Find Your Sparkle: The Best String Lights for Your Garden
Written by: Millie Breakspeare
Summer isn’t over yet, there’s still plenty of time to make the most of your garden on those long afternoons and barmy nights. The best way to do that is adding some sparkle to your garden with string lights - for both practicality and décor. The type of string light you’ll want to use depends on what aesthetic you’re going for and whether you want your garden to be functional or more decorative. Here are our top tips for finding the right string lights for your outdoor space.
Functional Festoon Lights
Festoon lights are the classic choice if you want to hold a midsummer garden party or alfresco meal. Since they feature larger bulbs spaced along a cable, they’re brilliant for casting a bright bold glow over your outdoor spaces.
You can use fences or festoon poles to hang them above patios and decks, outdoor dining areas, pergolas, and entertaining spaces to ensure you have enough light to eat by, or for playing party games on the lawn.
Festoons don’t have to be purely functional either, you can choose from many different designs to bring a specific aesthetic to your garden. Our vintage-style festoons are fantastic for introducing a touch of character for folk-inspired parties. Meanwhile, our simple yet elegant pro-connect festoons add modern style to more laid-back and relaxed gatherings.
One of our key styling tips for festoon lights is to hang them above your seating area, whether in a zig-zag pattern or as a boarder, to envelope your guests in a bubble of warm golden light.
Fantastical Fairy Lights
If you want to create soft magical ambience, fairy lights are an easy way to capture the whimsy of an enchanted summer night. Their small LED bulbs on thin wires or cables have a delicate, twinkling effect, draping your garden with starlight.
The flexibility of fairy lights means they can go anywhere throughout the space. Wrap them around tree trunks and branches to make garden features stand out at night, or wind them through shrubs to create the illusion of foliage studded with starshine or fireflies.
The gentle sparkle of fairy lights is perfect for adding a feeling of intimacy and quietness to the space – ideal for a date night picnic under the stars. Simply drape fairy lights across fences and garden borders in a cosy corner of your garden; to form a peaceful nook so you can enjoy your quality time together. Or if you want to go all out with a more spectacular setting, hang core connect fairy lights from tree branches, garden structures, or poles to build a fairy light canopy over your seating area. It’ll feel like such a special night when you’re surrounded by stars.
Magical Micro Lights
Micro lights are even smaller than traditional fairy lights and are often mounted on thin wire that's nearly invisible. This means they’re great if you want to introduce a subtle and modern feel to your garden.
With the flexibility of the wire, you can shape them in any which way: draped across garden tables and furniture for decorative sparkle, threaded through plants and foliage to create a sophisticated evening glow, or inside mason jars to form twinkling lanterns, which you can scatter throughout the garden to add points of visual interest.
If you did want to bring some playfulness and character to the area, you can always choose a more fun micro light design to go with your garden aesthetic. For example, our blue haze micro lights add an element of whimsy to alfresco dining spaces, while still being quite subtle with tiny blue and yellow crystal-like flowers.
Lovely Lantern String Lights
You may be the type of person to lean more into a decorative and characterful garden. In this case, lantern string lights are ideal since they combine string lighting with decorative lantern-shaped shades.
These are wonderful for adding colour and personality to bohemian festival-inspired gardens and outdoor celebrations. Rattan string lights are great for bringing a rustic and welcoming charm to the space, while cut out lanterns are more delicate, creating a softer and more understated feel. As a bonus, the fun designs can be enjoyed both in daylight and once night falls.
The Perfect Power Source
The key thing you need to remember when picking your string lights is the power source you’ll be using.
Battery-Operated String Lights
Great if you want the flexibility to move your lights around the garden, especially if they’re far away from a mains power source, or your garden doesn’t get a lot of direct sunlight during the day. They’re also brilliant when it comes to tackling the unpredictable British summer weather, so rain doesn’t put a damper on your party.
Plug-In String Lights
These are perfect if you want consistent brightness throughout your nights. Plus, they’re so easy to use – simply plug in and go. Just don’t forget that you need to use either an indoor socket or weather-proofed outdoor socket to ensure a safe glow whatever the weather.
Solar String Lights
The best choice if you want to be more economical with your garden lighting, they’ll help make great savings on your energy bill. Why not make the most of the summer sunshine while it’s here? Try and make sure your solar panels are in prime position to receive optimum UV exposure throughout the whole day since the sun will move.
There are so many different types of string lights you can use to add sparkle to your garden for summer depending on function, décor, and power source. For the best results, why not layer them together to create a complete scene that’s both practical and has a big visual impact, whether you’re decorating for a garden party, or just building a cosy nook for chatting the night away.
