Designing lighting for the garden means creating the ideal setting to enjoy and experience outdoor spaces in your own way, even after sunset. The perfect mix of comfort, functionality and charm enhancing each corner of the outdoor area: from living spaces up to the one entirely devoted to greenery.
To achieve this atmosphere, it is vital to choose the most suitable garden lamps, the positioning and the most effective shades to obtain a three-dimensional effect and finely highlight the core elements of your own open-air space.
Here are the best tips to illuminate the garden in the most elegant way and with the most sophisticated solutions.
- Outdoor lighting
- Designing lighting for the garden
- How to illuminate the garden
- Garden lamps. How to choose them
- How to bright up a garden tree
- Outdoor lighting integrated in the pergola
- Examples of lighting for garden
1. Outdoor lighting
As for indoor lighting, an outdoor lighting project allows the imagination to wander, thus creating customised, nearly dreamlike scenarios reflecting the user’s sensitivity.
The only limitation, if you can call it that, stems from prolonged exposure to atmospheric agents. Therefore, outdoor lighting must necessarily be made of light units specifically intended for outdoor use. This does not affect aesthetic and style, since high-tech and top-modern creations allow any desired scenario to be replicated.
Moreover, outdoor lighting reveals its highly innovative potential also in terms of sustainability thanks to energy-efficient LEDs, which can be powered directly by solar energy. Hence, no need of electrical connection, but only the freedom to place spotlights, lampposts and ball lights wherever you wish.
2. Designing lighting for the garden
Before selecting the most suitable solutions, an accurate garden lighting design must be carried out. This means figuring out which items need to be illuminated and which ones serves as contrast as well as where lights are to be positioned and their specific intensity.
Light gave off naturally by the house or in general by indoor spaces with view outwards, shall be taken into account when designing lighting for the garden. Rooms with wide glass walls, verandas and pergolas already provide a great source of light and need to be integrated in the project.
A good way is then to prioritize the main garden lighting, namely the one for accesses, walkways, spaces for conviviality and relaxation, which need to be naturally illuminated for a comfortably but also safer use. Lastly, it comes to the scenic outdoor lighting, essential for highlighting vegetation and furnishings, thus creating a fascinating dynamic and depth effect giving shape to a dreamlike atmosphere that only a well-projected outdoor space can evoke.
3. How to illuminate the garden
Having defined these aspects, it is now time to start thinking about how to illuminate the garden. Such as which shades to opt for, which shapes and designs to match the style of you home and your outdoor area.
For a soft and soothing result, a good idea is to go for warm white lighting with dimmable technology allowing the intensity of each lighting system to be adjusted – also by means of practical home automations. However, RGB alternatives are also available, allowing the colours of the open-air space to be changed according to the desired atmosphere.
A further advice to illuminate the garden in a sophisticated way is to avoid pointing the light beam directly, but rather to allow it blend into hedges, flowers and trees, thus resulting in a pleasant play of light and shadow. It is therefore crucial to choose the right direction: the most effective garden lighting is that coming from downwards when it involves trees and voluminous plants, and from high above for small hedges and flowerbeds.
For the living room outdoors, there are plenty of option to be combined: from lampposts to lighting furniture, from spotlights up to floor lamps and more.
4. Garden lamps. How to choose them
The most recommended way to choose garden lamps is to combine the different elements according to the needs of each space, making sure each system has the proper IP protection degree to prevent intrusion of foreign objects, water and dust or incidental contacts.
Near driveways and walkways, for example, the path can be marked with light poles for gardens, to be selected in the design most in line with that of your own home and outdoor space. Minimalist solutions embellishing the aesthetics of the courtyard, which ca be equipped with space-saving photovoltaic panels. Alternatively, if you are looking for a timeless and versatile style, an excellent solution is represented by ball-shaped garden lamps. Available in different heights, they can also be placed within green areas or mounted on the outer wall of the building as a suspended element.
Keeping with the theme of geometric light fittings, the garden light balls – also available in square form and in the most original versions – offer a dual function: to brighten up the environment and to decorate it creatively. This is why they blend perfectly in both natural settings, creating a sophisticated allure, and in living and relaxation areas, in addition to other lighting systems.
Among these, the most versatile in terms of use and design are spotlights for gardens. Hardly noticeable during the day, they are ideal for illuminating pathways, boundary perimeters and the poolside, yet also allow trees and shrubs to be illuminated, with beams of light running from below upwards, offering a highly choreographic effect.
5. How to bright up a garden tree
Illuminating a garden tree is perhaps the trick that most of all can provide a charming and evocative three-dimensional effect.
The ideal technique consists in placing garden spotlights on the ground and direct the light beam from ground upwards, towards leaves. The type of tree to illuminate must be carefully selected for an optimal result. For instance, trees with small leaves such as olive trees allow sunlight to seep in, thus resulting in a pleasant interplay of light and shadow. On the other hand, wide-leaved types, such as magnolias or conical trees with an overly dense foliage are to be avoided if you intend to brighten up a garden tree.
6. Outdoor lighting integrated in the pergola
Like green areas, outdoor spaces devoted to conviviality and relaxation deserve an effective lighting for greater convenience and comfort.
Especially when adjoining the building, outdoor spaces can benefit from lighting on the outer walls or from removable lighting systems such as garden lamps or lighting furniture.
However, should the outdoor spaces be protected by sun shading systems, outdoor lighting can be integrated into these structures, thus making it usable also in the evening.
This is the case with vertical awnings and awnings with extendable arms, such as those from the Pratic’s T-Project collection, whose aluminium box can be equipped with warm white dimmable LEDs.
Outdoor lighting integrated in the pergola is indeed a highly demanded optional when it comes to pergolas. Here it is possible to choose the preferred combination among RGB LED stripes illuminating the pergolas and platform’s perimeter as well as spotlights integrated into the blades that can be placed at any height on the posts.
Furthermore, the installation of suspended garden lamps inside the pergola is also feasible when choosing the pergola Carrera of Pratic, conceived with alternating fixed and movable blades.
7. Examples of lighting for garden
When looking for inspirations and ideas for your own project, it may be useful to seek for examples of lighting for garden to get a better understanding of the style you want to give your patio and of the technical solutions available onto the market.
Below is a selection of inspirational images, showing the best examples of lighting for garden installed on Pratic’s shading systems.
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