Garden and outdoor entertaining space, replacement of an outdated low-voltage system. Techniques: pendant downlighting, reflected accent light, glare control for multiple viewing angles.
Narrative
The original call was about bistro lights. A retired couple wanted the DIY strands over their patio replaced with something professional. While walking the property, we found a carefully manicured garden, sprawling ferns, gorgeous annuals, carefully-tended-to hanging baskets, and sculpture that disappeared entirely at night behind an outdated, poorly designed system. We asked for their trust: we would hang the bistro lights, and we would also show them what the garden could be after dark.
The design begins with the ground, not the trees. The owners spend hours a day tending their plantings, so the ground cover is the celebrity. Pendant downlighting creates the effect of a full moon over the beds, riser stakes lift the uplighting above the tall ferns to keep hotspots off the ground cover, and the sculptures placed through the garden are revealed in reflected light, a second discovery after the plants.
Because the space is seen from the driveway, the patio, and the house, every fixture is louvered and aimed for comfort from every angle. The bistro lights went up too, but the couple now saves them for big parties because the garden carries the night on its own, with a different kind of splendor they didn’t realize was possible.
Garden and Patio, Residential
