Location: Benoni, East Rand · System: Adjustable Louvre + Downlights
The brief
A cream double-storey with a balcony above and a wide paved patio beneath it, laid out for an eight-seat table, with the pool alongside.
A patio used mainly in the evening needs light built into the roof. Anything hung underneath would sit in the sight line down a table that long.
What we built
A white adjustable louvre roof with recessed downlights set into the beams, so the light comes from the structure rather than from fittings below it.
White blades matter more here than on a daytime patio: at night they bounce the downlights back down instead of swallowing them, which is what keeps the light level even across a long table.
If this is the shape of what you want, start with Louvre Awnings — or see more from Benoni & the East Rand.
Lighting a patio from the structure
The usual retrofit is a string of festoon lights or a fitting on the wall. Both work, and both put the light source in your eye line when you are seated.
Setting the fittings into the beams means the wiring is run before the roof closes up, so there is nothing surface-mounted and nothing to catch dust on top where nobody can reach it.
The specification behind it
- Adjustable aluminium louvre roof, white throughout
- Recessed downlights set into the beam line
- Wiring run before the roof was closed — nothing surface-mounted
- 95% watertight in Highveld storms, with a full all-round gutter
- 15-year guarantee on aluminium, 10-year on Chromadek®
Decide the lighting before the roof is made
Downlights are straightforward while the structure is being built and awkward afterwards, because the cable has to get into a closed section.
It is the single thing clients most often wish they had asked for at quote stage, and it costs very little at that point.
If you’re considering the same
If the patio will be used in the evening, say so at the site visit — it changes the beam layout, not just the electrical.
