A well-planned outdoor lighting scheme does more than just bring a garden to life at night. It can boost safety and extend living spaces too. Four lighting experts reveal how to achieve beautiful and functional alfresco lighting.
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1. Plan Early
“The key with garden lighting is getting your electricity to the right places before the plants go in, so you really need to know where you want light at the beginning of the process,” says Adele Locke, a professional lighting designer and the director at MINT. “Designing the effects and choosing the light fittings come after you’ve worked out your features and plants, but if you don’t have power, you can’t have light.”
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2. Think About the Look and Feel You Want to Create
“Ask yourself, are you looking to add safety, drama, depth or excitement? This will inform your lighting choices,” says Nicola Cameron, a landscape designer and the director of Pepo Botanic Design.
The architecture of your home is a smart place to start. “We begin lighting projects by reviewing the overall space and thinking about what sort of atmosphere we want to evoke. The aim is to create a seamless flow between the planting, hard materials and the home,” she says.
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3. Budget for Lighting
“We recommend setting aside at least 5% of the total cost of your garden-design budget for your lighting requirements,” Cameron says. “Not only does this allow you to create a luminous outdoor vista, but it ensures you will get ample use of the garden after dark.”
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4. Choose Quality Fittings
Garden lights can be subject to all sorts of weather extremes, so it pays to choose durable, well-made fittings that will last the distance, says Stuart Hines, a sales and design consultant at Gardens at Night.
“We recommend lights made from high-quality brass, which is naturally resistant to corrosion and can withstand our ever-changing weather conditions. Brass also provides the perfect base for a number of finishes — it can be powder-coated or electroplated in matte black, nickel, copper and bronze, for example,” Hines says.
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5. Know the Different Lighting Types
“Generally, outdoor light fittings should be hidden, with an emphasis on the illumination, not the fixture,” Cameron says. There are exceptions, she adds, including sculptural and string lights.
Here are the main outdoor lighting types you need to know about.
- Spike lights: Good for garden beds where you want to uplight plants or specific features.
- Bollard lights: Great for lighting paths or driveways.
- Spotlights: Good for shooting light up the trunk of a tree or highlighting architectural features.
- Projection lights: Useful for creating interest and playful patterns on walls and ground surfaces.
- Strip lights: Can be used to wash light across steps, backlight garden beds and illuminate areas under built-in seats or barbecue grills or along a deck.
- Sculptural lights: Think playful or interesting fittings that are a feature in themselves, such as hurricane lamps and LED balls.
- String lights: Can create a twinkling canopy and highlight an entertaining area.
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6. Use Black to Conceal
“Matching the colors of light fittings to the setting never works as well as you would expect,” Locke says. “Generally, if we want to conceal a [light], it’s black or dark gray in a matte finish that won’t reflect the light.”
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7. Understand IP ratings
The IP (ingress protection) rating tells you how well a light can cope with elements such as water and the penetration of solids such as dust. This rating is particularly important to be aware of with outdoor lights.
“The IP rating of a fitting has two numbers. The first indicates the degree of protection from solid objects, which, in garden settings, can be dust or fine soil particles. Here, we would recommend choosing a fitting with the highest rating of six, which offers full protection from solids,” Hines says.
“The second number indicates the protection against water ingress. A rating of six would mean that lights could cope with the heaviest of rainfall,” he says. “However, if the light fitting is in a low area and is likely to be submerged for a period of time, then you would need to look at a rating for water ingress of eight.”
Seed Studio Landscape Design
8. Opt for LEDs
“LEDs have become the standard for most lighting applications, including outdoors,” Hines says. “They’re energy-efficient, long-lasting and have reduced heat output.”
Cameron adds, “When choosing LEDs, be aware that yellow light is more relaxing than white light, which can drain your outdoor surfaces of tone and texture.”
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9. Choose the Right Fixture for the Spot
“Garden lighting needs to be balanced and comfortable, rather than confusing or overbearing,” Cameron says. “Flood lights, for example, tend to blast the entire garden and can be harsh and uncomfortable.”
Ask yourself simple but important questions to ensure you get your landscape lighting right. “Do you need to guide visitors along a path at night? Does a gate need to be well-lit? These insights will help determine whether vertical or horizontal lighting is required. Horizontal placement helps people see obstacles or trip hazards on the ground,” Cameron says. “Meanwhile, vertical lighting can help you recognize the facial features of approaching people. It also highlights the depth of obstacles, such as steps.”
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10. Prioritize Safety
“It’s important to light any hazardous areas in your garden, such as pathways, stairs, retaining walls or step slopes,” says Dell Bannan, a lighting designer at Beacon Lighting. “When illuminating a path, you only need enough light to guide the way — you don’t want it to be glaring or blinding. A light with 300 to 400 lumens will provide enough illumination for safety,” she says.
11. Highlight Your Garden’s Best Features
“Start by identifying your garden’s best features and any areas that deserve an emphasis — for example, a beautiful tree or sculpture,” Cameron says. “Then create a hierarchy of lighting to establish depth and harmony.” She suggests choosing lighting tones that will best enhance the features you want to highlight.
“In our projects, we begin by incorporating a luminous wash that creates an evenly lit canvas. We then create layers by carefully spotlighting individual elements. It is important to do this gradually, and remember that less is more when it comes to creating a balanced and pleasant result,” she says.
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12. Use Light to Extend Your Living Space
“The greatest value in lighting your garden is that it extends your living space,” Locke says. “Most people don’t realize the value of garden lighting as an element of their interior design, and only turn their lights on when they’re outside. But if you have lit up your garden, and you have lots of windows looking out onto it, then on a cold winter evening you can turn those lights on, and suddenly you are including your garden in your living space,” she says.
Seed Studio Landscape Design
13. Don’t Overdo It
One of the biggest mistakes homeowners make is overlighting their garden, Locke says. “Outdoor lighting is not about recreating Times Square in your garden — it’s about highlighting the features so it feels inviting and intriguing,” he says.
It’s important to include dark areas in your garden to create contrast and balance, Cameron says, and doing so has environmental benefits too. “A campaign to promote outdoor darkness is currently gaining momentum, known as the dark-sky movement,” she says. “It supports the growing trend we are seeing to reduce light pollution.”
Advocates of the campaign encourage the thoughtful use of lighting, aiming to make the nighttime sky more visible and reduce energy and power usage. “One of the major causes of light pollution is fixtures that beam light upwards. Increasingly, landscape architects are integrating shielded lights that direct luminosity downwards, as well as filtered fittings and capped bollard fixtures,” Cameron says.
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