Patio Lighting, Why the Back of the House Needs a Different Plan|How Should a Patio Be Lit? Here Is What Works|Patio Lighting That Gets Used: A Homeowner's Guide

The back of the house is not curb appeal

The front of a property is a view. The patio is a place you occupy. That flips the priorities. Nobody cares how the patio reads https://gunnerpkob121.silverstonebrief.com/posts/permanent-led-outdoor-lighting-the-straight-explanation-considering-permanent-outdoor-lighting-read-this-first from the road. What matters is whether the space still works after dark.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 sets of requirements to satisfy.

Glare ruins more patios than darkness does

The fastest way to make a patio feel wrong is a bright fixture in somebody's line of sight. A bare bulb at eye height makes everything behind it disappear, so the rest of the property vanishes. Aim for illumination without a visible bulb.

String lights are not a shortcut, they are a real technique

Strung lights above a patio give the space an edge overhead. A patio without them has no top to it. With them it reads as a defined space. Warm and dim is the setting that works, because bright overhead strings turn a dinner into a parking lot.The good version rarely costs more than the bad version, because aim and color temperature are free decisions.

Layers, roughly in order

Think of it as layers, not one switch. Something overhead to define the space. Something low so nobody trips on the way to the door. And a little accent somewhere at the edge. Put them on different circuits, because the dinner setting and the cleaning up setting are not the same.

The business version

A restaurant patio has to solve this every single night. Bistro and string lighting over an outdoor dining area is what keeps guests seated once the sun goes. Nothing changes technically. Only the reason does.

More nights outside

An unlit patio has a usable season that ends when the days get short. A lit one stays open through the shoulder months and into the evening year round. In the Upstate there are plenty of mild nights well outside summer, and most of them happen after dark. The lighting is what converts them into usable time.

Insects

Outdoor light brings company on a warm evening. Warmer light pulls in fewer of them, which conveniently matches what looks good anyway. It helps. That is all. But it is a free consideration when choosing the setting.Worth adding: whatever runs along the roof edge above should match, so the two do not disagree with each other.

Getting your patio looked at

The plan comes from walking it, not from a template. EverCrest Lighting does patio and outdoor living lighting for homes, restaurants and businesses in Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, out of Greenville. Consultations are free. Call (864) 252-1732 or email [email protected].

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