Hardscape Lighting Ideas to Brighten Up Any Space

Setting up hardscape lighting can be tricky if you have plenty of space to cover. With indoor lighting, you can put a fixture in each room and be done with it. The lack of boundaries in your outdoor space prevents you from implementing that same approach.

Illuminating your hardscape is crucial if you intend to highlight your home. It is only natural for you to harbor that desire if you invested a good amount of money in redesigning your yard.

In this article, we detail different ways you can light up your hardscape. Stay tuned to learn more about those tips and other relevant bits of information.

What Are the Hardscaping Elements Present in Your Yard?

Hardscaping is a term you may already know if you worked on your yard previously. If you are still unsure of what it means, allow us to clear things up.

When we refer to hardscaping, we are specifically highlighting the artificial elements of your yard. They typically manufacture pieces of the artificial elements in question or custom-build them for your property.

Per this article from Masterclass, common hardscaping elements include driveways, pathways, and retaining walls. They also include outdoor living areas such as patios and gazebos. Some hardscaping elements, such as fire pits and water fixtures, are for their aesthetic contributions to a particular property.

Hardscaping elements likely span most of your yard. By surveying your hardscaping, you can probably come up with different ways to light them up.

What Are the Benefits of Hardscape Lighting?

Why should you invest in hardscape lighting? Are those additional light fixtures necessary? Check out the benefits of hardscape lighting detailed below and see if they pique your interest.

Hardscape Lighting Makes Your Yard More Functional

Hardscape lighting will turn your yard into a more functional space even under the cover of night. Without it, you will be stumbling around in the darkness most of the time. You can probably use a light connected to one of your doors, but that may not be strong enough to illuminate most of your yard.

So, why would you need outdoor lighting at night? For starters, you can use that outdoor lighting to make your patio or gazebo usable at any time of the day. If you want to host dinner parties outdoors, hardscape lighting will definitely help.

Hardscape Lighting Protects Your Plants

Many homeowners use their yard to grow all kinds of plants. You may have some trees there or patches covered in flowers.

When it is light out, you can easily see where your plants are located. Avoiding them is easy during that time.

At night, your plants are no longer visible. You, a guest, or someone else in your household could accidentally step on the plants and severely damage them in the process.

It would be a shame if your gorgeous garden was ruined because someone could not see where they were going. You can prevent that from happening by installing some hardscape lighting.

Hardscape Lighting Improves Your Home Security

Home security should always be something that we all prioritize. You may already have more than a few security features installed, but it would not hurt to add more.

Hardscape lighting can effectively work to safeguard your property as well. If anyone sneaks onto your property, the lighting can alert you to their presence.

No one’s sneaking up on you thanks to the new fixtures you got installed.

Hardscape Lighting Beautifies Your Yard

Investing in hardscape lighting is also worth it because it can instantly improve the appearance of your home. When you get the lighting right, you can properly showcase the elements of your property.

Use your hardscape lighting to draw attention to the elements of your yard that you like the most. Allow the lights to illuminate those parts of your home and show off the work you did.

There is nothing wrong with flaunting your sense of style. Your guests may also appreciate taking in the beautiful sights you are presenting.

What Type of Fixtures Can You Use for Hardscape Lighting?

Before you start putting together hardscape lighting arrangements, you should first determine which fixtures you want to use. You have numerous options to choose from here. Let’s go over the available options in the section below.

Mounted Lights

Mounted lights are among the fixtures most commonly used outdoors. You can install them on your gazebo, your patio, or even one of your walls.

Those mounted lights do not provide the most illumination, but that could be a good thing. Simply set their height properly to get the exact amount of lighting you need.

Even if a mounted light is not bright enough, you can install another next to it. Mounted lights come in different sizes. You can fit multiple of them within a small space if needed.

Pendant Lights

Pendant lights can be stylish additions to your hardscape lighting setup. Feel free to install them in spots that could benefit from an infusion of style.

The pendant lights are similar to mounted lights and do not offer a lot of illumination. Still, they can be great additions to your yard because of how they look.

String Lights

String lights resemble the lights that people hang during the holiday season. They have small bulbs combined to provide a good amount of lighting.

The great thing about string lighting is they can go into about any element of your hardscaping. As long as there is a spot for the string lights to cling to, they will work there fine.

Floodlights

Unlike other fixtures we have already discussed, floodlights provide plenty of illumination. Floodlights excel at lighting up large spaces.

You must be mindful of positioning when you are installing floodlights. Keep them far apart so they do not end up making certain parts of your yard too bright.

