Close your eyes and remember a favorite night. You may recall the sounds, the smells, how you felt, but perhaps most importantly, you’ll remember the lighting. Creating a mood that is either festive or intimate, lighting plays a defining role in setting the mood in any environment, especially when we look at outdoor venues such as your own deck. It’s not only about the safety of you and your guests, the right lighting accentuates the features of your deck and contributes to the overall atmosphere of your soiree.
Many homeowners are taking advantage of the evolution of LED lighting options for their outdoor spaces. First there is the energy savings by migrating from a 120 volt household light to a 12 volt LED component. Then there are the advances in power supply, allowing for hard-wired or solar powered solutions.
Of course, one of the greatest advantages of our Alberta summers are the long days, with great natural light well into the evening, so before making your lighting purchase, consider the layout of your space, the use of your deck and the after dark activities that you may be hosting. This will determine your needs and help to identify which lighting options will best meet your needs.
If you’re looking for straight forward, practical lighting, you may consider post-mounted lights around the perimeter of your day to provide full illumination and safety. This is a common choice, but there are a number of other options to consider as well.
Landscape lighting on railings and the surrounding trees and foliage adjacent to the deck can create a magical ambience. Similarly, directional lighting places strategically on stairs and walkways ensure safety while in motion about the deck and surrounding areas while not compromising the intimacy of the setting.
Of course, for a festive environment, you still have the option of more traditional string lighting suspended at key areas about your deck. Now offered in an LED format as well, this is often preferable when a one time or short-term lighting solution is needed. But to create a unique lighting configuration for your space, there are some new ideas to consider as well.
RGB LED lights are being increasingly popular with homeowners as they offer the user the unique opportunity to program color changes with the lights as the event/atmosphere require. Brighter colors may accompany a family celebration, while darker tones may be used to create a back drop for more serious circumstances.
LED lighting can be configured differently in deck railings as well. For decks where a tempered glass solution was identified to create a distinct look to the perimeter of the deck, there are options to add lighting to both the top and bottom of the glass mounts to illuminate the glass panels in a manner which appear to create a glow within the glass panels themselves and, in turn, a new lighting option.
With lighting, your options are almost limitless. Whether you want to embed solar powered fixtures directly into the floor surface of your deck, or illuminate the space from above, the only limitation is your imagination. At Alberta Vinyl Decking & Railing, we have worked with a number of homeowners to configure lighting solutions for their deck from traditional to one of a kind and can help you to determine what choices may work best for both your vision and your budget.
Keep in mind that while you want to ensure enough light for the activities that you and your guests will enjoy on your deck, you don’t want to flood your space with light like a sports field, so your lighting choices should reflect that. It’s also important that you reduce glare as much as possible by directing light to where you need it and not simply lighting a 360 degree space with a single fixture.
While there are a number of easy to install do-it-yourself solutions for lighting, you may still want to consult an expert to ensure that your off the shelf solution will accomplish what you intend to do, or if you are wasting your money. Even if you plan to install the lighting yourself, have a plan, but consult trusted experts to ensure that you’re headed down the right path.
Remember, we enjoy summer for entirely too short a time each year, so ensure that your Alberta deck lighting solution will allow you to maximize your outdoor enjoyment and the full use of your deck, whether day or night. We’re here to help should you have any questions or need any advice along the way.