11 of the best outdoor lighting trends for 2024

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12 March 2023

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6 min read

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Outdoor lighting can help extend your living space and create a warm, inviting atmosphere around your home. Modern outdoor lighting trends in 2023 include interesting ways to light your backyard, driveway, patio, and even the garden. Some of these trends include the latest innovations in things like solar power and smart technology bringing added convenience and functionality.

The latest outdoor lighting trends in 2024 include some ingenious ways to light your backyard in both a practical and stylistic way. Whether it's illuminating your garden, backyard, patio, outdoor kitchens or even the pathways leading up to your home you’ll find plenty of inspiration here. Outdoor lighting is not only important for safety reasons but will also give you more use and value out of your outdoor living spaces too.

Products like the Belcour Model 9 Wall Light can add a pop of colour and light in any garden
Products like the Belcour Model 9 Wall Light can add a pop of colour and light in any garden

1. Smart garden lights

Garden lights can help illuminate your garden and even bring attention to specific plants you may have in your backyard. However, smart lighting takes this to another level by allowing you to control your light sources remotely. These lights can also be solar-powered, allowing you to reduce your energy consumption making them cost-effective and eco-friendly solutions too. A great showcase of lighting technology at its best.

Related article: 7 garden lights that are simply magical

2. Hardscape lighting around the garden

Hardscape lighting can help you illuminate stairs, pillars, walkways, and even the edging around your home. Using soft lighting that points downwards helps brighten dark areas but can also be used to highlight specific ornaments or features around your home.

This kind of landscape lighting is perfect if you have a sculpture or fountain in your backyard.

For stylish hardscape lighting it's hard to beat options like the Nocturnal Twiggy Spike Garden Light
For stylish hardscape lighting it's hard to beat options like the Nocturnal Twiggy Spike Garden Light

3. Patio string lights for a cosy atmosphere

String lights have become iconic over the last few years. These lights can be attached to the roof or poles around your backyard for an elegant look. However, you can also wrap string lights around your patio railings or along your ceiling.

This can be a great way to subtly illuminate your outdoor space to create a warm and cosy atmosphere.

These trendy Hoop String Lights create a warm glow and visual point of interest
These trendy Hoop String Lights create a warm glow and visual point of interest

4. Small and simple solar-powered bollard lights

Bollard lights are an elegant way to light the exterior of your home and are a constant presence in annual lists of lighting trends. These lights can come in a wide range of sizes and designs and are perfect for illuminating pathways and driveways. While elaborate designs used to be popular in the past, small and simple bollards are the on-trend choice for 2024.

Modern bollard lights can also come with a built-in solar panel as their power source. This charges the battery during the day and will automatically light up at night.

Related article: Everything you need to know about Bollard lights

The magical impact of the Nocturnal Twiggy Bollard Single Lights is undeniable
The magical impact of the Nocturnal Twiggy Bollard Single Lights is undeniable

5. Motion-sensing floodlights for security and style

Floodlights can help illuminate large sections of your backyard with a small but powerful LED bulb. These lights can be hidden high up on your roof and can even be fitted with motion sensors to help improve the security around your home.

These lights are perfect if you want to light up your entire backyard for an event or function and the motion-sensing functionality means they’ll only light up when you need them to.

6. Artistic outdoor lamps to boost designer credentials

Outdoor lamps come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. These lamps are a convenient source of light and can also serve as a legitimate work of art at the same time. Designer outdoor lamps tend to have strong artistic qualities, making them a great decorative solution that will add character to your outdoor area.

Designer options like the Don’t Touch Floor Lamps by Karman will always draw the eye
Designer options like the Don’t Touch Floor Lamps by Karman will always draw the eye

7. Diffused wall light fixtures for muted ambience

Outdoor wall lights are another popular trend for 2024 with many utilising them as a complementary source of ambient lighting wherever they can. Such places include against the exterior walls of the house, garage, shed, fence - even retaining walls. They are particularly useful when an overhead light isn’t a practical option. Many also go for choices that have a partially opaque covering, giving a more muted glow.

8. Luminously magical fairy lights

Modern fairy lights are made of hundreds of tiny LED lights that are connected together to create a magical glow of light. These string lights can be used around bushes or trees and a particularly popular during the festive season. You’ll see many homeowners use them around the exterior of their homes, around windows and even their front doors, to a quite spectacular effect too.

Related article: 11 outdoor lighting ideas to up the ambience

9. Colourful underwater pool lighting

Underwater pool lights also fall into the category of outdoor lights and can help make your pool look sophisticated and elegant. In 2024, people are embracing colour with a tremendous array of choices available. Many are choosing to match this with the colour and lighting schemes of their homes for a more cohesive look.

Underwater lights can be simple downlights or can be linear lighting around the bottom edges of the pool. The linear option can help illuminate the entire pool in a softer tone, making it glow in the dark.

You can have a lot of fun injecting some colour into your pool lighting as you can see in this Californian Bungalow in Balwyn
You can have a lot of fun injecting some colour into your pool lighting as you can see in this Californian Bungalow in Balwyn

10. Sustainable solar-powered driveway lights

Sustainable, energy-efficient lighting solutions are becoming increasingly important in today’s world and homeowners are doing their bit when planning their driveway lights. These lights can come in a variety of styles and sizes, but solar-powered alternatives, as already mentioned in this list, are on the rise in 2024. They typically include small solar panels on top of each light, allowing you to illuminate your driveway without the need for wiring to an alternative power source.

11. Step lights that shine when they need to

Many of the latest trends for 2024 directly or indirectly help reduce your home’s energy usage. This is why motion-activated step lights are the perfect solution to help illuminate your stairs whenever you need to use them. The motion sensor switches the light off when nobody is around, preventing unnecessary energy usage.

While these stair lights can help give your stairs an elegant glow, their primary purpose is safety. These lights can be placed underneath each stair or on the side of each step to help people clearly find their footing.

Related article: Outdoor lights - the complete guide

This Curl Curl residence shows just how stylish stair lights can be
This Curl Curl residence shows just how stylish stair lights can be

The best outdoor lighting trends for 2024

As you can see, there are some inspiring outdoor lighting trends that you can take advantage of to improve safety and amp up the style of your outdoor living space. Most of these lighting ideas are extremely accessible too, so you’ll have no trouble implementing those that you like, quickly and easily.

Article updated 20th December 2023.

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