Blog
LIGHT THE DAY
November is here. The Jack O’Lanterns are gone. We know that soon our thoughts will turn to the holiday season. For many of us, this means digging out the Christmas lights and stringing up the house exterior with the seasonal display. Some do more, some do less, some do none at all. After all, what […]
Landscape Lighting Design: BRIGHTNESS AND TEMPERATURE
How much light? Outdoor lighting designers hold to the maxim that “less is more.” Homeowners are concerned with security, safety, and utility. A good design, professionally installed and maintained, fully addresses these practical concerns while knocking everyone’s socks off with stunning aesthetics. Beauty, safety, security, and practicality seem at first blush like conflicting demands. After […]
POOL DECK DESIGNS
A residential swimming pool with basic underwater lighting is like a blank canvas. It practically begs for a deck and area lighting design that elevates the merely attractive to a boutique resort feast for the senses. The guiding artistic principle is subtlety. We want to enhance the natural visual and tactile qualities a body of […]
OUTDOOR LIGHTING FOR BUSINESSES AND INSTITUTIONS
The basic goals of outdoor lighting designs for businesses and institutions are much the same as those of homeowners but are often prioritized differently. Private homeowners do have to comply with codes and ordinances that are intended to limit the intrusion of one resident’s outdoor lighting on neighbors’ quiet enjoyment of their properties. Within those […]
TRENDING SMART LIGHTING CONTROLS
The digital revolution is transforming outdoor lighting designs just like everything else in our lives. Smart lighting is trending up across the board. The term “smart lighting” is a broad one which refers to two related paths of innovation. Lighting systems and system components that can be controlled from the owner’s smartphone are one approach, […]
BACK TO THE FUTURE: LED CONVERSIONS
If an outdoor lighting installation was put in before 2013, it could well be a line-voltage system powering halogen bulbs with 120-volt house current. If it’s older than 2010, it’s nearly certain that’s what it is. These systems were state of the art as recently as then, and still serve to produce spectacular outdoor lighting […]
LIGHTING WATER FEATURES
Water features fall into four broad categories: pools, fountains, waterfalls, and streams. Each of these presents a particular set of lighting challenges and opportunities, but all can provide spectacular results. The most basic lighting design question for a water feature is whether the aim is to preserve and enhance the feature’s daylight mood or to […]
Uplighting: Different Types of Up Lights
There are many different types of uplights that hold a wide variety of bulbs. Each has a specific function in outdoor landscape lighting. When used properly, the desired look will be accomplished. We will be covering interchangeable LED outdoor lighting fixtures. The most commonly used type of LED uplight is the MR16 fixture, which measures […]
Outdoor LED Light Fixtures: Integrated vs. Interchangeable
Before 2010 if you hired a professional outdoor lighting company to install low voltage lighting around your house or yard there was some version of an interchangeable halogen fixture implemented into the system. If you were trying to light up a house, tree, statue, water feature, or pathway, the interchangeable halogen fixture was considered the […]