As the famous saying goes, first impressions count. Whether it’s a business looking to impress clients with the exterior of their offices or a family looking to create an attractive garden lighting display, getting the outdoor lighting right is important.
In this post, we’ll be focusing on the lighting design for the garden and how you can improve your space with some simple changes.
The first consideration is deciding how you intend to use the outdoor space. Is it mainly used for the children to play in or do you want the main function to be entertaining guests?
Garden lighting basics
Outdoor lighting that is near a building with electricity can easily be integrated into your home’s wiring system. However, there is also an abundance of solar lighting options available too.
Whether outdoor or indoor, lighting is divided into by its purpose ambient (natural light), task (pathway lighting), accent (feature lighting) and decorative (aesthetics). Depending on the purpose of your garden space, you will have more, or less, of these.
There are a variety of bulbs available for outdoor fixtures but here at Eaton Electrical we use LED bulbs. This is because they are the safest, most durable and most energy efficient option available.
Garden lighting
Of course, the size of the garden will determine what is possible and how many lights you can place around it, but there are plenty of areas that you will consider lighting in the garden:
- Pathways and driveways are important to light well both for safety and beauty. Lighting along paths extenuate the size of the path and illuminates surrounding flowers
- Patios are where you will spend most of your time socialising in the summer evenings. Uplighting is difficult to achieve in the garden but both uplighting and downlighting can usually be achieved on the patio
- Plants and rockery. If you’re an avid gardener, you want to show off your work, right? Placing lights in between key plant features can enhance the scenery
- Steps and low walls. Another safety lighting addition would be to place lighting on any steps and low walls. Small LED lights can be placed on the steps or next to steps to light up trip hazards
Sophisticated spotlights on walls, steps and along pathways light the way in style, while uplighters set off the architecture, foliage or water features around them for an enchanting night scene.
Residential lighting design
If you are landscaping your garden, don’t forget to invest time in the lighting design. The finishing touches will complement the plan and will lift the new garden to create a striking effect after dark.
Eaton Electrical provide a bespoke lighting design service for both domestic and business properties. The goal of all of our lighting design projects is to make sure the design fits the purpose. From there we will work on making it aesthetically appealing.
To find out more about our bespoke lighting design services, call us today on 01509 414 222.
