Backyards like this one are some of our favorite bistro lights projects. A covered patio meeting an open pool, three wall faces giving us anchor options, and a back fence lined with mature magnolias. The trees turned out to be the design key. Once we saw them, we knew the support posts could tuck in among the canopy and the cable would read as floating across the yard rather than strung across it.
This wasn't our first project with this family. They've been our holiday lighting clients since 2017, and this was their first time working with us outside the holiday season. A party planned for early June set the install date, and the design got built around how they actually wanted to use the space.
Our client since 2017
Bistro across the backyard
G50 globes, 2400K warm amber
Tucked into the magnolia line
Total project cost
Installed
Where seating gets used in the evening, where dinners get hosted, and where the cable should zigzag rather than run straight across. Most of the design came out of that conversation.
The whole back fence is lined with mature magnolias. We tucked the support posts in between the trees so the hardware mostly disappears into the canopy. The cable reads as floating once the lights are on.
Bistro height matters. Too low and it looms, too high and it loses intimacy. 9.5 feet clears the patio arch and lands cleanly between the second-floor windows on the middle column.
Bistro lights aren't a one-bulb decision. We offer three options on every job. The G50 globe, the S14 with a double filament, and the S14 with a lightning filament. Same pricing across all three. The homeowner picked the G50 globe in warm amber, 2400K. The light reads soft against the magnolia canopy and warm against the brick on the house.
We ran the cable across the full backyard, including over the pool. The hot tub area we kept dark on purpose. The system reads better with a quiet corner to anchor the lit areas around it.
Single-day install. The full backyard, designed around the magnolia line.
The walk-through and the design conversation happened ahead of install day. The whole layout was mapped before we ordered any materials.
Install was a single day. Crew showed up in the morning, ran the cable, set the posts in among the magnolias, hung the bulbs, wired in the dimmer, and tuned the system before leaving.
Materials are commercial-grade end to end. Tensioned steel cable, weatherproof bulb sockets, direct-burial-rated connectors at every splice. The same approach scales cleanly to other backyards.
That's roughly 17 to 25 years of typical evening use before the system needs a full re-bulb. Single-bulb swaps happen as needed in the meantime, and the cable-drop system makes them straightforward.
Dimmable from a phone, schedules in place, voice control wired in if they want it. Adjusting the system feels like adjusting indoor lights.
A long backyard, anchor trees, a pool to cover, a corner kept dark. The bistro lights design pattern transfers cleanly to other yards with similar shapes.
The bistro lighting service this install came from, and a guide on the bulb options we offered the homeowner.
Most bistro lights projects start with a 30-minute site walk. We map the run, talk about height and anchors, and quote within the week.