The back of the house is not curb appeal
Front yard lighting is for people looking at the house. Out back you are inside the lighting, not looking at it. Everything changes once you are the one sitting under it. Nobody cares how the patio reads from the road. What matters is whether the space still works after dark.All of which is a long way of saying the back yard is its own project. The front and the back rarely get solved by the same fixtures, and assuming otherwise is how a patio ends up with one bright light on the wall. Two spaces, two separate sets of requirements to satisfy.
Glare ruins more patios than darkness does
A single glaring bulb undoes an otherwise good plan. A bare bulb at eye height blows out your night vision, so the rest of the property vanishes. Aim for illumination without a visible bulb.
The overhead layer
The reason overhead strings feel right is that they make a boundary. A patio without them has no top to it. Add a canopy of light and the space closes in. Keep them warm and low, always.The good version rarely costs more than the bad version, because aim and color temperature are free decisions.
How the pieces stack
A patio usually needs three kinds of light. Overhead, underfoot, and accent. Put them on separate controls if you can, since you want a bright option and a quiet one.
Restaurants and businesses have the same problem with higher stakes
For a business with outdoor seating, the lighting decides whether those tables get used after sunset. Warm overhead light turns an empty evening patio into occupied tables. The same rules apply, only the consequences are measured in covers.
Lighting buys you months
An unlit patio stops being usable in October. A lit one stays open well past the point the sun stops cooperating. Mild evenings happen most of the year here, and the dark
https://evercrestlighting.com/contact/ is what keeps people indoors. The lighting is the thing standing between a nice evening and an unused patio.
Insects
Outdoor light brings company in the summer. Warmer light pulls in fewer of them, which happens to be the same answer aesthetics gives. It will not eliminate anything, and nobody should promise that. But it is a free consideration when choosing the setting.Worth adding: whatever runs along the roof edge above should match, so the two do not disagree with each other.
Getting your outdoor space planned
Patio lighting has to be planned in the actual space, preferably at night. EverCrest Lighting designs and installs patio and outdoor living lighting for residential and commercial properties in Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, out of Greenville. The consultation is free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or
[email protected].