Outdoor Lighting For Seeing Friends at a Distance
/Lately, we’re spending more time outdoors and finding creative ways to get a change of scenery and safely see friends. One way we’re doing this is by maximizing backyard space to extend outdoor hang out time into the evenings, especially as the seasons shift and it gets dark earlier. How, you ask? Landscape lighting and outdoor seating! And I mean nice outdoor lighting that illuminates our outdoor meals, floods seating areas with light to see friends six feet apart, and casts light on surrounding greenery.
This post is in partnership with Kichler and Article. As always, all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that keep the blogging lights on. See what I did there? I love puns!
You may remember that I installed outdoor lighting at my house already. We put Kichler accent lighting in the backyard and in the front yard garden a couple years back and absolutely love it. I spoke in-depth here about my love of quality landscape lighting and its ability to provide safety, ambiance, and security. I also shared how I installed the low-voltage lighting along paths, in plants, and along the side of the house.
So why am I talking about lighting again? Because I want to convince all of my friends and family to have illumination at their houses for my own selfish reasons!
My dear friends Martha and Danny are due to have their first baby and we’re so excited for them! But we came to the sad realization that during COVID, we won’t be able to be with them the way we imagined. We won’t get to come inside to bring them food and make them a meal, we won’t be able to help hold the little one while they rest, and we can’t pop in to help clean up the house during those newborn days. But what can we do? We can keep them company in their yard and admire their new baby from a distance.
As a baby gift, I gave them landscape lighting and some outdoor seating! What a friend I am. With illumination and seating outside, we can extend the hours that we can see them well into the evening. Because we know babies don’t keep their schedule to daylight hours and as the time changes for fall, it will be much darker during our evening socially-distant hang outs. Lighting is key!
For the last several months of COVID-19, Martha and Danny’s backyard has become the hangout place for our little pod group of friends. They have a big yard perfect for socially distanced hangouts and get this - they have a functioning kitchen (unlike me!) so they’re great hosts. Plus, when baby comes, we’re not going to ask them to drive to sit in our backyard. We’ll come to them and we’ll hang out as late as baby (and me) can stay awake. We just don’t want to miss more newborn and friend time than we already have to due to COVID safety.
We’re so grateful for our outdoors spaces, our mild climate, and the chance to add lighting and furnishings to make the lives of new parents a bit more comfortable during these weird times.
Martha and Danny have been working on re-doing their yard for about a year now. I thought it’d be fun to show you their home because it’s different from my house. Theirs is in a different part of town that has mid-century ranch style homes and they’ve been embracing a more modern California style. It’s really showing in their outdoor spaces, too!
Talk about a glow up, right? They’ve really made their home their own and I’m so tickled I got to give them that extra final touch in their yard. I wish I had time to share their whole yard (and whole home!) transformation, but that’s just too much to get into. Maybe we should pressure Martha to start her own home blog?!
There’s so much to show off, so I made a video of the whole transformation. It demonstrates Martha installing lights at 8 months pregnant, close-ups of the fixtures, some glamour shots of their illuminated garden, and clips of how we enjoy the newly improved outdoor space into the late night hours. Of course, it’s set to fun tunes, too. Give it a watch below!
Watch The Video:
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When we visited them months ago, we did distanced picnic style set ups on the lawn, but I’ve since snagged two Aeri Slate Gray Article chairs for us (and them) to enjoy. Again, I can’t tell if I got the seating and lighting for selfish or altruistic reasons - let’s say both! The chairs are so comfy! They pair perfectly with the black accent lighting which I’ll get to in a second.
First, look at how cute this mom-to-be is. She later said she was having Braxton Hicks contractions when I snapped this photo. What a trooper.
We paired the outdoor chairs with the rust-hued Olara ottoman for Martha to kick up her feet and added a set of Gera side tables for snacks and drinks.
Shout out again to Martha for being nearly in labor and making the prettiest spread and cocktails for us.
