Ideas | Lighting that provides added value on the terrace

Terrace, exterior space, balcony … These are the different typologies that exterior spaces adopt: an extension of the house often relegated to the background due to the lower frequency of use or the accumulated abandonment.

In this sense, the use of the terrace can be enhanced thanks to what we consider the best tool: lighting.

Lighting that allows zoning, support social activities or even increase security.

Treated as a painting bath and a distributor of spaces, outdoor lighting can be an ally, not only outside, but also inside when positioned as a continuity of the interior, which favors a comprehensive and polished project and a greater perception and use of space.

Therefore, in today’s post we offer a brainstorming of ideas when approaching lighting on the terrace.

The role of lighting on the terrace or outdoors

On the one hand, as we always like to emphasize, we understand lighting from the pragmatic and visual-visual point of view, so that activity, emotion and sensations are satisfied with the whole project.

Having said that, in order to understand what role outdoor lighting plays and act accordingly, we have started a list of functions that, far from being closed, can be a dynamic briefing of great help when laying the groundwork for a personalized project … where they stand out the dimensions of use, pragmatic and aesthetic, although they are not separated and can be related:

• Security and prevention against theft
• Aesthetics, since it serves to enhance both the landscaping and the interior design of housing, by positioning itself as an extension of it
• It serves as a support to facilitate social gatherings, since the night will not be an impediment to organize events
• It offers an added value to housing in all senses
• It serves as guiding light and guidance to trace routes and move around the exteriors
• Strengthens the zoning of spaces
• Highlight, contrast or soften textures or colors
• Define spaces and their uses
• Distribute and limit spaces
• Enhances structural volumes

Some ideas | Brainstorming

• Just as in the interior of our homes, we can design different lighting scenes that adjust to different times of day and associated uses.
• Dim lights are a great ally in the outdoors, they help recreate a pleasant environment while maintaining a certain privacy. This subdued scene can work as a base to add different points of light of greater intensity, such as on the table or the door to the house.
• What style do you want to generate and what role does lighting play? Maybe a relaxed Mediterranean style or … a contemporary stillness? The illumination reinforces the emotional states through the different styles, likewise the láppras and appliques function as design pieces that transfer inscriptions to the whole space.
• Distinguish the most original or significant elements: a pool or a small pool? Some stairs? Or perhaps a piece of art or vegetation: lighting can help us highlight elements that characterize the space.
• Different lights: welcome chaos. In the interior, with the rebound of the walls, the light should have a greater hierarchy and order. However, on the outside, as the walls do not exist as a screen, it is possible to create different lighting steps or even mix.
• The most ephemeral accessories such as lanterns, garlands, candles or paper lamps can also be part of the terrace’s lighting ecosystem. So, one of the advantages of outdoor spaces is that they are very grateful for the lighting, a little enough to do much of the work.
• Integrating lighting in the plants is a resource that gives us a very organic result, where light is naturalized and highlights all the splendor of the vegetation. Located between the plants, they offer color and leftovers that add a lot of depth to any space.

In short, from Coblonal Interiorismo we bet to take lighting as a key element to take advantage of any exterior. One of a customized lighting strategy adapted to the uses on the terrace will provide added value in the habitability of the home. And this is also interior design …