How Does Your Garden Glow? 12 Illuminating Outdoor Lighting Ideas

Festoon lights or string lights are a fabulous addition to any garden and are loved for their laidback feel. Particularly dramatic and inviting when zigzagged over a seating or dining area, they create a canopy of lights worthy of the finest (and funnest) festivals. If you don’t have anything around your seating area to attach the lights to, you’ll also find lighting poles to suspend them from or use them in other spaces in your garden like around fencing which will be equally as effective.

Delicate lighting options like festoons and lanterns are essential for creating a cosy atmosphere but will usually need to be supplemented by brighter lighting, especially in high use areas. You’ll want your guests to be able to actually see their food after all. Bulkhead wall lights are robust and completely watertight making them excellent options for year-round outdoor lighting. Evenly space these on the outside walls of your home as the foundation of your garden lighting, then you can layer more decorative lighting in key areas.

When highlighting the best aspects of your garden, don’t forget about any potential hazards too. Do you have steps? Decking at different heights? Or a severely slopping lawn? Make sure to make these stand out too to avoid accidents. If you have water like ponds, pools or even a fountain make sure these can be seen in the dark too, not only will they look spectacularly serene, you’ll also be able to see if anyone takes an unexpected tumble.

Another great use for the festoon lights we’ve mentioned before is draping them from tree branches to create an ethereal glow. If you have a tree near your outdoor dining furniture, the branches can also be used to hang outdoor pendant lights which will offer a brighter light for al fresco dining.

Uplights and downlights (or a mix of both) are becoming an increasingly popular way to highlight your home both front and back. Instantly drawing the eyes, these lights bring whatever they shine on to the forefront making them fabulous for fixing to uniquely textured walls and fences.

Lights for your front door are not only warm and inviting but essential too. Helping you to avoid fumbling for your key and then the lock when you get home at night and keeping you safer as you let yourself in, a door light is a must-have for any home. Available in all styles from impeccably modern, to classically country, they will greet you every time you come home.

Once the dinner plates have been cleaned away, it’s time to move to a more relaxed setting for drinks, games and stories. Relaxed seating areas should be as cosy as possible and one of the best ways to illuminate these spaces is firelight. Fire pits or chimineas, are not only mesmerising to watch but they’ll keep you and your guests toasty well into the evening, just don’t forget the marshmallows!

Lighting your outdoor space well not only makes it a fabulous place to hang out in, but it has a practical purpose too as a well-lit garden is a safer garden. Helping to make burglars to think twice, a well illuminated home and garden will give you more peace of mind and many lights now have sensors for added security which are perfect to place near garages, back gates and external doors.