdoor Stair Lights
If you have an outdoor living space with stairs, this is one of the areas of the house that needs illumination. It doesn’t only add visual appeal to your facade but also improves visibility and safety.
4. Down the Middle Landscape Lighting
These lights are installed on the steps and light the middlemost part of your stairs. Again, this is taking full advantage of stair parts with no use other than support.
The downside is the glare, and the outer part of the stairs is not fully lit. However, you can have multiple lights installed to cover the whole steps.
5. Embed Wall LED Footlights on Stairs
There are several designs of wall-embedded footlights. However, the excellent option for outdoor use is LED wall lights.
LED wall lights are designed to withstand extreme temperatures. These light fixtures are:
- typically enclosed in protective plastic
- don’t have a filament or bulb
- have a sturdy frame usually made of aluminium or stainless steel
- have 50,000 hours lifespan, which means changing light bulbs is almost non-existent
6. Strip It Up
This landscape lighting idea shows more of the strip lighting used on stairs. It gives form to your stairs and provides sufficient lights for every step you take from the left to the right.
In addition, it provides a continuation from your footpath lights to the stairs.
Outdoor House Lights for Pathways, Gardens, & Pergolas
7. Pillars of Light
These classical outdoor post light can be set on a column or pillar at the end of your walkway to give more definition to your path lights. If you don’t have any of the two, there are lanterns in the market that includes the long post.
This will allow you to set these lighting fixtures where you want. What’s good about these lights is that they can be hard-wired or solar powered. You’re not stuck with the vintage look, though, because there are also more than a handful of modern lamp designs you can choose from.
8. Welcome to the Company of Trees!
Luminaires! Even the name of these beautiful lighting fixtures sounds classy. However, there are a lot of natural elements in your surroundings that can be put to good use. These stainless steel and garden wooden lanterns hung on a tree are an accurate example.
It gives a subtle and relaxed vibe as you walk among the tree. It brings you back to a time when lanterns were the only light source when outdoors. These ones, though, use LEDs that emit soft and warm lights.
Additional Tips: Fairy lights wrapped around the trunk or hanging from branches are also fantastic lighting ideas you should consider.
9. Give Your Outdoor Garden a Warm Glow
There are several methods to light up your patio, deck, or garden area. Modern technology lighting ideas have allowed creative minds to play around with their designs.
Some homeowners love the bold lighting designs that may resonate with their joyful personalities.
10. Vines, Shrubs, and Hedges Lights
More of the natural elements to dress up with fairy and string lights! The versatility is almost limitless for these easy-to-use lighting accessories. You can use a few or a lot to give more volume to your greens at night.
Needless to say, you can opt for a more permanent lighting fixture like well and floodlighting. Waterproof lights embedded into the ground give you a more subtle approach to lighting the underside of your foliage.
Some well lights are made with swivelling or fixed bulbs for walls or facades. In comparison, floodlights are somewhat visible as it protrudes on the ground.
11. Log It Till Your Stumped!
Is your yard too large? Despite ambient lighting on your pathway, trees and shrubs, do you still have dark lawn gaps? Randomly place these illuminated cracked logs with LEDs or lighted tree stumps here and there to illuminate those gaps.
What’s so convenient about these lighting accessories is you can place them wherever you see fit. You can create a mystical atmosphere combined with ambient lighting in the background. Add blinking fairy lights in the bushes for a firefly effect, and you’re ready to meet a unicorn— should you find one, that is.
RELATED: 9 Stunning Garden Lighting Ideas For Your Backyard
12. Illuminate Your Home Garden
This solar LED fairy light “sprinkle” garden lamp is a delightful addition to your garden. It’s more of an art piece that softly illuminates your garden simultaneously. So let that fairy light twinkle slowly for a catchy visual effect that will surely warm the heart of any plant lover.
This LED watering can also is solar powered, so you wouldn’t have to worry about running out of battery. Also, it automatically lights up when the sun goes down and turns off during the day.
13. All Out Lights for Pergolas
Most homeowners have freestanding structures in their yard to break the monotony when staying home. However, the simplest and most practical way to light up your outdoor living space is by gracing it with string and fairy lights.
Create a canopy of string lights, a curtain of fairy lights, and random placement of round paper lanterns. That’s to get you started on the endless possibilities of garden lighting ideas.
14. Brighten Your Borders
There are multiple methods to decorate your fence using lighting fixtures. Sconces, wall lights, well lights, strip lights, string lights, fairy lights, LED rope lights, and decorative fence lights are some choices available for you.
