I have a patio, and right now we are depending on the light from the inside of our house to light the area. I am thinking of a few ideas to light the area, but I narrowed it down to two.

Small in the ground stakes, or large lamps. Which is better?

It depends on the ambiance you are after. The lower the lighting the more subdued it is I think. If you want better lighting to see,etc, then go with lamps.

gmf wrote:
It depends on the ambiance you are after. The lower the lighting the more subdued it is I think. If you want better lighting to see,etc, then go with lamps.Around the edges you should install some small lighting to make sure you can see the ground, and maybe if you have some bushes, it will show them off. On the corners, you should install some nice tall lamps that will show off everything.

I think all you need is a bunch of small lights lining your entire patio to give a nice light around the ground. If you have flood lights installed on your house that shine down to the patio, you will be fine.

misha wrote:
I think all you need is a bunch of small lights lining your entire patio to give a nice light around the ground. If you have flood lights installed on your house that shine down to the patio, you will be fine.If you were to follow this information, you would have more light coming down from the top on one side than the other. You need to balance out the light everywhere on the patio.

You could actually do both. Just use the larger light when you want lots of light, but only rely on the lighted stakes when you don't need a ton of light.

You also want to remember that the larger light will attract the bugs, where I don't think that the little stakes attract many bugs.

Lightings around the edges would do good.
Also some larger lights so that you can use them when there is need of more light.

I'd go with the in-ground stakes.

You will need to balance out the light everywhere on the patio.

Well I guess a tall lamp would be better... It can light up the surrounding area much better.

I would like to prefer lightings around the edges and a big lamp in the middle.

Thank you for this! I am currently doing research to design the patio here in Montreal and it is not easy to find someone that makes beautiful custom wood decks. In an article in Elle Decor I found an article on the guy who does patio design custom red cedar. He call'd Stephan Beaulieu and photographs of its buildings are quite nice. If you have any other addresses of people who build wood decks in Montreal, thank you to add them here. I'm looking for! Ciao.

Hi Dear,
I come across on your post.I think use have to use small patio lights which has large Luminous. In dark they will look pretty. you can also use the solar patio and decking light because they are easy to install and saving in the form of the money and electricity.There are some information regarding this, take a review.

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What do you mean large Luminous? How do they look and what do they do?

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If you don't mind the way your house looks at night or don't want to attract attention to it, then the stakes lights are not necessary. If you use your patio a lot, then a decent lamp would be more useful and functional to you. The stake lights only provide ambience and are more troublesome than lamps to install, for sure. You have to dig the area around for some lights, check to see you aren't hitting sprinkler systems or anything, and then mess with the wiring.

For a classy glow in your porch area, select sconce-style porch lights with brushed steel and frosted glass. These designs tend to remain in style over time, and the frosted glass provides a soft, ambient glow that illuminates your porch without disturbing the neighbors. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs in these fixtures for a longer-lasting light or consider "bug light" bulbs to reduce bothersome insects if you don't mind a yellow-tinted light. Fixtures with frosted globes can create a broader glow with a similar soft look and can also generally accept compact fluorescent or bug light bulbs.