Brick Lights

Brick lights are pretty unique. You can install them inside a structure and have them light up a small area.

Brick lights are mostly decorative, but they are great for adding lighting to some hard-to-reach spots. Later in this article, we will offer some suggestions for using brick lights.

Bollard Lights

A bollard light is a small post with a light resting on top of it. Bollard lights do a good job of illuminating their immediate surroundings. They are great for defining specific portions of your yard.

Security Lights

Homeowners have multiple options to choose from if they are looking for security lights. According to Lowe’s, you can install motion-sensor lights, dusk-to-dawn lights, and switch-control lights if you want to improve your home’s security.

You can also use a combination of those lights if you believe doing so will be better for your home security.

Longevity is important when it comes to security lights. Make sure the ones you choose can safeguard your home for a long time.

Hardscape Lighting Ideas Worth Trying

It is now time for us to discuss specific arrangements for your hardscape lighting. This is where you can have some fun.

We have some good ideas in mind, but feel free to tweak them for your property and preferences. Without further ado, let’s get to the hardscape lighting arrangements!

Cozy Outdoor Lounging

Hardscape lighting offers more than illumination. It can also provide a sense of warmth. Decorate a spot with some hardscape lighting, and you can quickly transform it into a cozy outdoor nook.

Gazebos and covered patios are perfect for this type of hardscape lighting.

Get some string lights and tie them to the open posts spanning the top of the gazebo or patio. Let them hang down a bit so their glow is more visible. You can also pair the string lights with pendant lights to create a brighter area.

Illuminated Pathways

Next, consider installing fixtures to provide illumination for your different outdoor pathways.

Start with the pathways that you have spanning the grounds of your property. You can illuminate those pathways using different fixtures.

One option involves using bollard lights. Set them on each side of the pathway and space them out so they can provide the illumination you are looking for. Avoid grouping them too close to one another because doing so could cause your outdoor lighting to become unbalanced.

If you do not want to use bollard lights, you can use small bulbs that can be installed flush into the ground instead. You want those lights buried in the ground, so no one accidentally steps on them. The lights bursting from the ground also provide a great visual.

Spacing out the lights will be key once again. Give the lights ample space so no one spot ends up too bright.

Shining Staircases

You may not have thought of lighting up your staircase before but trust us when we say that the result of doing so can be spectacular.

Use brick lights on the steps to bring them to life. Choose the weaker brick lights because you want them to be overwhelming when they are all lit up simultaneously.

Install one or two brick lights per step. The right number of brick lights to install will depend on how wide the steps are.

Consider adding some mounted lights to the staircase as well. The mounted lights can be next to the railings if they are present.

Lighting up your staircases is a good idea if you have one that extends across your sloped landscape. The lights embedded in your staircase can help prevent accidents when you use them in that spot.

Walls of Lights

We are not done playing around with the brick lights yet.

If you have a wall near your patio or gazebo, you can effectively transform that into a light source. You can place some of those brick lights near the top of the wall, cover them with more blocks, and redesign your wall.

Now, your hardscape lighting is even more out of the way.

Building a new wall with brick lights included is also a good idea. You can even set the brick lights at different heights to create a more distinctive effect.

Shine the Spotlights

Do you have statues or fountains present in your yard? They may be hard to see at night, so your guests may not appreciate them.

It would be a shame if they went unnoticed. Prevent that from happening by installing some spotlights.

Small floodlights can double as spotlights. Position them close to the fixtures you want to highlight and turn them on. Now, your guests’ eyes will go toward them so they gain a better appreciation of your design sensibilities.

Moonlighting for Your Yard

Moonlighting involves placing some floodlights in trees and letting their lights shine through the leaves and branches. By creating this kind of setup, the illumination coming from your floodlights can resemble moonlight.

You do not need to place the floodlights in the trees if you do not want to. Installing them near your home’s walls are also an option. Make sure they are shining through the trees to get the proper effect.

Underwater Lighting

Lastly, consider adding lighting to some of your water fixtures. Lights look great when they are shining through the water. They add a new dimension to your outdoor setting that you cannot get any other way.

You will find a wide variety of lights for underwater when you go shopping. Account for the size of your water fixture and try to find lights that work with it.

Underwater lights are absolutely stunning when set against the night sky. Your guests will be impressed by the setup that you put together.

Hardscape lighting can completely transform the appearance of your outdoor space. It may even turn that part of your home into one you use more frequently.

Contact us at Eco Minded Solutions if you are looking to integrate hardscape lighting into your outdoor landscape. Let us know about the setups you want to create, and we will get them in place for you!