No Australian home is ever complete without an impressive backyard or a cool outdoor entertaining area. You can have both or one or a huge landscape with some creative lighting that enhances the appeal and mood at the same time. Good lighting can play a key role in ensuring the safety and aesthetics of a place, therefore, it is a must to give due attention to this aspect of home lighting. In this blog, we will be discussing the top 5 tips suggested by lighting experts for outdoor lighting:
● The first thing that you need to pay attention to is the design and planning of outdoor lighting. It doesn’t matter how small or big your place is, you must lay out a plan for lighting before getting started on things. Even if you just plan to hang some cool outdoor LED spike lights, you need to begin the plan on paper. Identify the areas that will have more footfall, areas that need lighting essentially, and areas that are slippery, the stairs zone and similar other attention-worthy areas. Such areas need precedence over all others. Make sure you include all such elements in your design.
● Next, you need to look for your front gate lighting. It is one of the first things that your guests will see, therefore, it will play a key role in the first impression you make. If there is a path leading to your front gate make sure the path has good lighting. You will need your guests to reach your front gate safe and sound. Make sure the address details like your house number or the apartment number are well lit, it will help in quick identification after dusk. Make sure you have an equal number of down and up lights at the entrance in an elegant but inviting manner.
● You also need to take care of the path from the main gate to the entrance door of your home. You can always use LED garden spike lights to illuminate the way. If the garden or backyard has stairs or some steps, make sure to use some weatherproof lights to take care of them. Most outdoor lights, as a rule of thumb, need to be weatherproof as carelessness in that aspect can easily lead to power failures, short circuits, and similar other problems during rains, winters, and windy days.
● Feature lighting and lighting for entertainment areas also need similar attention and focus. You can always begin by learning to create a contrast between light and shadows to lift up the spirit of the place. If there are trees, plants, and some statues, make sure you take advantage of these features and use the right kind of lighting to illuminate these features correctly.
● Lastly, make sure you illuminate the features as per their use. For example, the cooking area will need strong lighting. You can use spotlights there to keep things well-lit and visible. The entertainment area can have mood and soft lighting.