Pergola Lighting ideas

Bring the indoors outdoors this spring! These garden pergola lighting ideas help create a stunning outdoor focal point for outdoor entertaining and relaxing this season. 

While the best garden ideas often focus on greenery and plants, structures and decorative lighting can also transform your outside space into a glimmering oasis. Ideal for gardens that lack visual points of interest, a garden pergola is an easy way of adding height to a one-level garden and lighting will help create a breakaway zone. 

Entertain outdoors all season round with mains or solar powered Festoon Lights

Extend your outdoor space with a rustic timber pergola set up to create a semi-shaded dining area that’s easily accessible from the house. A slatted roof will provide welcome shade from the sun when it’s at its hottest and makes the ideal spot for a dining table, chairs and benches. Festoon Lights will help you enjoy this space both day and night. By day they add a decorative touch and by night they add in some much needed funcitonal lighting. No power point nearby? Go with Solar Garden Lights.  

 

Paint your Pergola Black and opt for Clear or Milky Coloured Festoon Lights

Go dark and paint a timber pergola in a dark grey or black finish. Using a dark colour makes a more dramatic backdrop that looks super-stylish with colourful garden cushions and outdoor rugs and furniture set against it. Dark colours also make a great foil to show off greenery and plants, making the colours pop more vibrantly.

We love combining a black pergola or black fence lines with black cable festoon lights. The cable blends in effortless and the lights will add that pop of colour. 

If wanting to go monocrhome in your styling then think about adding milky coloured festoon light bulbs

Paint your pergola a calming colour and combine with small globe Festoon Lights

Small garden or compact patio space? Avoid painting your pergola a dark colour or staining the timber a very heavy shade, which can feel overpowering and might crowd a very small space. Instead, follow a trick that garden designers often use when planning your small garden ideas and paint the timber in a soft, blue-grey shade. Pale, muted greys and blues have a calming effect and mirror the colour of the sky, which helps the wood to better blend in and creates a light, airy and more spacious effect.

Combine with some soft, ambient lighting and you will have the ultimate calming, relaxing space outdoors. Remember to keep it simple and sometimes all you need is a row of festoon lights to add some light and decor. When wanting a softer look we recommend going with our smaller bulb options such as the G40 festoon lights or G45 festoon light bulbs

Create a relaxing dining zone with Large Globe Festoon Lights

Position a pergola in a more secluded location where you can create a breakaway zone designated for dining and entertaining. The sturdy overhead beams of a pergola with glistening large globes of light make it an enticing area to flock to. Festoon lights will help zone, guide and light the way! We recommend our larger globes, the ST58 festoon lights and G80 festoon lights for a more dramatic lighting effect. 

Stretch your space with an extra-large pergola and add dimmable Festoon Lights

Opt for a super-sized pergola to provide coverage over a wider area outdoors. Extending an overhead structure over the entire patio area will ensure that the space is fully usable for longer.

Break the space down into sections for cooking, dining and relaxing by positioning furniture into clearly defined zones. Suspending outdoor lighting such as fairy lights and festoon lights will help section off the space and create a visual divide.

With such a large structure, opt for a light-toned wood that won’t overpower the space, rather than a very dark shade. Hanging greenery and foliage and flowers in strategic spots will help soften the linear look of the timber too.

Set up an outdoor kitchen under cover and add Solar Festoon Lights

Give outdoor kitchens protection from the elements by positioning your set-up underneath a freestanding pergola. 

A stand-alone pergola like this can also be a good way of defining different sections and activity zones in a larger outdoor space. Whether it's an outdoor kitchen, dining area or garden seating areas, an overhead structure makes the area instantly more visible so it will be more obvious to guests as a gathering point. Solar Festoon Lights are a great option when you don't have a power plug nearby and want to add some much needed task lighting. 

Train climbing greenery to create extra coverage

Training greenery to grow up and over a pergola creates natural coverage that will look stunning when fully established. Choose a fragrant variety, such as honeysuckle, and the heady aroma will smell gorgeous too when you’re sitting under the pergola on summer evenings.

Opt for a fast-growing climber that will establish itself quickly and provide coverage in as little as two years. Wisteria, jasmine and clematis are all excellent and will give plenty of colour too. Position one plant near the base of each wooden pillar and train the shoots to grow straight up the posts and along the overhead beams to create a canopy effect. You might need to use string or wire supports at first, but pretty soon climbers will be able to take care of themselves and follow the framework.

Keep your lighting plan simple and do an X style shape with a row along the front frame of the pergola to add a little wow to your space and to take your dining from day to night. 

 

For more inspiration and ideas check out our other blogs here. 

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