Enjoying your Troy, MI, brick patio is just as important during the night as it is during the day. You don’t want to condemn your outdoor living space to feel dark and unwelcoming. Installing proper outdoor lighting in your backyard is absolutely essential to making the most of your outdoor living space; in fact, the right lighting strategies often transform ordinary spaces into show-stoppers after dark. You can show off your brick patio this summer with these outdoor lighting design ideas.
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Avoiding the Floodlight
The old-school single bright floodlight mounted high above your patio can light up some of your outdoor space—but not all of it, and not well. The bright light emanating from the floodlight could create blinding glare. Likewise, the contrasting overly dark areas become unsafe to walk in. And who wants to annoy the neighbors with lighting that is bright enough to light up a stadium? Today’s outdoor lighting strategies tend to be focused on maintaining the charm of after-dark entertaining while ensuring safety.
Keeping It Down Low
Placing lights near the ground will help focus the energy needed to keep your outdoor living spaces safe. By using light-emitting diodes (LEDs), your landscape will use far less electricity than any other type of traditional light bulb. LEDs also require far fewer replacements during their lifetimes. They can easily fit in smaller areas including within masonry structures or along the base of trees or retaining walls to completely eliminate the harsh glare and shadows of lights from above. Place LEDs within retaining walls, fire pits, planting beds, or as low-lying standalone light fixtures to accentuate textures and add drama along with ambient light for safety.
Evoking Festive Feelings
A pergola can provide an opportunity for a party-like environment by giving you a special place to place fun string lights. This is one of many outdoor lighting strategies that can create the feeling of an outdoor room that’s warm and welcoming. You can also set up string lights leading from your driveway around the house back to the brick patio. Then, everyone will know where the party is!
Putting Things in the Spotlight
Whenever there’s something in your patio that you have to show off at night, spotlighting is usually the technique to use. This strategy focuses one or a few lights onto a feature from ground level up, so that it’s brightly illuminated. Likely candidates include a water fountain, a piece of art, a waterfall, a statue, or a beautiful old tree. Spotlights can be easily concealed into the ground so they don’t attract attention to anything except what you want to put within the spotlight’s target.
Anytime light fixtures are placed directly adjacent to an object and pointed up or down, they create shadows that highlight textures in the evening. What you might not notice much during the day will become a focal point at night.
A Moonlight Sonata
To add romance to your backyard, try a technique known as moonlighting. A single bluish/white light can be installed high in a tree so that the light shines down through the canopy just like real moonlight—creating gorgeous shadows on the ground below.
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