Any garden room should always consider the aesthetic look and feel of its space not only by day but also by night. Interior and exterior lighting is sometimes overlooked when designing a garden room, but can have a big impact on how the space feels.
Choices on garden room lighting depend on several things, including the size and style of the space, how you’ll be using it, and how much natural light it gets.
Here, we’ll break down different interior and exterior garden room lighting ideas and where they can work best, based on our personal and professional experiences.
Interior lighting ideas for garden rooms
Natural light
This should be the first consideration for lighting your garden room. Before spending lots of money, think about how you can maximize natural sunlight through windows or skylights. For example, if you have a south-facing garden room which gets lots of sun during the day, you may only need to consider nighttime lighting.
However, also think about how much privacy you want and practicalities of all-day light. For example, you don’t want laptop screen glare from the sun in your garden office.
At the Garden House Company, we understand how to use natural light in our builds according to our client’s needs. See how we built David’s garden guest annexe to attract natural light from many places or Sarah’s garden pottery studio to capture the evening sun.
David’s garden guest annex
Task lighting
Something else to consider is flexibility – table and floor lamps or other portable/wireless lighting can be a cheap and convenient option for your garden room. These can be great for multipurpose garden rooms and particularly garden offices, where you can move the lights to suit your needs. Additionally, they can give the space a cosy feeling due to their coned and warm light.
We recently built a garden annex for our own home and installed table lamps for ease. With different family and friends staying at different times, it made sense to keep this flexibility.
Ambient lighting
Dimmer switches and track lighting are both solutions that can also give flexibility as well as mood control. For garden yoga studios and cinemas, these can create the perfect ambient mood. For example, we installed a dimmer in my wife Helen’s garden pilates studio, which has been great for her classes in the evenings to create a calming atmosphere.
At the Garden House Company, we use the latest smart technology to provide full and versatile control over your in-room and outdoor lighting installations. With an IP 56 waterproof Wise Box remote control, you can switch on, dim, and brighten your lights to suit the aesthetics you need inside or outside.
Helen’s garden pilates studio
Decorative lighting
If your concerns are more about the style of lighting, consider a hanging pendant light or spotlights as a real statement piece for your garden room. These traditional ceiling lights can work particularly well for high or vaulted ceilings.
Alternatively, if you have low ceilings and want to exaggerate the height of your build, washer and sconce wall lighting can be great to create this effect.
Exterior lighting ideas for garden rooms
Solar powered lighting
At the Garden House Company, we always aim to build bespoke but sustainable garden rooms. Solar-powered lights and lamps are a fantastic eco-friendly exterior light source that can be especially useful if your garden room isn’t connected to a power supply. Set-up is often easy with these as they have built-in solar panels, allowing you to place them wherever you like.
Path and entryway lights
If you want to avoid knocking over plant pots on the way to your garden room at night, path and entryway lighting is another key consideration for design planning. It’s also important for security.
Using recessed wall lights in the entryway can safely guide you to your build, whilst motion sensor lighting can provide that extra peace of mind. Extra tip – adding some shingle on the ground outside your garden room can also help alert you to intruders!
Garden room entryway lighting
Heaters
Whilst Kent benefits from some of the warmer temperatures in the UK, during the colder months, heaters can be a great exterior lighting addition to your garden room that doubles up as a heat source. The light from heaters is often warm and glowing, perfect to add to that cosy atmosphere inside your garden room. Learn more about how to insulate your garden room for winter.
Outdoor accent lighting
Finally, you might have some features which you want to show off! Stringing fairy lights across rafters can add to that cosy garden room feeling. Meanwhile strip lights can give a stylish edge to an outdoor garden bar or hangout, and are generally cheap and easy to install yourself.
Our garden rooms are bespoke down to the lighting
The Garden House Company can help you figure out the best lighting options for your garden room, no matter your needs.
Take a look at our gallery for inspiration or view our case studies to see the bespoke lighting solutions we’ve delivered across Kent & Sussex.
