15 Backyard Lighting Ideas to Inspire!

Ready to add a little romance, whimsy, or magic to your yard? These dazzling backyard lighting ideas will help you transform your favorite outdoor spaces and get even more use and enjoyment out of them. 

An Introduction to Backyard Lighting Ideas 

Backyard lighting is important for both aesthetic and practical purposes. It can help set the mood, draw attention to special plants or features of your home, and add visual interest to your yard. At the same time, it can also help keep you and your guests safe and allow you to walk around, dine, and socialize more easily at night. 

5 Outdoor String Light Ideas

When it comes to outdoor lighting, string lights are an absolute classic. They are incredibly versatile and can be used in many different ways to create a cozy, magical, and inviting atmosphere. Here are a few of our favorite outdoor string lighting ideas: 

1. Light up your patio! A covered patio, whether fully or partially covered, is probably the easiest structure to hang your string lights from. You can wrap lights around supporting beams, run them along overhead beams, or drape them more loosely from corner to corner.

2. Make a backdrop out of string lights. String lights don’t always have to be hanging overhead. Instead, think outside the box and use a fence or garden wall to create a bright backdrop for a cozy nook.

3. Hang string lights from your trees. People tend to do this around the holidays, but it can look beautiful throughout the year, especially if you have a big, majestic tree that can act as a focal point in your yard. An outdoor dining table would look idyllic at the base of the tree with the glowing branches overhead.

4. Create a string light canopy. Imagine a canopy full of twinkly string lights hanging over an outdoor seating area, dining table, or hot tub. All you need is some posts or poles to provide structure for the canopy.

5. Build your own DIY pole planters to hang string lights. This is the perfect solution if you don’t have a covered patio, gazebo, or trees to hang your string lights from. For the base, you can use any kind of plant pot or planter and fill them with beautiful flowers, greenery, or herbs. 

 

5 Outdoor Ground Lighting Ideas 

Outdoor ground lighting is partially aesthetic and partially practical. Ground lighting can help illuminate pathways to make your backyard more safe and accessible at nighttime. Below are five of our favorite ground lighting ideas: 

1. Illuminate your pathways! There are many different types of pathway lights to choose from, including garden lights, downlights, bollard lights, and flush lights, each with its own style and aesthetic. Most importantly, pathway lighting is practical and can help keep your friends and family safe at night. Path lights also help keep people from trampling your precious plants!

2. Light up steps with small luminaries. Steps and stairs can be especially difficult to navigate in the dark, so don’t forget to add some ground lighting here too. You can find stair lighting kits online that come with everything you need.

3. Add some recessed ground lights or well lights. This kind of ground lighting is typically placed directly in the ground and hardwired using LED light bulbs. Well lights work well as accent lighting to draw attention to plants or decorative features in your yard.  shrubs, trees, plants, and other decorative features around your home.

4. Consider solar-powered lights. Solar outdoor lighting runs off of free, renewable energy from the sun. If you live in a relatively sunny climate, you can save money and reduce your ecological footprint at the same time! There are more and more solar ground lights available these days in a wide variety of styles.

5. Go with LED bulbs whenever possible. LED lighting is much more energy-efficient, producing more light and less heat –  at a fraction of the cost compared to conventional lighting. LED bulbs also last much longer, which means less maintenance and hassle for you! 

5 Creative Garden Lighting Ideas

If you put in the time and effort to grow a garden in your yard, consider adding some garden lighting so that you can enjoy those beautiful plants and flowers around the clock! Here are our top five garden lighting ideas to help you set the scene: 

1. Add planter lights to highlight your favorite plants, flowers, and shrubs. Planter lights can be simple and straightforward, like spotlights, or more whimsical and unique, like these wild grass-inspired garden lights.

2. Use floating pond or pool lights to increase safety. If you have a pond, pool, or other water feature in your yard, be sure to add some lighting to it for safety reasons. You don’t want a guest to trip and fall into your pool at night! Floating lights are a bit more fun and unique than classic recessed lights.

3. Create visual interest with decorative Moroccan-style lanterns. Metal lanterns with decorative cutouts like these cast beautiful light and shadows around your garden, creating a romantic, mystical atmosphere.

4. Set the mood with globe lights. Globe lights are another unique form of decorative garden lighting. They produce a glowy, ambient light that’s subtle and romantic.

5. Get creative and make your own DIY mason jar lights. For a unique look, you can tint the inside of the jars or decoupage them with tissue paper. Then top them off with convenient, solar mason jar lid inserts. 

A Recap of Backyard Lighting Ideas

We hope this article provided you with some bright backyard lighting ideas and sources of inspiration! But if you’re looking to create beautiful and inviting outdoor gathering spaces, remember lighting is just one important piece of the puzzle. 

Outdoor patio seat cushions are another great way to transform your backyard and make it much more appealing and comfortable. Our removable outdoor cushion covers are long-lasting and easy to maintain – plus, they come in a wide variety of fun colors and patterns to suit any style. 

With some decorative lighting and festive cushion covers, you and your guests will never want to leave your patio!