Patio Lighting, How to Light a Patio People Want to Stay On|How to Light a Patio|Patio Lighting That Gets Used

The back of the house is not curb appeal

The front of a property is a view. Out back you are inside the lighting, not looking at it. Everything changes once you are the one sitting under it. Nobody is grading the back yard from the street. What matters is whether the space still works after dark.The short version: do not treat the back as an afterthought of the front. A roofline system handles the street view and very little for the space behind it. Two spaces, two separate sets of requirements to satisfy.

Glare is the enemy

A single glaring bulb will empty a patio faster than no light at all. A bare bulb at eye height makes everything behind it disappear, so the yard turns into a black wall. Aim for light you notice the effect of but not the source of.

String lights are not a shortcut, they are a real technique

The reason overhead strings feel right is that they make a boundary. A patio without them has no top to it. Add a canopy of light and the area has walls it did not have. Warm and dim is what you want, since bright overhead light is the wrong mood entirely.The good version rarely costs more than the bad version, because aim and color temperature are free decisions.

Building the plan

Think of it as three jobs, not one switch. Something overhead for general warmth. Something low for the steps, the edges and the path in. And something aimed at one or two features worth looking at. Put them on different circuits, because the dinner setting and the cleaning up setting are not the same.

The business version

A restaurant patio has to solve this every single night. Bistro and string lighting over an outdoor dining area is what keeps guests seated once the sun goes. The same rules apply, only the consequences are measured in covers.

More nights outside

An unlit patio has a usable season that ends when the days get short. With light, the hours stop being the limit. Mild evenings are not limited to July, they just happen at night. The lighting is the thing standing between a nice evening and an unused patio.

Warm light near where people sit

Anybody who has sat under a bright outdoor light in July has shared it with insects. Warmer light is less interesting to most insects, which happens to be the same answer aesthetics gives. It will not eliminate anything, and that https://johnnywico141.clarionvale.com/posts/year-round-christmas-lights-why-the-ladder-can-stay-in-the-garage is not a claim worth making. But it is a free consideration when choosing the setting.Worth adding: the same warm setting suits the roofline above the patio, so the two do not disagree with each other.

The next step

Patio lighting gets designed by somebody standing on the patio, preferably at night. EverCrest Lighting does patio and outdoor living lighting for homes, restaurants and businesses across Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, out of Greenville. The consultation is free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or [email protected].

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