how to light your outdoor spaces
This month we've been focusing on outdoors spaces and how to make them an important part of your home! We've shared some of our favorite outdoor furniture lines, beautiful statement gardens, and how to get your outdoor space ready for entertaining! Today we'd like to focus on how to best enjoy your yard day and night, which of course is through outdoor lighting!
Exterior lighting is typically something that we feel most home owners don't really ever end up addressing with their homes. There are a variety of reasons why this might happen (low funds and lowest priority on your home to-do list, or don't even think to address it in the first place) but we guarantee that when done correctly, it will be one of the most important features of your homes exterior. After all, why invest so much time and money into making your curb appeal beautiful only to enjoy it for a portion of the day! Hopefully through reading this blog post, you will be inspired and ready to see how you can best light your home for your family and friends to enjoy! We will be focusing on lighting portions of your home that are meant for entertaining, as outdoor lighting is a very broad subject! Let's get to it!
1. MAKE AN ENTRANCE - Having sconces flank your front door is a great start to lighting your entry. However, try and go even further adding multiple layers of lighting that accent your walkway, trees, and the architecture of your home using bullet, well, and wash lights.
2. LIGHT THE WAY - Well designed down lighting along a pathway is the perfect addition of light to add for your guests meandering around your garden in the evening. These specific lights above are right up my alley with their simple architectural structure and corten steel housing!
3. STAIRWAY AND YARD LIGHTING - Accent lighting is a must have for stairs, because nobody wants to trip and fall flat onto a stone stairway! There are multiple places to light stairways from whether it be from the side, the riser or under the lip of the tread. For open areas, instead of using flood lights to light up those spaces from above try going for a wash light placed in some bushes shining horizontally for a more moody and dramatic effect as it shines over the tips of the grass.
4. FEATURE LIGHTING - Well lights beneath trees are a must have as they turn into interesting sculptural objects when lit from the ground up. If you have a water feature, try adding some ambient light on the sides of the pool or accenting a fountain like they've done above. This will add another layer of ambient lighting to your outdoor space while enhancing it's best features.
5. BISTROS - I don't think we could talk about outdoor lighting without mentioning the ever so popular bistro lights! There are a wide variety today to choose from but they definitely all provide the same finishing touch of a well lit outdoor space. Instead of bringing the outdoors in, it's bringing the comforts of a well lit interior out!
A well lit exterior has the same principles as a well lit interior: multiple layers of lighting to make your space user friendly and bring out the best features of your home. For more specifics on exterior lights check out this link here, and I hope you enjoyed these few tips we've shared today!
Zeterre | Lightology | Luciano Giubbilei | Achica Living | Lane
