How to upgrade your outdoor lighting this winter

Tired of your garden looking drab during the winter? Try these three simple lighting tricks to make your space beautiful and beneficial, and celebrate the many festive events of the season.

Safeguard with security lights

First and foremost, consider using lighting to improve your home security. Police in the UK are advising residents to ‘lighten up’ to deter burglars and make potential theft easier to spot. Removing dark corners leaves criminals with nowhere to hide and is a simple change that will massively improve the protection of your property.

You can find battery-powered or solar-powered security lights to fit gates and fencing for lasting nighttime illumination without the fuss of arranging a wired connection to the mains electricity. These can be set to shine bright all night or work with a motion sensor to come on whenever movement is detected. Complement your outdoor security lights with indoor lights on a timer or remote-controlled smart lighting so the house is never in darkness, even when nobody is home.

Feature festive decorations

Winter is a season of celebrations. This year, why not honour the festivities with themed illuminated décor? You’ll bring a bit of whimsy to the neighbourhood and delight any younger residents still taken with the idea of Father Christmas or Hallowe’en ghosts and ghouls.

Keep it relatively simple with outdoor Christmas lights in festive shapes such as snowflakes, reindeer and stars, or bronze autumnal leaves, wrapped around tree trunks or strung above your seating area. Candle-filled pumpkins will flicker eerily on doorsteps in October winds, or you can line your pathways with icicle-lookalike fake candles in December and January to mimic snow. Alternatively, go big with standing lights in colourful characters related to the season such as Jack Frost and Rudolph.

Transform your trees

With December and January being the wettest months in the UK, winter might not be the season for spending time outside. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t improve the view from your window!

Use outdoor lights to transform your trees into an enchanting, illuminated scene reminiscent of the light shows that run at the formal gardens across the country at this time of year. String fairy lights through the branches in festive silver and gold or cool blue and white. Hang vivid lanterns with pretty patterns from the canopy, and add glowing shapes or links of big bulbs to the walls behind the trees. You could even set up spotlights in every colour of the rainbow to dye the treetops green, orange and pink, on rotation to suit your mood.