Outdoor Lighting Ideas for Richmond Homeowners

If properly lit, an outdoor patio, deck, swimming pool, or dock can easily become the focal point and highlight of your home during warm weather months.

Upgrading outdoor lighting is a great way to improve an outdoor environment. Here are a few strategic ways an outdoor space can be improved with lighting fixtures.

Light Up Your Outdoor Environment

Since the human eye adjusts to low light scenarios quite well, the trick to outdoor lighting is to create a softly-lit atmosphere. Being outside, you’ll still want to be able to look up and see the stars or watch the moon, and you don’t want a brightly lit scene to diminish this. Keep bright lights from shining directly into people’s face; instead, use lots of small, thoughtfully placed lights that create subtle, ambient light, instead of a few big, bright lights.

Use Indirect Light for Pathways and Patios

Do you have a little walkway to a fire pit or a path down to the dock? We suggest using lights placed below eyelevel that shine down towards the ground. Coastal Source has created some of the most beautiful outdoor light fixtures in the industry, many of which are specifically designed for docks. If you have a stone lip around a patio, you might think of stringing lights all the way around the patio under that lip. Lights can be attached to planters or under the lip of a table. The possibilities are endless.

Uplight Trees and Structures

Again, the goal is to create indirect light that isn’t shining directly in people’s eyes. Lighting up trees will shed indirect light on an outdoor space and can help create a fun atmosphere. Similarly, shining lights up towards the house allows indirect light to bounce off the structure which helps light up the entire area.

Hanging Lights Are a Must

Nothing says it’s time for festivities and celebrating more than hanging lights. Subtle lights hanging from the trees, above a pool, patio or deck, strategically placed in garden style fixtures, or even custom attached to a repurposed antique like a wooden wagon wheel, could be exactly what you need to put an outdoor space over the top. Solar lights in trees are also a great option to create a whimsical look. There is something about hanging lights that sets the mood for fun.

Light up a House for Safety

Aside from creating a fun atmosphere, outdoor lights are a big aspect of home safety. Imagine coming home and clicking a button in your car that lights up the front of the house, walkways to the door, and even turns on interior lights. A simple remote, which is about the size of a garage door opener, can do exactly that! It’s actually easier than you might think to have a professional create unique lighting scenarios that can be controlled easily from a remote or a custom app on your phone.

Whatever your goal is for lighting up your outdoor space, keep in mind that a lot of smaller lights provide a much more enjoyable atmosphere than big flood lights. Contact us to learn more about custom outdoor lighting, and how to control them remotely.