Outdoor Living Space Lighting, How to Light a Patio People Want to Stay On|How Should a Patio Be Lit? Here Is What Works|Patio Lighting That Gets Used and Why It Is Not the Same as Curb Appeal

Two sides, two purposes

Front yard lighting is for people looking at the house. Out back the light is around you, not in front of you. 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.All of which adds up to one point. The front and the back rarely get solved by the same fixtures, and one light over the door is the usual result of not planning it. Two spaces, two separate sets of requirements to satisfy.

Glare is the enemy

The fastest way to make a patio feel wrong is one light source pointed at eye level. Look at a bright source and your eyes stop adapting to the dark. Aim for illumination without a visible bulb.

Bistro and string lighting

The reason bistro and string lighting works so well outdoors is that they define a room. A patio without them is a slab under an open sky. Add a canopy of light and the area has walls it did not have. Keep them soft, every time.None of this is a question of spending more, since most of what separates a good patio from a harsh one is where things point.

Building the plan

A patio usually needs three kinds of light. Something overhead for general warmth. Something low so nobody trips on the way to the door. And something aimed at one or two features worth looking at. Put them on different circuits, since you want a bright option and a quiet one.

Commercial outdoor dining

A restaurant patio is doing the same job for money. Warm overhead light turns an empty evening patio into occupied tables. The same rules apply, only the consequences are measured in covers.

Lighting stretches the season

Without light, the back yard has a curfew. A lit one stays open through the shoulder months and into the evening year round. Mild evenings happen most of the year here, and the dark is what keeps people indoors. 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 porch light in summer has shared it with insects. Warmer light https://evercrestlighting.com/about/ pulls in fewer of them, which conveniently matches what looks good anyway. It will not make a patio bug free, and nobody should promise that. But it is a free consideration when choosing the setting.Worth adding: the same warm setting suits the roofline above the patio, so the space reads as one thing.

Getting your outdoor space planned

The plan comes from walking it, not from a catalog. EverCrest Lighting designs and installs patio and outdoor living lighting for homes, restaurants and businesses in Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, from Greenville. Consultations are free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or [email protected].

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