*This post may contain affiliate links for which I earn commissions.*
Here are three interesting ways to use solar spotlights in your backyard for more intriguing lighting effects.
While you can always use them for simple things like uplighting a tree or adding bright color to flower beds at night I’ve found you can get even more out of them with a bit of creativity and planning.
I’d love to say I scientifically came up with these techniques through research and sweat-breaking work but, in reality, each of these little tips was discovered completely by accident.
Position Solar Spotlights Near Water
One way to get more from your solar spotlights is to position them near water.
While my brother and his family were visiting a couple of weeks ago, my niece was completing an online course in photography.
She had to complete a project while she was here that required she take a specific set of photos.
One of the photos needed to show a reflection.
Until I heard her describe her assignment, I’d never really paid attention to the fact that my solar lights were being reflected in my pool at night.
As a result, I was getting the appearance of many more spotlights and more plant life in my yard than I actually had.
This was happening even though the lights were set in the ground about a foot away from the pool’s edge.
In the image above I’m using green spotlights pointed at three bushes. While the lights are pointed away from the pool, the bushes are well lit such that their reflection is clearly visible in the water from many angles.
This gives the impression at night that the pool is surrounded by far more lush greenery than truly exists.
If you’ve got a koi pond, a creek, a water fountain, or a pool, look at how you might put solar spotlights around that water feature in order to leverage the reflection to better accent that part of your yard at night.
Highlight Something Reflective
Last month the news reported we were set to get a storm sometime the next day that would have unusually strong winds.
I had some solar spotlights that were laid out to charge but not planted in the ground.
To keep them from being blown into the pool, I moved them to my patio table which is protected on both sides and with a roof above.
The next night, when the sun had gone down and the spotlights started coming on, I noticed an unusual glow emanating from a vase on my patio table.
The vase had been spray painted with a copper outdoor paint so it was pretty shiny.
The shine and texture in the vase was reflecting the LED bulbs from the spotlight in really cool ways.
Although the spotlight was red, I was seeing a mottled yellow, orange, and red pattern of light that looked a lot like flames.
I’ve since painted one row of blocks on a short wall around a garden bed with that copper paint. My next step is to set some spotlights close up to that section in order to add some of that flame-like effect to that wall at night.
If you have any metal art in your garden or a maybe some corrugated metal as an accent, you might set a solar spotlight close to it and see some unique light as a result.
Solar Spotlight Patio Mood Lighting
Use color-changing solar lights to add some mood lighting to your patio.
This is handy if you have an area where you don’t have access to a light or don’t want to ruin the mood with traditional white light.
We like to hang out on our patio at night but if we turn on the overhead light it’s no longer cozy and if we leave it off then it’s too dark to see anything.
To keep things cozy, I cluster 3 colored spotlights on the coffee table and point them towards the vase so they don’t blind anyone.
I like to set them to a dark blue, red, or purple.
This also makes the vase glow like a lantern and bathes the whole patio in soft, colored light without having to flip on a switch or pay for electricity.
To play around with these techniques I suggest keeping a set of solar spotlights that are set out in the sun but not planted in the ground so you can move them around as needed.