While shade can be a crucial part of your Madison, WI, outdoor space, you won’t only want to use your shade structures in the daytime. You can enhance your shade structures with strategic landscape lighting that can let you enjoy your outdoor living spaces well into the night.
Lighting for Pergolas
Illuminating your pergola with hand-selected fixtures and other dimmable features can make your covered space feel cozy and secluded in the darkened landscape. When you work with landscape professionals to choose the landscape lighting style that can create the right aesthetic, your pergola can look inviting and attractive in the daylight and at night.
Many homeowners love the idea of adding lanterns to the heavy pergola posts. You can choose a rectangular lantern that fits seamlessly onto the posts to emit a soft glow over the surface of the patio pavers or, if your taste is more modern, select a sconce that produces light above and below for added visual interest.
Within the pergola interior, you can choose recessed lights that fit into the overhead beams. You might want to have gentle, soft-wash light fixtures that shine from the surrounding landscape design onto the pergola exterior to emphasize the texture of the wood posts and beams.
Lighting for Covered Porches
A covered porch can feel intimate simply from the porch design. The enclosure of the screening, removable glass, or open columns can emphasize this intimate space. Since a covered porch can tend to function as another living room, you can add lighting to the ceiling beams and to the porch exterior, too.
Choosing to incorporate spotlights can give you a brighter view in the dark when you want it, while lanterns can still add some ambient light from the posts. You might want to choose recessed lights that offer discreet lighting without fixtures inside the space.
This can be the ideal spot to add ceiling fans for more cooling on the hot summer evenings, and you can choose statement lamps for the tables near the seating arrangements. Since this outdoor space is covered, you can work with your landscape team to select a broader array of lighting fixtures and movable illumination like lamps.
Lighting for a Pool Cabana
Lighting for a pool cabana can be fun and a little more whimsical. Consider fans with palm frond blades to add a tropical feel to your cabana. Light fixtures within the cabana can give off a glow to the entire space when they are installed along the outdoor kitchen countertop space and mounted on the inside of the wood posts.
Discuss with your landscape team about adding wispy curtains with built-in lights to the sides of the cabana. This can make your space feel ethereal after dark.
Of course, you can choose light fixtures within the cabana to mount on the ceiling and illumination to add light around the perimeter of the floor. Knowing where the spaces begin and end can increase safety and beauty.
Spotlights can also be handy when you need to move back and forth to and from the house. You will be glad you opted for brighter lights for increased visibility.
While a shade structure is often chosen to shield you from the hottest rays of the sun, adding outdoor lighting to this spot can mean relaxing evenings after the sun goes down.
Related: 4 LANDSCAPE SERVICES THAT ARE BEST LEFT TO THE PROS IN WAUNAKEE AND MADISON, WI