Of course, all of the seating is safely distanced. Ross is about 10’ away from the parents-to-be in the above photo.
Look at those cuties with that beautiful sunset. Is this blog post becoming a love letter to Martha and Danny? Haha, maybe. Let’s get back to the landscape makeover.
We surrounded the front yard seating area with a variety of Kichler lighting. Above, we’ve added flood lights to uplight the pretty old juniper tree to create a soft bounce light for the areas underneath and to show off those pretty branches.
At the garage, the front door, and the back door, we installed the Kichler Pellinord light to give a nice glow and visual clarity. Along all of the walls, we added these multipurpose recessed lights that graze the siding for a nice background for the plants (that have yet to grow in) and define the architecture.
All of the lights installed are a warm 3000 Kelvins. This gives a beautiful amber hue that makes the lighting feel welcoming and soft. Anything cooler than 3000K would feel stark and sterile. For outdoor lighting, go with a warm color temperature!
Not only does landscape lighting provide a nice ambiance, it’s critical for safety too. Martha selected these pretty two-arm path lights to make walking on the steps as safe as can be. The two-arm detail in the fixtures give so much personality to their modern home and they tie into the black-framed windows beautifully.
While we focused on maximizing the newly-transformed front yard, we couldn’t just stop there! We continued the lighting around the house and to the backyard where more of the recessed lights shine up on the shrubbery fence and the flood lights illuminate their fig and olive trees with soft uplighting.
The 10-seater table that Martha bought from Article years ago is a perfect socially distant space for us to enjoy a meal from the ends of the table. Before we installed the outdoor lighting they had a couple of motion-activated solar lights. When we were enjoying a meal, they’d go out and then I had to wave my arms frantically to get them to turn back on. It made for a good laugh but got tiring after the tenth time.
No longer are we waving our arms frantically in order to see our friends, because the whole dining area is fully illuminated! More of the recessed lights are installed in the decomposed granite to illuminate the walls, and we installed more flood lights under the eaves to create some downlight onto the table. Are you seeing yet how versatile these lights are?
On the table, we plopped down a Lyndon LED lantern with Bluetooth speaker to listen to tunes and illuminate our meals. We even used it recently as the speaker for the outdoor movie that she projected onto a screen!
Remember when Ross and I fostered kittens? Well, Martha and Danny adopted two of them and now I get to see my foster babies whenever I want - even if it’s through glass. Here Anne (who I previously named Susan when she was in my care) admires the outdoor lighting and wishes she could join us for dinner. Me too, Susan, I wish you could join us, too.
When planning outdoor lighting (or anything at all!), it’s important to consider environmental impact. I encourage folks to be mindful of avoiding light pollution than can negatively impact bird migration, human health, and energy consumption. You can learn more about compliance here, but in summary, you want to select lighting that is on only where/when needed, no brighter than necessary, is no bluer in temperature than 3000K, uses low energy, and is shielded to avoid pointing directly into the sky. The lighting we installed accomplishes those with reduced power LED lighting (powered by home solar panels), set on a timer to be on for limited hours, warm 3000K color temperature, directed at trees/walls/ground to absorb light rather than into the sky, and is intentionally customized to adjust the brightness. We can enjoy our outdoor spaces while mindfully protecting them!
Big thanks to Kichler and Article for sponsoring this project and for giving me (I mean my friends) all of this lovely lighting and furniture! These material things have so much emotional value. They’ve truly made our COVID experience so much less dreary by letting us safely enjoy the company of our friends in the evenings. It’s the little things that help bring us together and I’m so grateful. I’m getting misty over here.
I hope this inspires you to find ways to maximize outdoor time with loved ones. It makes such a big difference in our moods even though our favorite humans are sitting so far away.
Don’t forget to watch the video of the lighting installation which gives more insight into the way the power is hooked up, and more views of the individual fixtures.
Get The Look:
Oh, and also! I couldn’t sign off without welcoming baby Wesley! Hi, buddy! I can’t wait to one day get within six feet of you!
