While landscaping with plants and flowers is often a homeowner’s priority, the hardscape is equally important. However, hardscape elements can be complicated places to light correctly. While it’s easy to aim light on a feature, it’s more difficult to plan where to place a fixture to create a pleasing effect. 

Hardscape is all the non-living, decorative or practical architectural structures in the backyard, such as walls, decks, pergolas, and benches. Hardscape elements can define living zones, like a patio, or they can be purely decorative, like a water feature. Installing hardscape lighting highlights these features’ beauty and increases safety by illuminating steps, walkways and sitting areas.

Many hardscape lighting fixtures do not have to be integrated into the hardscape during the building phase, although this makes installation easier. You can add hardscape lighting to existing walls, columns, flooring, steps and ceilings at any point. And a wide variety of fixture styles are available to enhance various design styles, from modern to traditional.

New or upgraded outdoor living spaces top the list of priorities for homeowners, with decks and patios being popular choices. So naturally, people want to enjoy these spaces as long as possible during the day. A well-designed lighting plan allows you to enjoy decks and patios even after the sun sets.

On this project, we were able to use linear LEDs to light the path of the handrail. This is a sleek alternative to traditional lights while serving great functionality. These LED lights are perfect for summer nights out on the patio. In the pictures shown the deck rail lights are illuminated with a soft white, but they can also be color changing to bring a little life to the backyard.