Renovating your patio can be the greatest improvement you make to your landscape in Rochester Hills and Sterling Heights, MI. You can unlock limitless potential as you relax by yourself, gather with friends and family, exercise, cook outdoors, and more. The renovations may include updating the patio to patio pavers, and you may also want to include a landscape lighting plan so that you can enjoy your new patio whenever you want. Even the greatest patio will not give you the best experience without some strategic lighting. Here are five ways that landscape lighting can enhance a patio renovation.
Increasing Depth Perception
The patio needs to feel like a safe place, and this is impossible at night without adequate lighting. The traditional way of using a single bright light source won’t do the trick. It can actually make the contrast between light and dark more pronounced, creating harsh shadows that obscure obstacles. A combination of lighting strategies could increase depth perception at night, making the patio renovation more successful and the outdoor living space more livable.
Encircling the Perimeter of the Patio
The most effective landscape lighting system for a patio will make the ground surface itself the biggest focus of a lighting strategy. Landscape lighting could be focused at the ground using hard-wired, low-lying walkway lighting. These lights can encircle the perimeter of your patio and be installed along walkways, focusing their energy on the paver surfaces for safety and beauty.
Embracing Fire
The ambient light created by a fire feature could be used to the best advantage of an outdoor living space. Depending on the size and intensity of a fire feature, the light could always expand in all directions and wash over the surfaces with soothing hues of oranges, yellows, and reds. A fire pit will create a flickering flame that wavers with the intensity of the fire. A fire table will provide a dramatic dining experience with an animated centerpiece of dancing flames. An outdoor fireplace will provide light for a semicircle area to create a cozy living room feel. Any of these fire features can become the center of the outdoor living space and a brilliant source of light for the landscape. Be sure that landscape lighting doesn’t overwhelm the light of the fire, but provides a comfortable space once the flames are extinguished.
Using Vertical Elements
Creating a layered texture in landscape lighting means getting creative with what’s available in your patio area. Spotlights could be focused at nondescript or flat vertical surfaces, though a textured vertical surface will often be used as well. The light then bounces off this surface and creates a decent amount of ambient light in the surrounding space.
Spotlighting the Beauty
The various features, plants, and artifacts around your patio also deserve their place in the spotlight. Gorgeous shrubs with blooming flowers, beautiful masonry accents on the side of the home, and little knickknacks you’ve collected over the years can all be given the attention they deserve—and become focal points at night. Consider having spotlights placed at the ground and pointed at an upward angle at the object you want to spotlight to give it a big presence in your patio and further enhance the visual texture of your outdoor living space.
Related: The Many Ways Outdoor Lighting Can Make a Landscape Design Feel More Spacious in Rochester Hills, MI
