The back of the house has a different job
The front of a property gets judged from the street. Out back you are inside the lighting, not looking at it. Everything changes when you become the audience from within. 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 need different work, 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
The fastest way to make an outdoor space unpleasant is a bright fixture in somebody's line of sight. Look at a bright source and everything beyond it goes black. Aim for light you notice the effect of but not the source of.
Bistro and string lighting
The reason overhead strings feel right is that they define a room. A patio without them is a slab under an open
https://waylonfrma182.hexaforgey.com/posts/residential-security-lighting-why-brighter-is-not-safer-does-security-lighting-work-here-is-what-matters-security-lighting-that-actually-helps-for-homes-and-businesses sky. Add a canopy of light and the area has walls it did not have. Keep them warm and low, always.None of this costs much more than doing it badly, because the difference is mostly placement and color rather than the number of fixtures on the invoice.
How the pieces stack
A patio usually needs three kinds of light. Something overhead to define the space. Something low for the steps, the edges and the path in. And something aimed at one or two features worth looking at. Put them on separate controls if you can, since you want a bright option and a quiet one.
The business version
A restaurant patio has to solve this every single night. Warm overhead light turns an empty evening patio into occupied tables. The same rules apply, only the consequences are measured in covers.
Lighting stretches the season
An unlit patio has a usable season that ends when the days get short. With light, the hours stop being the limit. In the Upstate that is a real number of extra evenings, and most of them happen after dark. The lighting is what converts them into usable time.
Something worth knowing about color
Anybody who has sat under a bright outdoor light in July has shared it with insects. Warmer light pulls in fewer of them, which happens to be the same answer aesthetics gives. It helps. That is all. But it is a free consideration when choosing the setting.Worth adding: the same warm setting suits the roofline above the patio, so the two do not disagree with each other.
Getting your patio looked at
Patio lighting gets designed by somebody standing on the patio, ideally after dark. EverCrest Lighting designs and installs patio and outdoor living lighting for homes, restaurants and businesses in Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, from Greenville. The consultation is free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or
[email protected].