Garden lighting:
Bring a glow to socially distanced gatherings in outside spaces with new lamps and lanterns. By Alex Mitchell
EXTEND your summer suppers in the garden with outdoor lighting. Of all the elements of garden design, lighting is perhaps the most mysterious. Get it wrong and you could swamp the place in a cold beam. Get it right and you can create a magical world of intimate shadows.
A complete permanent lighting scheme with spots to light trees and pathways needs an electrician to wire it in safely — check out pooky.com or moonlightdesign.co.uk for quality spots, wall lights and uplighters. But if you don’t want the expense, carefully placed lamps may be all you need.
Never underestimate the beauty of real flame from a fire pit or lanterns, while a new generation of portable LED lights promises to revolutionise garden lighting. They can be charged via a USB inside and then taken outdoors at night to light a seating or dining area. No outdoor wires or plugs necessary. They’re dimmable, easy to carry and bright enough to see what you’re eating — unlike many solar lamps which produce little more than a glow. White light creates a cold mood while a yellower light is cosier, so look for “warm white”, not “cool white” in the product description.
“It is important not to flood the whole space with light,” says garden designer Ula Maria in her new book Green: Simple Ideas for Small Outdoor Spaces (Mitchell Beazley, £20). “I think outdoor lighting should be all about the effect and less about expensive fixtures and fittings.”
CANDLES AND LANTERNS
These create enticing pools of light to direct you down a garden path or to a seating area. You’ll get the most romantic effect with real flame in storm or hurricane lanterns — try Garden Trading, Nkuku, Ikea and Lights4fun. However, battery lanterns or candles make a very convenient alternative. Find Six Slim LED Battery Candles with Dripping Wax, £14.99 at lights4fun.co.uk.
FESTOON BULBS
Have fun with a string of festoon lights. Like bunting in light bulb form, they introduce a hedonistic vibe and produce a warm, cosy light. Use an outdoor plug or buy battery-powered versions for hard-to-reach spots. The great range at Lights4fun includes 15-metre 60 warm white LED connectable Festoon Lights, £124.99, or the solar version, £49.99. Mainswired kits cast a stronger light, and clear bulbs, rather than frosted, blend in better with the garden in daylight.
HANGING LAMPS
A statement lamp overhanging a dining table outside is a great way to extend your interior style. Hang lamps from a tree branch, horizontal wires strung across the garden or a pergola. Designer Abigail Aherne has hung a chandelier from a tree in her London garden. A trio of mains-wired rope-cord Taiki Lamps (from £1,065 at moderngarden.co.uk) forms the centrepiece of a garden designed by Stefano Marinaz in west London.
PERFECTLY PORTABLE
Table lamps can create an even cosier mood. Just right on an outdoor dining or coffee table, the wireless Panthella Portable Lamp (£148.75, aram.co.uk), is the latest in Verner Panton’s 1971 Panthella range. Charge it by USB and take it anywhere within the house or garden. It will stay lit for five hours.
Lantern-style lamps are more portable still. USB-chargeable lamps include the brass, steel and glass Menu Carrie LED Table Lamp, £144.03 and Marset Follow Me LED Lamp with oak handle, £145.33, both from David Village Lighting (davidvillagelighting.co.uk).
Perhaps most versatile of all is the Axolight Float, from £187.68, also at David Village Lighting (as before).
This doughnut-shaped lamp has five dimmable settings and you can hang it from its hook on a wall or fence, suspend it from a tree branch or place it on a table.