What Is Landscape Lighting?

Landscape lighting is a multipurpose feature for your pool patio—light fixtures can make it so you can see as you get out of the pool during a nightly dip, and they illuminate your landscape and accent features. Even if you’re not a night swimmer, landscape lighting can extend the time you spend outdoors and encourage you to enjoy the landscape wonders around you no matter the time of day.

Types of Landscape Lighting

There are many different types of landscape lighting, not all of which are listed here. Based upon the design of your pool patio, consider including one or more of the lighting options below. A landscape professional can help you decide how to best illuminate your pool patio.

Path lights: If you have a path leading to your pool patio, path lights are a must for safety and beautification reasons.

Postmount lights: When more significant light is needed, postmount lights are thicker and provide more light than the average path light. They can be placed around a patio for more substantial illumination. They are also commonly used around decks.

Spotlights: Spotlights are a fantastic choice for accentuating the features around your pool patio. Large trees, fireplaces, or water features can benefit from the attention of a spotlight.

Flood lights: Like path lights, flood lights are often used to illuminate walkways but are more substantial. The light they provide is much brighter, and when they’re aimed toward the ground, their spotlight-style illumination can show the way along a path.

Well lights: Well lights are the most subtle of these landscape light fixtures. They are recessed into the ground and seamlessly blend into the landscape. Well lights, like spotlights, can also be used to literally highlight trees or the exterior features of your home.

Downlights: Downlights are unique in that they present the light downward, often with a shielded, angled top covering the light to guide it to the ideal location. Downlights can be great for trees or higher features.

The Purposes of Pool Patio Lighting

Do you want to create a simple, soft light around the pool patio area? It may be ideal to use postmount lights for that effect. Do you want to uplight your patio’s prettiest features? Spotlights or well lights could achieve that goal. Consideration should be given to the design of your pool patio as well as your overall lighting needs. Your landscaping professional can determine how to best light your pool patio area for optimal enjoyment.

The right choices for landscape lighting around the pool patio may center around setting the right mood for evenings by the water, whether you anticipate having lots of stimulating conversations, late-night swims, or nighttime parties with friends and family.