5 Warm-Weather Residential Outdoor & Landscape Lighting Ideas

So, you’re finally emerging from winter hibernation. Remember your friend, the great outdoors?

Hello, patio, swimming pool, garden and tennis court. Summer means fun gatherings around the fire pit. Relaxing time in the garden. Pool parties! All reasons to consider residential outdoor lighting to illuminate the fun.

Landscape lighting is much more than just brightening up your front porch or driveway. It extends your living space. Think of all your favorite outdoor pursuits that make you happy during the day, from entertaining on the patio to swimming in your pool to strolling through the garden.

5 Residential Outdoor Lighting Ideas For Warmer Days

Now, imagine enjoying them after dark, too. Here’s a look at five residential outdoor lighting ideas to help extend your summer fun into the evening.

Landscape Lighting Ideas to Extend Your Living Space

Why head indoors just because it’s dark? You’ll miss some of the best parts of a summer evening. Fireflies. Roasting marshmallows over the fire pit. Listening to the crickets.

With outdoor lighting, your patio or deck becomes another room you can enjoy at night. Lights attached to deck posts illuminate the area for late-night dining or conversations.

Does your deck or patio include a pergola? It can work hard for you right into the evening. The pillars and crossbeams of your pergola provide a great platform for a variety of lighting options, from subtle recessed lighting that illuminates your dining table to festive strings of bistro lights that add a fun party atmosphere.

Everybody loves the magical quality of moonlight on a summer night. But the moon doesn’t always cooperate. Enter the next best thing: moonlighting.

Mounting lights in the trees overhead or from the gable of a roof creates a beautiful moonlight effect on your deck or patio, as light dapples through the trees.

It would be a shame to head inside.

Landscape Lighting Highlights Your Summer Garden

You’ve put a lot of thought, effort, and expense into your property’s trees, shrubs, garden beds and specimen plantings. Why let them hide in the dark? The evening can be a magical time in the garden — as long as you don’t trip and land face first in the hydrangea bush.

There are lots of lighting options here. Some fixtures cast light on garden paths while others nestle in the garden bed, highlighting your most striking plants. Cast some light on your pretty fountain, gurgling waterfall, statuary or grapevine-covered arbor.

Uplighting provided by spotlights accentuates the texture of tree trunks, creating interesting evening artwork. Lit well, your garden becomes a magical spot after dark.

Illuminating Swimming Pool Lighting Ideas

The right lighting can make your pool a stunning backdrop for your evening entertaining. It can create outdoor artwork when viewed from inside.

But it also provides a crucial element: safety. A skillfully installed mix of ground-mounted and wall fixtures can provide safety and beautifully enhance your outdoor pool area.

Don’t forget to light the areas surrounding your pool, from walkways to plant material.

Residential Outdoor Lighting Makes Your Outdoor Living Safer

Create safety around your fire pit by tucking lighting beneath the benches that surround it. Fixtures can snug under the edge of benches and sitting walls to shine down on the walking areas to prevent tripping.

Light pathways in your garden, patio, deck and pool areas so guests are safe when strolling your property.

Get Your Game On After Dark with Residential Tennis Court Lighting

Why give up tennis and basketball just because the sun goes down? Lighting your outdoor multigame court means the fun never has to stop. At least, not until you collapse.

A combination of low-voltage lights and antiglare shields can direct the light just where you need it to get your game on — and keep the light from bugging your neighbors.

All This Costs Less To Operate Than You Think

We know what you’re thinking: it must cost a fortune to operate all this lighting. But it doesn’t.

Outdoor LED lights use up to 75 percent less power than conventional lights, and last 20 times longer. Traditional incandescent bulbs create light by generating heat, which is a big power draw.

But an LED bulb is an electronic device that emits light when an electrical current is passed through it. Because it doesn’t create as much heat, it requires very little energy for the amount of light it produces — just a fraction of the electricity that an incandescent bulb does.

This means far lower energy bills. If you have an existing outdoor lighting system and want to take advantage of this greater efficiency, convert your system to LED lights.

Let Neave Light Up Your Night

Neave Group Outdoor Solutions has plenty of residential outdoor lighting ideas to share with you. We offer the best outdoor lighting available in the industry, from landscape lighting design to installation to maintenance services.

Let our experts design a lighting plan for your landscape with top-quality, energy-efficient LED lighting to highlight your garden, patio, swimming pool, multigame court and more.

A fully customized landscape lighting system will add hours of enjoyment to your warm-weather outdoor living. Contact Neave Group Outdoor Solutions today to get started on your lighting design or upgrade your existing system to LEDs.

If you’re in the Hudson Valley, call us at (845) 463-0592. If you’re in Westchester County, call (914) 271-7996; from Connecticut, dial (203) 212-4800. Or, fill out our simple web form, and we’ll contact you about setting up your free consultation.

The fun doesn’t have to stop when the sun goes down.