Garden Lighting Design Effects

Here you will see the various methods of adding atmosphere and visual delight to your garden and it's features.
With so many models and styles of garden lighting to choose from, it's important to understand the basic principles in lighting methods and their effects to ensure you gain the most from your garden lighting design.

UP LIGHTING

Use to achieve dramatic results in your garden Illuminating from the ground up. This is contrary to what we are used to seeing in every day life and provides a sense of joy. Strategically place spotlights diagonally in your borders to increase the coverage. When up-lighting trees consider using floodlights to achieve a greater play with light.

DOWN LIGHTING

Most commonly used in floodlighting and security aspects. However consider using wall mounted spotlights to focus on specific areas from above either as safety or for more theatrical effects in your garden. The higher you place the light the larger the area of illumination. Consider using recessed lights as downlights to aid pedestrians and highlight the natural beauty in your stone paving.

STEP LIGHTING

Steps are one of many reasons you may be looking to choose garden lighting. Caution needs to addressed when planning to illuminate steps to avoid glare.
Use well placed recessed lights to illuminate sideways across the treads for best coverage. Low level wall lights with eyelids can also be considered here.

SPOTLIGHTING

Use spotlights to highlight your garden features from a distance and bring them to life. Spotlights are especially useful for their directional flexibility and narrow beam.

GRAZE LIGHTING

This is where you accentuate the material and textural qualities of wall surfaces by placing your spotlight close to the wall or surface to generate the shadowing effect.

WASH LIGHTING

A more atmospheric use of spotlighting where surfaces like walls or features are 'washed' in light to distinguish colour of surfaces or provide an intimacy of light to areas. Place lights away from the surface facing at an angle to maintain a smooth ambient feeling.

CROSS LIGHTING

This is where you use more than one light source to provide the optimum viewing experience from multiple angles.  Combine Cross lighting to 'graze' or 'wash' a feature wall you will achieve a focal point where the light converges.

SHADOWING

An easy way to emphasise and exaggerate features in your garden. Play with shadow as your spotlight projects light through foliage and branches to creating a level of depth in your design.

SILHOUETTING

Similar to shadowing but occurs where you look to place the spotlights, floodlights even your wall lights behind the object you wish to emphasise. Illuminating in this way, the object becomes visible without competing with other highlighted, maybe more emphatic features nearby.

MIRRORING

A classic play with water features to create a double image. Recognisably a design principle used at the Taj Mahal.
In some way we are stimulated, perhaps, by reminding ourselves of the beauty of the sunset or moon reflecting over the ocean horizon.

Garden Lighting - Another Dimension!

So now we have a basic understanding of how to produce various effects with garden lighting, you're probably wondering, how do you apply the disciplines in your garden?

There are three major guidelines:

• Balance is everything in life and the same applies to your garden lighting design. 
• The selection of lighting throughout your garden design is key. 
• Defined and considerate lighting rewards you with strong and well balanced dimensions.

Tip: If looking to define the structure of your home; when washing walls be sure to target the corners of protruding walls, darkening insets. 
Avoid locating lights under windows as this can impair the visual impact with unwanted shadow.
Consider lighting up features away from the home, or in other areas of your garden, such as borders or trees, to compliment your design and provide the spectator with a more natural perspective.

If we can be of any assistance with the selection of products or garden design please do not hesitate to contact us. We'd be delighted to help.

Thank you for reading our blog....hope this helps...from the team at
www.12vgardenlights.com