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Get Ready for BBQ Season with the Right Outdoor Lighting

Learn how to light your outdoor space

Enchant your backyard guests with a well-lit landscape

Enhance the romance of outdoor living with the right light fixtures. From spot lights that show off your water feature to string lighting that create a celebratory air, layers of illumination not only enhance your outdoor aesthetics at night but also prevent mishaps that can occur in the dark. So, get creative and lighten up your landscape for those neighborhood barbecues and evenings with friends. It’s a low-cost way to really spruce up your yard because many of the outdoor fixtures you’ll find at 1800lighting.com are energy savers too.

Light Your Landscape for Open-Air Entertaining

Infuse outdoor entertaining with a festive air by garlanding your gazebo, patio awning or deck railings with popular Bulbrite string lighting. It brightens up your outdoor vistas after sunset with the warm glow of vintage elan. Try connecting several strings together to create a border that keeps the dark at bay, or use a single string as a decorative accent in a seating area or your barbecue station. Because it’s so portable and versatile, it’s a great do-it-yourself hack that works in all sorts of settings.

Rope lighting really jazzes up outdoor living space with a minimum of fuss. This kind of string lighting works great in unobtrusive places like below a handrail cap to or around the edge of your deck to frame your spaces with a warm, welcoming glow. If you wish to create a more celebratory vibe, place rope lighting in plain sight like you would holiday lights, encircling structural posts with festive glimmer.

LED strip lighting is another option that saves energy while instilling your outdoor atmosphere with a distinctive verve. LED strips from WAC Lighting and Koncept are rated for use in damp places, as long as they are not exposed to the weather. Get creative with your deck lighting by incorporating strips of various lengths in covered areas like your deck or patio. Use led step lighting from some of our most popular manufacturers, including Kichler and Sea Gull Lighting, to improve visibility as well as aesthetics.

Define Your Space with Backyard Lighting

Use light as a medium to paint your landscape and make your carefully manicured plantings and special features pop at night. When you are planning your backyard lighting scheme, be sure to bring some of the following areas into focus:

• Gates and entryways

• Footpaths

• Stairs

• Fountains, waterfalls, ponds

• Statuary

• Seating areas

Solar landscape lights from Kenroy Home cast soft haloes along pathways or beside garden benches, creating an aura of enchantment. You can position solar lights as far from an electric power source as you wish, so they are ideal for the far reaches of your backyard.

Strategically placed spotlights show off your most distinctive flower beds, trees or shrubs to their best advantage while providing attractive pockets of brightness that banish shadowy corners, making your backyard more welcoming. You can also hide spotlights behind shrubbery but aim the light toward the sky, backlighting plantings while illuminating the perimeter of your home or patio. Keep in mind, though, that too much light can be as ineffective as too little. Think Cinderella’s castle rather than Times Square.

Secure Your Nightscape

When the party is over and it’s time to retire, you can rest easy knowing that your motion sensor lighting is keeping vigil, ready to reveal any interlopers in your personal space. Wall sconces from Designers Fountain do more than just decorate your porch, deck and patio beautifully. They serve double duty as security features while your family sleeps. For locations where utility takes precedence over decorative appeal, select from our Craftmade security lights, and get the coverage you need to feel secure all night long.

Don’t let installing outdoor lights be a daunting task. With a creative selection of fixtures from 1800Lighting.com, you can serve up a well-lit landscape that pairs perfectly with your signature barbecued ribs and is every bit as tasteful. So enjoy the outdoor season to the fullest, knowing that your guests and your family members are safer and more secure too. At 1800Lighting, we’re happy to help you design and implement the nightscape of your dreams.

PRO TIP: Ensure your outdoor light array works perfectly by using timers. You will have one less task to remember, and your landscape will always appear in its best light.