The choice is yours to make. Your home, your style.
15. Beam Me Up, Scotty!
This is what comes to mind for light fixtures equipped with motion sensors. These fixtures conveniently light up when it detects any movement in their coverage area. No more blindly groping for switches in the dark. Instead, just step out and let that light shine.
It’s also added security for unwanted visitors who think they are undetected in the shadows. They’re sure to scamper away like roaches when the sensors detect them and bask them in blinding light.
16. Pool Party Lights!
Other than submersible pool lights, there are also floating pool lights where you just let the round lanterns float freely on the pool water. Wrap a tree near the poolside with low voltage festoon lights for sufficient illumination.
The light reflection of the festoon lights on a still pool surface is also an added shimmer to your surroundings.
17. Hung Up
Hanging lanterns bring out the nostalgia in you. There are classical and modern designs that you can choose from. Ones that are non-fire and solar powered as well.
Hang a few on this tree and another on the other. Create a balance of spacing and continuity in lighting from each lantern cluster.
This is one of the few landscape lighting ideas that you can also DIY. Use fairy lights instead.
18. Start The Fire!
The fire pit is yet another platform to use string lights to cast light on its surroundings. This is because festoon lights are built to withstand extreme temperatures, especially from the heat rising from the fire pit. In addition, their bulbs are shatterproof.
So you can enjoy a lighted firepit minus the worries of heat exposure to your light fixtures. You can also set LED lamps around the fire area if string lights aren’t your thing.
19. Into The Spotlight
If you want to bring your guest’s attention to a focal point in your home, use a spotlight to highlight an architectural facade, a piece of art, or a water fountain to achieve that.
Spotlights can also work as ambient and task lighting. Uplight it to a tree trunk in your yard for added accent. At the same time, the lighting angle will create a warm glow under the foliage and accentuate the tree trunk texture.
20. Find The Way Landscape Lighting
Path lights are essential when you plan your landscape design. A lighted path is what greets you, your family, and your friends.
One of the ways to light the walkway is to add LED strip lights under concrete slabs. LED lights are the ideal option because it’s energy efficient and gives an incredible glow.
Unique and sufficient lighting on your footpath will lead your guest to where they should walk. It not only provides extra security and visibility to see what lies beyond and the surrounding path but also improves the curb appeal of your property.
21. Blend In
Instead of lighting your garden with LED stake lights that stick out like a sore thumb, you can use solar rock lights instead. These lighting accessories look like natural rocks. These can blend in your garden bed while providing the ambient lighting you need.
Attractive Landscape Lighting Ideas Advantages
We all know the plants mostly take centre stage when we talk about landscaping. Still, lighting designs improve your home’s appearance and functionality.
Here are some benefits when you have the right landscape lighting:
- Added lighting to your surroundings, especially when having barbecues or parties.
- Enhances the aesthetics of your property.
- It makes your home safer since you can quickly move around With lesser risks of tripping or turning an ankle.
- Increases the curb appeal of your home
- Increases the security of your home. Thieves tend to avoid these houses as they can be easily spotted.
Outdoor Living Space Tips to Avoid Light Pollution
Light pollution happens when the lights that shine into inside spaces obscure the night sky and create a temporary blinding glare. It can also be caused by excessive or improperly placed lights. Thus, it results in a waste of energy and money.
To avoid light pollution, below are some of the practical tips:
- Use Low Voltage Lights – Provides just the right amount of illumination needed for safety and aesthetics. Plus, they are highly cost-efficient.
- Proper Positioning – Aim the lights at a right angle for maximum illumination.
- Mix Them Up – Cross lighting or using multiple different lights to create the desired effect for a specific purpose. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your other lighting fixtures. Turn off those that you don’t need.
- Concentrated Lighting – Choose reflectorised shielded fixtures so you can focus the light exactly where you need it.
Things to Remember Before You Start
A well-planned landscape lighting system does more than just illuminate your space. So here are some important things to remember before you start:
- Strategically plot your lights ahead.
- Don’t overdo it. Too much of everything is never good.
- Bury your wirings in a 4″ – 6″ deep trench to prevent any cut wires.
- Illuminate any trip hazards.
- Use lighting fixtures with the highest possible IP rating since they will be constantly exposed to the elements.
Solar-powered lights are best for outdoor lighting ideas. Take full advantage of free solar energy to power up your outdoor landscape lights during the day.
Lastly, if you’re in the middle of your own DIY lighting project and loved any of the inspiration ideas above, get in touch using our contact page! We’d love to collaborate with you.