Patio lights are another of those home improvement items that you can either pay no attention to, or spend a LOT of time pondering over. The simple fact is that outdoor lighting, especially when you’re talking about lighting your patio, can make a huge difference in how often and how much you enjoy your patio. And when you think about it, your patio is really just an extension of your home (or at least it can be and many people would argue that it should be). By making good use of your patio, you suddenly have a ‘larger’ home. More space, more variety of places to sit down to dinner or perhaps have a drink or entertain some friends… But, without proper patio lighting, you severely cut down on the likelihood of that happening very much, if at all.

Think about it. Consider two identical homes side by side. You took the first home and on the back patio you had some subtle patio string lights strung along the roofline or perhaps a trellis, or maybe even a table with a patio umbrella light string strung along the ribs underneath. Then along the edge of the garden you had some tiki torches lit and burning, giving not only a really nice tropical feel to the evening, but by burning those torches there was a minimal amount of mosquitoes buzzing around.

Now, the house next door was built identically, at the same time and with the same floor plan and same back yard. By chance, they even bought the same patio table for the area. However, this home has nothing but a single naked 100 watt bulb sticking out of the side of the house next to the back door.

Both homes have patios. Both homes have their patios lit at night. But… these two homes are NOTHING alike when it comes to patio lighting and creating an atmosphere.

Not only will having a well thought out patio lighting scheme help you enjoy your time more, but it really adds to the value of your home as well (if you have them permanently installed). However, even if you only have temporary, removable lighting such as the ever popular Chinese lanterns or even strings of Christmas lights (we’re talking the simple white ones here, not a Griswald style lighting set up!), the feeling of value will increase in your home. And if you happen to be considering putting it on the market, this is something that will come through to potential buyers, especially if they happen to come take a look at the house after the sun goes down (and if they’re serious about buying, they probably should. Plus, if you did an exceptionally good job with the lighting, you should even encourage them to come see it at night, explaining how, as beautiful as it is during the day, it becomes totally magical at night!)

This is the potential power of well executed outdoor patio lights. While professional design and installation can be quite costly, it can be a great investment. At the same time, a lot can be done with very little money – just a bit of imagination and effort on your part. In fact, if you want to consider lighting more than just the patio, garden lights can add even more to the ambiance of your back yard (or front yard for that matter). Take a look at the other article here about inexpensive ways of trying out different garden lighting ideas. It’s a great way to go about it!

So in the end, I wish you the best in finding just the right patio light set up for your personal situation. But don’t stress about it, especially if you’re going the less expensive route. You can always change things around, and many people enjoy doing just that, depending on the seasons and the weather. Fortunately for us, living in the desert Southwest, our patio lighting gets to be used year round!