Outdoor Living Space Lighting, Why the Back of the House Needs a Different Plan|How to Light a Patio: The Practical Version|Patio Lighting That Gets Used and Why It Is Not the Same as Curb Appeal

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 is grading the back yard from the street. The only test is whether anybody wants to sit there.All of which is a long way of saying the back yard is its own project. A roofline system does a great deal for the front of a house and almost nothing for where you sit. Two spaces, two separate permanent outdoor lighting greenville sc sets of requirements to satisfy.

What actually drives people inside

A single glaring bulb undoes an otherwise good plan. Look at a bright source and your eyes stop adapting to the dark. Aim for light you notice the effect of but not the source of.

The overhead layer

The reason bistro and string lighting works so well outdoors is that they define a room. A patio without them is a slab under an open sky. Add a canopy of light and the area has walls it did not have. Keep them soft, 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.

Building the plan

A patio usually needs three kinds of light. Something overhead for general warmth. Something low so nobody trips on the way to the door. And a little accent on a tree or a wall. Separate switching is worth asking for.

Commercial outdoor dining

For a business with outdoor seating, this is not decoration, it is capacity. Bistro and string lighting over an outdoor dining area is what keeps guests seated once the sun goes. The same rules apply, just with a stronger reason to get it right.

The part that pays for itself

Without light, the back yard has a curfew. A lit one stays open through the shoulder months and into the evening year round. Mild evenings are not limited to July, and the dark is what keeps people indoors. The lighting is the thing standing between a nice evening and an unused patio.

Warm light near where people sit

Outdoor light attracts things on a warm evening. Insects respond more to cooler and bluer light than to warm light, so a warm setting over a seating area is the better choice for more than one reason. It will not eliminate anything, and that is not a claim worth making. But it is worth factoring in.If a permanent system runs along the roof over the back of the house, keep it warm and dim when people are out there, so nothing competes.

Where to begin

The plan comes from seeing how you use the space, not from a template. EverCrest Lighting does patio and outdoor living lighting for residential and commercial properties in Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, from Greenville. The consultation is free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or [email protected].

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