How to choose your garden lights

3 January 2019

Transforming a garden from a simple patch of grass into an extension of your home isn’t always an easy task, especially once the sun goes down. Luckily, Philips Hue helps you add a touch of personality (and style!) to even the darkest corners of your garden. Put aside the gardening gloves and wheelbarrow and learn the best way to make your garden shine in the dark: choosing the best outdoor LED smart lighting — and its most effective location — for your space.

First things first: focus on lighting up the parts of your garden you like the most — the koi pond, your favourite tree or that back flowerbed you worked so hard on. After all, you should look outside and see home, not just a garden. Also keep in mind that light can serve multiple purposes, such as showcasing a gorgeous part of your garden while simultaneously lighting your way to help you avoid stumbling over a rock or forgotten toy. Whether you have a large garden or a smaller outdoor space, outdoor LED lighting can create the garden of your dreams.

A large garden has many perks but, given its size, it often lacks lighting and ends up having large swaths of darkness. Try these lighting tricks to illuminate your larger outdoor space:

Rather than looking out of the window to see a dark expanse, separate the garden’s large area with light. Placing spotlights along the back fence and washing it in light is a great way to show off the depth of a sizeable garden and light up otherwise dark areas. Add a spotlight aimed up a tree toward the centre of the garden to help break up the darkness between the back porch and the fence.

If your garden has stairs, water or other potentially dangerous obstacles, lighting them can help minimise the risk of injury while walking. Place path lighting along your most-used routes to guide you from your porch to the shed, or a seating area to the back door. Path lights are meant to be on display, so choose lights that bring a touch of your home’s inside decor outside.

Tip: Smart outdoor pathway lights, such as the Econic outdoor pedestal light, allow you to light up your most-used routes — and give your garden some serious personality, too. Choose from 16 million colours in the Hue app to paint your outside space with light.

Strategically placing smart lighting in a smaller garden helps open up the space, separate certain areas from others and gives you the feeling of a more expansive area. Use these lighting tips for your smaller garden:

Using light to create depth in a small garden is key to giving the illusion of a bigger space. If you have a tree, use spotlights to create an effect called moonlighting: place the spots high up in the branches and point them toward the ground. This washes the tree — and the ground below it — in light to pull the eye up and create the feeling of a larger area.

Having a small outdoor space doesn’t have to mean that you stick to minimal lighting. A strip light is an easy, subtle way to add light in otherwise untouched areas. Place an Outdoor Lightstrip along the edge of a flowerbed to create a fun, surprising burst of colour — one of 16 million, to be exact — and help your small space feel bigger.

Tip: Use the Hue app to set outdoor scenes for different situations. Set fun, bright scenes, such as Soho, to complement a festive outdoor get-together or bring the lights down to the soft, warm glow of Savanna Sunset to enjoy a relaxing after-work cocktail with your spouse.