Garden Lighting

If you’re lucky enough to have an outside or garden area, it’s a really precious space. 

Whether it be for letting the dogs have a play and the kids run riot or a more peaceful adult space for catching your breath, a few rays, perhaps mull over a bit of gardening or the ever popular banishment of spouses to the ‘man-shed’.

Why not utilise this space not only for daytime hours, but also of an evening. 

Being outdoors is good for so many reasons; 

• It boosts your energy and immune system
• Enhances creativity
• Restores your focus
• Helps to calm you with natural aromatherapy scents
• Feels easier to exercise outdoors
• Makes us a better person

And that was just from one google search; https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/70548/11-scientific-benefits-being-outdoors

Whilst it’s easy to utilise outdoor areas on those warm summer nights, spring, autumn and winter can be just as beautiful. 

What perfect way to extend your garden usage from daytime to dusk while the sun goes down and your lights come up.  It’s a completely different world.  

Here are some ideas about how you can achieve an ultimate evening garden ambience; 

Accentuating Walkways

It sounds obvious for practical reasons but lighting up your garden path can also transform your garden in the evening. Your walkway can be pretty and have a purpose. 

Lighting up your entrances and exit routes also helps to increase your house’s security. 

This can be anything from your DIY spiked solar powered lights you can pop into your lawn (these don’t last five seconds in our house before the dogs eat them!) or making a more permanent installation; 

• recessed lighting into a garden wall or ground foundation, 
• up/downlighter network, 
• a decorative full height lamppost  
• or some high level floodlights. 

Decking Lights

Decking is a great garden installation; low maintenance and tidy.  As the day gets darker, what better way to keep the space alive than lighting it up. 

These can start from thin LED strips fitted straight into/ under your decking perimeters – I like to describe these as ‘the hazard line’ – so that after a few evening tipples you don’t forget where the edge of the decking finishes for what would be an untimely end to an evening. 

Alternatively, circular recessed lights are available in various different sizes depending on the space you’re lighting and the effect you’re trying to create. Even better when they’re used to surround your outdoor hot-tub – just saying. 

Wall-Mounted Lighting

There are so many types of outside light depending on the practicality of it’s usage and how you want the space to feel. Who knew you could express yourself through a light fitting…

They can be a traditional victorian lamp-like styled design,the more modern steel up/downlighter, box lights, circle lights, bulkhead lights or globe lights.

And the usage; From that automatic outdoor porch light that helpfully comes on whilst you’re fumbling for your door key or the chinese takeaway turns up or the series of lights outside that you can switch on/off when in use. Or for the most practical option, the option of having everything on a timer. 

Decorative/ Ambient Installations – 

I don’t know about you, but scrolling through Pinterest gives me serious garden envy!  Some things can be easily achieved through a DIY approach or professionally installed if you’re looking for a longer lasting garden feature.  

Festoon lighting

Whether white or coloured lights – these easily be purchased online and draped along your garden fence for an instant transformation. But why not get really creative with festoon lighting and make a more permanent installation across the length of your garden, within a pagoda or even within the branches of a garden tree. Professionally installed festoon lighting will definitely trump your cheap and cheerful online purchase and make it through some of the UK’s more variable weather. 

Fairy lights

Nothing beats putting some battery powered fairies in those leftover gin bottles dotted around your garden. Or draping them inside your table parasol over that summer evening dinner. 

And whilst battery powered is nice and portable, mains powered is so much easier (no remembering that are AAA’s required every fourth evening of the week)

Mains powered is convenient but often messy with wires often trailing out of windows or via extension cables which often takes away from the ambience you are creating, so..

While I’m On It; Outdoor Sockets

If you are taking a more DIY approach for your outdoor lighting, I cannot stress how valuable it is to have a fully working, safe outdoor socket for you to plug your lights into. Also great for when you need to mow the lawn or put your christmas lights up. 

Anyway, back to fairy lights, when I’m talking about professional fairy light installation, I’m talking about Kew Garden Christmas Light Spectacular-esque installations. (see link – you should definitely go BTW!) Nature is already so beautiful and every tree has so many interesting shapes. From daytime to evening, a tree wrapped in fairy lights creates a jaw dropping centrepiece for a garden.

Christmas is a time where everyone puts out their icicles and figurines to show off to the whole neighbourhood. And there’s no reason why it can’t be Christmas everyday with a professional installation!

If you like our garden light installation ideas, get in touch and we’d be happy to see what we can do to help make your garden a space for using from daytime to night. 

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Blog By Charlotte Oatway

Images sourced from Pinterest