Project Spotlight:

Outdoor Lighting for the Backyard

This outdoor lighting project perfectly illustrates the process we go through with each and every client to design and install an outdoor lighting system that fits their vision and budget. While these homeowners ended up scaling back from their initial plan, they ended up with a beautifully lit backyard and outdoor living space. From the gorgeous, stone steps leading to the back patio, to the fire pit, custom pergola, and deck leading up to the back entrance, we were able to highlight the best features of this dynamic outdoor space.

Outdoor Lighting Objectives

During the initial design consultation, the clients’ lighting objectives were to highlight the front of their house, provide safe navigation from the front of the house to the backyard patio, light the outdoor kitchen, and illuminate the rear entrance of their home with navigational deck lighting. The clients did not like the look of traditional path lights and wanted something low profile instead.

Design Plan

The following is a visualization of our initial lighting design with lights in the front of the house as well as lighting in the rear of the house. We proposed installing two transformers, one for the front and one for the back so that the lights could be controlled separately.

The following is a visualization of the final lighting design. The homeowners chose to only install lighting in the rear of the house since that was their first priority. They also chose bistro lights in the pergola above the outdoor kitchen instead of the post lights which we had initially suggested.

Stone Steps

As mentioned earlier, the clients wanted a low profile path light to illuminate the stunning, natural stone steps leading from the driveway to the back patio area. We ended up installing the Rainier light pictured below. These low profile lights are sleek, modern, and perfect for this application.

Moonlight

The homeowners wanted low maintenance lighting options that would make their outdoor spaces usable but wouldn’t take away from the aesthetics of their yard. Enter the moonlight! Moonlighting is a specific type of downlighting used to create lighting that looks and feels natural by simulating natural moonlight. Fixtures are typically mounted high in trees to allow light to naturally shine through the branches and leaves. This gently illuminates the ground below and can create interesting patterns of light and shadows.

We mounted a moonlight 50 feet above the ground in a tree adjacent the patio/firepit area. Check out shadowing effect on the patio! The warm glow from the ledge lighting creates beautiful contrast with the cool glow from the moonlight.

Ever wonder how we install those lights 30-50 feet in the canopy? While some are installed with an extra large ladder, we bring in a tree climber to handle any installations over 30 feet. Here are a couple behind the scene photos of him installing the moonlight for this project!

Deck Lighting

There are so many reasons to install outdoor lighting, but here you can really see how lighting facilitates safe navigation up the wooden staircase and around the corner to the rear entrance of the house.

Bistro Lights

Check out this custom pergola and outdoor kitchen area! We gave the homeowners three options for how to hang the bistro lights on the pergola and they chose the second option. These bistro lights turned out AMAZING!

Thinking about hiring a professional landscape lighting company?

At Limelight, outdoor lighting is all we do. We offer design, installation, and maintenance services and would love to help you design a system that makes the most of your landscape — day and night. Getting started is simple. Call Limelight Outdoor Lighting at (704) 989-3635 or schedule a free consultation through our website.