Patio Lighting Ideas: How to Choose Outdoor Lighting for Your Patio
Illuminate your space.
The best alfresco dinners are those that extend late into the evening with friends and family laughing around a table long after the meal has been served. But there’s one key ingredient for those joyful summer nights that has nothing to do with food: lighting.
If you plan on entertaining this summer, you need more than a citronella candle or two sprinkled across the table once the sun goes down. The right outdoor lighting elevates an outdoor space from a backyard afterthought to a fresh air room that has all the charm of your favorite restaurant patio. And there’s a recipe for choosing the right outdoor lighting for your patio that makes it as easy as 1-2-3.
Three Types of Lighting to Incorporate in Your Patio or Outdoor Space
Just as you shouldn’t put a single light source in an indoor room and call it a day, you can’t rely on one light in your outdoor space. The trick is to layer your lighting to give a space warmth and that sense of twinkle in the evening.
First, you’ll incorporate ambient light or general light. This is the light that actually lights up your space. Then you layer in task lighting with specific, pointed fixtures that highlight an area, whether it’s a grill, a pathway, or a reading nook. Lastly, you can finish the space with accent lighting to add an extra dose of decor, without concern for whether or not it is functional (ambient and task have that part covered!).
These are the exact same principles you would use in an indoor room, but they look slightly different when applied to an outdoor patio, deck, or porch.
Ambient Lighting: String bistro lighting to add romance.
Think of ambient lighting as the workhorse of your outdoor space. This is the foundational light that brightens your space and lets you actually utilize your patio or deck long into the night. Where you might have a chandelier or recessed lighting inside, ambient lighting often takes the form of bistro lights strung from corner to corner outside.
Bistro lighting is an inexpensive, romantic way to add ambient light into your outdoor space. When you see those twinkly round bulbs hung in generous swaths over a dinner table, it transports you to a small bistro cafe in Europe. A 50’ string of bistro lights could run for $50. These small bulbs give off all the light you need to continue the evening outside, while keeping things perfectly within the mood lighting atmosphere.
Whether you’re manning the grill, having a quiet night outside with a magazine and a cup of tea, or simply need to light the way from the house to the deck, task lighting is dedicated to one task and one task only. But the task lighting that stays on all evening long to light up the landscape is pathway lighting. Often available in large packs and powered by days spent in the sun, pathway lighting gives your yard a styled, high-end look – and it keeps people from wandering in the wrong direction or accidentally stepping into a flower bed. Pathway lighting is incredibly cost-effective. A solar-powered set of 24 lights costs approximately $55.
Accent lighting provides you the chance to get creative, highlight your favorite spots in your outdoor space, or simply incorporate a fixture that you think would be perfect in your space.
You don’t need to use accent lighting to provide overall light – ambient light already took care of that, and it doesn’t need to perform a specific, target function like task lighting. It only needs to look beautiful and lanterns are one of the best bets for adding that extra oomph of style. Whether placed on a tabletop, lining stairs, or marking the entrance to a patio, these accent lanterns put that finishing touch on an outdoor space. You can find a small tabletop accent lighting for under $25, while a large lantern could cost over $65.
Depending on your space, you may also want to incorporate outdoor wall lighting, sconces, outdoor hanging lights, chandeliers, and more. Keep in mind that the overall feeling should evoke a sense of summertime magic – one of glittering lights illuminating an outdoor oasis. So, don’t go too bright or bring in every fixture at once. Aim for a balanced, layered glow that welcomes visitors (and yourself!) into a relaxing outdoor space.
Heather Bien is a Washington, DC-based blogger, interior stylist, and design writer. She creates spaces that feel both intentional and approachable, and she's never one to shy away from a bold pattern. These days, you'll often find her perfecting the art of outdoor living and embracing her green thumb.
