Task Lighting – Prepare Your Outdoor Living Spaces For Spring

Don’t look now, but spring is right around the corner. According to the calendar, spring starts March 20th, and the weather is catching up to the new season as well. As we begin to thaw out from the winter cold, everyone wants to get outdoors. Warmer evenings means a pleasant stroll after work, a long walk with your dog, or just a relaxing dinner al fresco on your deck or patio. Of course, if you want to keep the fun going after dark, you will need the right task lighting for the job. From the porch-sitting avid reader to the outdoor-kitchen-cooking grill master, everyone needs task lighting to enjoy their time outdoors. So if you’re ready to start spending more time outside, we invite you to contact Night Vision Outdoor Lighting. We’ll help you light all of your outdoor spaces for maximum enjoyment.

What You Need Outdoor Task Lighting For

There are a short answer and a long answer to what you need task lighting for. The short answer is: everything. Simply put, if you can’t see at night, there’s really not much you can do on your porch, patio, or deck. The longer answer, however, is that good task lighting opens up a whole world of possibilities for your outdoor spaces.

If you have a porch, there’s nothing more relaxing than sitting outside your home on a warm spring evening. Of course, it’s much more enjoyable if you can see. Imagine sitting on your porch in a swing, rocking chair, or your favorite porch seat. With the right task lighting, you can read, play a game, play an instrument, or just see the people you love spending time with. Task lighting is there to make your porch livable at night.

For outdoor chefs, task lighting is crucial. Whether you like to go simple with a small charcoal grill, or whether you have installed a complete outdoor kitchen, you need task lighting. Good task lighting will let you see as you cook, so your steaks are perfect and your buns don’t burn. Love your veggies grilled to perfection? It’s hard to see them if you don’t have good task lighting. You should consider your task lighting an essential part of your chef’s toolkit.

If you have a deck and you want to be able to host friends, eat al fresco, or enjoy a little me time, task lighting will get you there. With good deck task lighting, you can relax without feeling like you’re about to trip over items hidden in the dark. If you’re eating al fresco, you’ll want to see your plate and the food on it. Trust us, eating in the dark can be challenging.

Task Lighting for Your Porch

A porch is a great space for outdoor living. Here in Atlanta and in the South in general, we love our porches. If you are lucky enough to have a porch (and many of you are), you should be able to use it at all times of the day. To do that, you will need some task lighting.

Fortunately, task lighting on a porch doesn’t have to be overwhelming. One major benefit of a porch is that it has a roof, so you have a great spot to install some lights. Recessed lights are a great way to get some light without a showy fixture. Of course, classic porch lights that jut out from the wall are also ideal. A traditional porch light is an opportunity to express your style with a fixture that fits your personal fashion sense. If you are looking for something in between, wall sconces can provide a lot of light without being quite as dramatic as a traditional porch light.

In addition to the direct task lighting for your porch, ambient lighting in the area around your porch can spill over to create a significant amount of light even without lights on the porch. Typical ambient downlighting from fixtures hidden high up on the building or in trees can cast a wide circle of light, including your porch.

If you want an added touch of light, consider LED strip lighting. LED strip lighting lets you create a soft glow along the underside of a railing, the lip of some steps, or even along the base of a wall. The choices are endless, and LED light strips are a great tool to express your creativity.

Task Lighting For Patio Grilling

Whether your patio is large or small, a patio is a natural extension of your home. As you step out of your house and onto the patio at night, you should be greeted by enough light to enjoy the space. That doesn’t mean that you need bright lights covering your whole porch, but a mix of ambient lighting and task lighting can make your patio as functional as it is inviting.

A patio is often home to a grill, and without task lighting, your grilling game is just not at its peak. Any chef knows that seeing what you’re doing is crucial to culinary success. A little bright task lighting in the area of your grill makes cooking much easier and more enjoyable. A great way to shine some light on your grill without overpowering your patio is with some directed downlighting. The best fixture to use is a shielded fixture that is designed to deliver light only in the direction it is pointed without giving off a lot of glare and extra glow.

Task Lighting For Patio Dining

Another excellent use for your patio is al fresco dining. As the weather warms up, stepping outside for dinner can be a great way to relax at the end of a long day. For al fresco dining, you will need task lighting that is almost the same as ambient lighting. The goal is to avoid dark shadows. No one wants to see the whole table only to find that when you sit down your own plate goes completely dark. The best way to avoid shadows is with light from different angles. That way, the shadows that come from one light source are illuminated by the light from another light source.

One elegant solution for al fresco dining is to hang string lights over your dining area. These lights are often not bright enough to serve as the only light source, but they can definitely help chase away shadows.

In addition to overhead string lighting, some downlighting from high-up fixtures will cover your entire eating area. Make sure to use two or three fixtures coming from different directions.

Task Lighting for a Deck

Like a patio, a deck can be used for grilling and al fresco dining. Often a patio can be a great entertainment space, too. If you want to invite some friends over for an outdoor party, or just need extra outdoor space for your house party, task lighting on your deck is vital. In addition to sconces and porch lights by the door to the deck, consider some features unique to decks. For example, post lights are lights that are built into the crown of a post in your deck’s railing. They can provide a unique and elegant light source that you won’t see elsewhere.

If you have stairs by your deck, don’t forget step lighting. Step lighting is crucial to avoid slips and falls. Steps can be lit indirectly with ambient lighting or illuminated with lights built into the steps. Small lights can be built into the face of the riser or LED strip lighting can be installed under the lip of each step. Either of these styles helps people see where the next step is so they can climb safely.

Get Ready For Spring with Night Vision Outdoor Lighting

If you’re dreaming of spring (and maybe even summer), but your outdoor spaces aren’t quite ready, we’re here to help. Just drop us a line and let us know that you want to learn more about outdoor lighting. We’ll come to your home for a free no-obligation consultation. We’ll work with your needs, your wants, and your budget to find the right outdoor lighting plan for your home.