10 Garden Lighting Ideas to Brighten Your Outdoor Space

Adorn a Pergola

Whenever you’re thinking of adding outdoor lights, it’s a good idea to start by considering how you can use and enhance your existing garden structures.

Pergolas are perfect for garden lights. They’re tall with multiple posts and beams that you can use to hang and display different lighting. You can wind fairy lights around the timbers, string festoon lights across the top, or hang lanterns and orbs overhead. If you want to zone a dining space or create an outdoor room, try hanging curtain lights around the sides.

Add Depth with Boundary Lighting

Your boundaries are another area of the garden you can utilise for your lighting. Adding lights around the edges of your garden can help to add more depth to the space as it draws the attention outwards. So, it’s a great option for helping to brighten and expand a compact outdoor space.

You could string lights around the whole fence line or place an up-and-down light or solar lantern on each post. If you don’t want to suspend lights from your fence posts, you could place uplighters in the borders. Or you may prefer to add trellis to the fence tops and weave fairy lights through it.

Create a Cosy Seating Area with Lanterns

While placing lights around the edge of your garden will make it feel bigger, positioning lights next to your seating and around your patio area will help to create a much cosier ambience.

If you like the sound of this, you could cluster lanterns in the corners of your patio or arrange them in and around your garden furniture. You might choose classic glass storm lanterns, lit by LEDs or candles, to achieve a warm glow. Or opt for Moroccan and rattan-style lanterns that throw out subtle patterns across your seating area, drawing the focus inwards.

Get a Glow from a Fire Pit or Outdoor Stove

There’s nothing like the flicker of a real fire for creating a cosy glow in your garden. Although they’re primarily used for heat, fire pits and outdoor stoves can also be used to create warm, ambient lighting.

The great thing about this type of lighting is that it makes the ideal focal point for your seating area. Seats can be arranged around your pit or stove, so you’re facing the warmth and light. Consider a wide and shallow, bowl-shaped pit or a stove with glazed panels on all sides to maximise the light.

Use the Flicker of Flames to Enhance a Tablescape

If you want to light up a more formal outdoor dining space, a firepit might not work. But if your heart’s set on using dancing flames to brighten up your garden décor, a bioethanol tabletop fireplace might be the answer. These typically come with glass around the edges, so not only are they a safe option, but they can also act as a modern take on a traditional hurricane lantern.

Showcase Your Plants

When brightening up your garden with lights, you needn’t focus purely on your seating areas. Lights are also a great tool for showcasing your best plants. You can shine downlighters on your smaller plants to highlight them and use uplighters and spotlights to pick out details – such as intricate flowers or the shape of leaves and the texture of bark – on larger plants and trees.

Wrap Fairy Lights Around a Tree

As well as picking out individual features, you can shine a light on a whole tree by wrapping it in fairy lights. Winding twinkly lights around the trunk and branches will give the tree a magical glow. Plus, the illuminated space below could make the perfect spot for a bench or garden sculpture.

Light Up a Water Feature

It’s not just plants you can make a feature of. Lighting up a water feature, such as a fountain or pond, is a great way to add interest and brighten your outdoor space.

You can use submersible or floating LEDs to illuminate a pond, giving you a bright display and a window into the aquatic world below the surface of the water. Or you could position an LED strip light at the top of a cascade to highlight the flow of water. If you have a fountain, spotlights grouped around the base will light up the water droplets, giving you a dynamic and engaging garden light.

Stake Out a Path

Mains-powered and solar stake lights are ideal for lighting up garden paths, helping to add an extra dimension to your garden as the daylight fades. Not only that, but they make gardens safer and easier to navigate at night – enabling you to use terraced, lawned and decked areas that are away from the house.

If you’d prefer lights that don’t stick out so much, you could light a path with recessed lights or stake your lights in amongst the foliage.

Embrace a Party Atmosphere with Festoon Lights

One of the best ways to achieve a bright and fun outdoor space is to use colour-changing bulbs and orbs. If you’re looking to create a lively atmosphere, they’re the perfect addition. Many of these are smart, app-controlled lights. This means you can turn your garden from a vibrant party space to a low-key social space at the touch of a button.

Tips For Getting Your Garden Lighting Right

If you’re feeling inspired by these lighting ideas, these tips will help you get your garden illumination just right.

Choosing Between Mains-Powered and Solar Lights

You can light a garden with mains-powered or solar lights. But how do you decide which is best? Well, it’s worth considering their installation costs and suitability. Solar lights are typically easier to install and can be put up without any expert help. However, mains-powered are generally more reliable, especially in shady gardens. They also tend to be more durable.

Consider Smart Lighting

Going with smart garden lights will enable you to adapt the colour, tone and brightness of your lighting to suit the occasion, be it a cosy gathering or large celebration. You can also use the controls to help zone the areas of your garden and switch the focus from one area to another. In addition, you should be able to save lighting settings and automate turning them on and off.

If you already have standard outdoor garden lights, you can automate them or add voice controls by installing a smart outdoor socket. This will save you needing to upgrade all of your existing lights.

Pay Attention to Durability

To ensure garden lights are durable, it’s a good idea to look for an Ingress Protection rating of IP55 or above. The higher the numbers, the better your lights will be at keeping dirt and water out. You should also look for materials that are resistant to corrosion and UV rays.

If you’re leaving your lights out all year round, it’s best to go with some that are heavy-duty and mains-powered. Some are interconnectable, meaning you can add to them and reroute them without too much effort.

As you can see, there’s more than one way to brighten up your garden with lighting. If you’re keen to make sure your outdoor space shines day and night, you might fancy combining a few different lighting types. Layering your outside lights will add depth, help to zone spaces, and add a cosy and magical ambience. If you want your lighting to be durable, reliable and adaptable, it’s often best to choose mains-powered lighting. To ensure they’re installed safely, it’s a good idea to bring an electrician on board.