patio lights: impressive tips and ideas for any budget

Every summer most of us wish to refresh the exterior of the house, make it more attractive and inviting. But carrying out fundamental repairs always takes a lot of time and is very expensive. However, there is a fairly simple yet highly effective way to deal with the improvement of the outdoor space. We are talking now about updating or installing new patio lighting. New and updated lighting can greatly affect the visual appeal of your home and garden. In this article, we have selected for you the most interesting and affordable tips and ideas for exquisite and budget-friendly outdoor lighting.

Porches and Decks Lighting

Summer nights are magnificent and it would be a pity to stay home after sunset, especially if you are having a party or simply spending time with friends or family. Adding an outdoor lighting can easily solve this problem and extend the time spent outdoors. A few useful tips for you:

- Hang patio string lights from ceiling beams. You can find patio lighting kits with bulbs in multiple online stores and marketplaces. A good idea is to buy patio string lights with ‘Edison' LED bulbs which emit a warm light and have a stunning vintage look.

Patio String Lights: Bestsellers on Amazon

- For parties and celebrations use Christmas string lights. They are colorful and fun, and will certainly bring a festive mood to any event. Just don't use snowflake-shaped lights in summer :)

- Use LED light strips to make steps more visible at night. Keep in mind that this is a more modern approach; for a traditional look go with the usual stairs spot lights.

LED Strip Steps Lights - compare prices

Stairs Spot Lights - compare prices

- The candles on the table look great and create a romantic ambience, but regular candles can be fire hazardous. To avoid any risk of fire, especially if there are kids around, buy battery-powered LED candles. They are as romantic as the conventional candles, but absolutely safe.

LED candles on Amazon

- Add a mysterious touch to the patio by wrapping rope lights around the support posts. Opt for waterproof UL listed lights so you don't have to remove them in bad weather. Also it is better to choose LED lights since they are energy efficient and economical. You can also consider solar-powered or battery-powered types of lighting.

Read more about Rope Lighting in this article.

Garden Lights Tips & Ideas

It is not wise to neglect garden (or backyard and courtyard) lighting. The outside of your home should be attractive and brightly lit so that all the friends and visitors could understand they are welcomed. Years ago setting up the creative backyard lighting was expensive and tedious. But at present, with all this diversity and availability of LED lights, the lighting scheme of your garden is limited only by your imagination. With a bit of creativity, you can make your garden a fabulous place in no time! Consider these helpful tips to make this mission even easier:

- Pathways lighting can be done with special solar landscape LED lights. They are usually mounted on pegs, so the installation is as simple as just sticking them into the ground. They are not only beautiful, but also practical, because they illuminate the paths at night. In addition, solar LED lights are extremely economical because they only consume solar energy, which is completely free.

Landscape LED Lighting - compare prices

- Consider bollards lights and landscape bullet lighting to make the outdoor more welcoming and guest-friendly.

Glowing Planters

- Install glowing planters in the garden. You can create a mysterious and unique ambience in your garden by setting beautiful luminous planters. These can be solar-powered or battery-powered LED models, or you can simply paint the existing planters with a ‘glow-in-the-dark' (or phosphorescent) paint which will emit light up to 12 hours after it has been exposed to bright sunlight. The choice is wide and the effect is magnificent.

- Adding color to the outdoor lighting pattern is a hot trend now. Replace the old bulbs in a lamp post with new colored LED light bulbs. Buy a string light with multicolored LED bulbs, or replace the old light bulbs in your existing light string if you already have one. Hang these colored string lights in your backyard or garden. You can use one color instead of multicolored version if you wish to add some kind of trending color accent to the garden. For example, in the past few years, such colors as gold and navy are extremely popular. In the summer time, pastel colors are always in fashion. Add trendy gold decorative elements for the touch of sophistication or set up indigo blue planters for a more elegant style. Be creative and follow trends - it is now easier than ever.

Multicolored LED Bulbs on Amazon

- Use patio string lights to hang all over the garden. Remember that you may have to use guy-rope to add stability to your lighting pattern if the lighting string is too long.

Patio String Lights - compare prices

- You may also attach string lights to fences. This is simple but effective way to quickly add the attractiveness to the outside of your home.

Patio String Lights Bestsellers

- Shrubs and hedges can be decorated with the net led lights. These lights are commonly used on holidays and celebrations, but nowadays you can more and more often see them used all year round.

Net Led Lights on Amazon

- Such leafy green plants as palms, juniper, banana trees, cypress, elephant ears, outdoor ferns, spirea, lantana, hibiscus etc. are getting more and more popular nowadays. If you have these foliage houseplants, consider illuminating them with some small LED spot lights. These can be solar lights or battery-powered LEDs.

- A very interesting effect in garden lighting design can be achieved by placing small lights in and around the plants. You can use laser Christmas lights for this. A remarkable flickering effect can be observed when the leaves of the plants are moved by the wind. For large trees, however, such small lights wouldn't be enough. Opt for patio string lights, hang them among tree branches and enjoy the same twinkling, but on a larger scale! It is very important to not use glass incandescent bulbs because they can break when hitting a branch and start a fire. The smart choice is LED string lighting, which is safer and more energy efficient at the same time.

- Use Christmas lights to add color and fun to any outdoor venue. To distribute them throughout the garden, use shepherd's hooks or garden stakes. You can also divide the backyard or garden into different zones using this simple tip, for example to separate children's playground and barbecue area; the options are endless.

Christmas Outdoor lights: Amazon Bestsellers

Illuminating the Walls of the House

All this garden lighting is beautiful, but it doesn't mean that you should ignore the walls of your home. A good idea is to use wall sconces: they will not only improve the overall appearance of the house, but can also become an important part of the security lighting scheme. As usual, here are a few helpful ideas for your lighting design:

- For a vintage look, choose LED Edison bulbs. These magnificent lighting fixtures look and feel like unique retro elements, but are made using the latest LED technology, which makes them very energy efficient and extremely durable.

LED Edison Bulbs - compare prices

- A completely different effect can be achieved using the special lighting design technique called wall grazing. You can get the best results when the wall is made from uneven materials such as bricks, stones, etc. Use LED flood lights mounted close to the wall on its underside and angled to emit light over the surface. This will help create beautiful shadows and highlight the texture of the material.

- Another good idea is to create a wallpaper-like effect on the house walls. A trending wallpaper pattern is geometric shapes, which are easy to reproduce on the walls using outdoor lighting. Simply swapping the shades or globes for the wire cages on the outdoor lighting sources can instantly give you the effect you need. With a rocking chair and a couple of rugs and pillows, your patio will become truly cozy and inviting.

Important Things to Consider

When you set up your outdoor lighting, there are some points that you need to be very careful about. Of course, now we are talking about safety.

All outdoor lighting must be waterproof. Make sure that the lighting you intend to place in your patio or garden is rated for wet locations. You may use not rated lights for a short period of time, for example, for BBQ party or some celebration, but only if there is no rain or snow in the weather forecast. Remove these lights immediately after the party. Use ONLY wet-proof lights if you intend to leave them outdoors longer than one event!

Outdoor Lighting - compare prices on Amazon

Another very important element is connections. All must be protected and sealed. Any unprotected connection or non-waterproof lighting fixture may cause short circuit and, ultimately, a fire. So take these points seriously. The smart solution is to buy special sealed protectors for electrical connections and protective outlet covers if your strip lights are a plug-in connection.