Landscaping perfected, BBQ/Outdoor Kitchen prepped and garden games at the ready but what about lighting?
Lighting gives you the ability to completely change the look and feel of your garden depending on the time of year and how you (and the family) are using it. A good lighting system should frame your landscaping and highlight your gardens best features, a great design should do all the above along with being simple to use, flexible and fun.
Top 5 tips for exterior lighting.
1: Create Layers
To add a sense of depth to your garden, staggering your fittings from the very back to front of your garden will add length to any size garden. Use the flow of your space (pathways and areas) to determine the placement of the lighting layers.
2: Highlight Features
Utilise floodlighting on mature trees and imposing hedge rows. On statues and landscape art use focused spotlights to bring them to life. This can also become part of the layering from above.
3: Don’t be afraid of the shadows
One area overlooked by customers is the use of shadows and light effects. One of our favourite design concepts is creating shadow art. Did you know you can have any design you want laser cut to into fret work or even create an art piece like below.
Photo credit: https://www.vibia.com/en/int/collections-meridiano
4: Colour me creative
Creativity with colour can make a huge visual impact in garden landscaping; it can accentuate the natural setting and complement the different seasons. Having the ability to select from a spectrum of colours alongside cool and warm white has never been so easy now we have systems like Philips Hue, Lutron Ketra and Aurora Aone.
Credit: Philips Hue
5: Set the scene
One size does not fit all. We know that we don’t want to just have everything on at once, we love to create theatre in our garden designs to bring them to life, using the layers to gradually build a scene. So in the early evening the garden layering slowly turns on from the front to back of the garden, later on the statues and art spring to life with colour. Maybe you want a scene tailored specifically for when you have BBQs or parties which utilises all the different coloured lights, or even seasonal scenes to change the flood lighting from bright summer hues to autumnal shades of orange.
The key to unlocking a great design is planning; work with your electrician or reach out to a specialist to get your infrastructure in place, once there you can add and grow your lighting system as your garden changes and matures.
You may already have a smart lighting system such as Lutron or Rako within your home or even a Crestron or Control4 Smart Home Control system; why not extend this to your Garden? Have your garden lights aligned to the internal astronomical clock feature which dims your porch & garden lighting after 10.30pm but ensures your drive lights stay illuminated until sunrise? Our Smart Home Engineers can help integrate this and the level of control and flexibility can be commanded by you, the end user, via your smart phone.