How to Design Lighting for Your Outdoor Spaces

This time of year there’s just one thing on our minds: Backyard lighting for brilliant entertaining that lingers into the wee hours!

But designing outdoor lighting that fits your budget, property and lifestyle can feel overwhelming. There are so many hardscape and landscape lighting options out there – how do you know which ones will create the best lighting for patio or deck parties? And what do you do with them to achieve the vibrant, welcoming or cozy vibe you crave for your alfresco spaces?

The light-obsessed pros at TCP have your back. Our 30 years of experience have illuminated how to design landscape lighting that keeps your friends and family safe while producing exactly the atmosphere you envision.

Let’s take a look at some popular outdoor lighting techniques that create cool effects without much effort. Then we’ll break down the areas of your property you should consider illuminating. Finally, we’ll introduce you to an exciting landscape lighting design tool that will make the whole process as easy as pie!

And don’t worry about how these exterior patio lighting ideas might impact your utility bills – it’ll be minimal, thanks to the amazing energy efficiency of our LED lights and the possibility of rebates for many of them!

Lighting Techniques for Outdoor Spaces

Bringing your wildest exterior patio lighting ideas to life doesn’t necessarily require a lot of time or effort. In fact, once you get acquainted with a few basic lighting techniques, you’ll see that designing outdoor lighting can actually be fun!

Here are three of the most common – and highly effective – outdoor lighting techniques to master:

1. Accent and Spot Lighting

A spotlight is a directional light you can use to showcase specific items in your landscape, like an architectural feature or your prize roses. Whether it points up or down, the focused beam of a spotlight creates a pool of light in the darkness that draws the eye, which is why spotlights are often referred to as accent lights.

Try This: Conceal a narrow-beam spotlight in greenery near the base of a fountain, sculpture, or tree to accentuate the feature with an intriguing touch of mystery.

2. Uplighting

Lights that are aimed upward create a very dramatic effect known as uplighting. Flood lights are the most common for this technique because they typically have a wider beam that delivers soft, glowing illumination.

Try This: Showcase your home’s unique brickwork or architecture by placing floodlights a few feet from the base of a wall at a slightly offset angle. The subdued gleam on the vertical surface is called wall-washing – and it’s supremely romantic!

3. Silhouetting

You know that magical effect of the sun setting behind a statue or church spire that throws the object into a deep shadow? It’s called silhouetting – and you can easily add it to your exterior patio lighting ideas! The trick is to place the spotlight between the feature you want to showcase and a wall. This placement creates a dramatic illuminated backdrop for the featured item, whose shadow becomes the star of the show!

Try This: Alternate between silhouetted topiary bushes and shadowed trees – with the light placed in front of them – for a stunning display of light and dark.

Outdoor Lighting Areas

With these techniques fresh in your mind, it’s time to consider where to use them. TCP brings you a wide array of outdoor and patio lighting options, making it easier to illuminate all your alfresco spaces.

We break it all down into two categories – Hardscape and landscape lighting:

Hardscape Lighting

Hardscapes are the man-made features of your property, including walkways, stairs, decks and even your driveway. Here’s what to consider for your hardscape lighting:

Driveway and Pathway Lighting

Safety is the main concern for these areas where drivers and pedestrians need maximum visibility. Our Select Series Flood Lights are a great choice for driveways because they let you choose from different wattages and lighting color temperatures without changing the bulb – delivering a customized experience. Pathway lights come in a variety of styles that can complement your home’s look while safely leading the way around your property.

Step and Deck Lighting

Stairs can be tricky in the dark, so consider placing downward focused sconces low on the wall next to each step for added safety. Deck lighting can include anything from wall sconces to overhead lights under a canopy to table and floor lamps. Choose bulbs with a warmer color temperature to create a welcoming glow that feels natural.

Outdoor Kitchen Lighting

From prepping to grilling to plating, the jobs you perform in your outdoor kitchen require bright, even illumination. Our outdoor LED lights deliver an average lifespan of 50,000 hours, so you can cook up delicious alfresco meals all summer long under daylight-quality light without the hassle of replacing them.

Landscape Lighting

Your landscape encompasses the natural elements of your property, including your lawn, flower beds, trees, shrubs, and integrated water features like ponds and waterfalls. Here’s how to make them glow in the nighttime:

Water Feature Lighting

Waterproof and submersible LED lights create shimmering luminosity when placed inside of a pond or pool. To highlight a waterfall or fountain, use the uplighting technique for a dramatic effect that really wows.

Tree and Shrub Accent Lighting

Showcase your favorite topiary bushes or ornamental trees with spotlights for glowing accents to your alfresco entertaining. Uplighting, silhouetting and shadowing are all excellent techniques for creating visual interest around these natural elements.

TCP’s Landscape Lighting Design Tool

Feeling more confident about designing outdoor lighting that will show off your property to its best advantage? Well, get ready to feel even better about it!

We’ve created a landscape lighting design tool to help you design and visualize the best lighting for patio entertaining without the guesswork! This user-friendly landscape lighting software makes it simple to use the dimensions of your space and a few other details to determine which patio lighting options will deliver the vibe you want. You’ll quickly see how the light from each lamp disperses, where shadows fall and more – allowing you to tweak your design without wasting time, energy or money.

Try our innovative lighting layout tool today – and light up your outdoor entertaining like a pro!