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Designing the Perfect Outdoor Lighting System for your Rochester Home!

For some lighting designers, every outdoor lighting installation is approached the same way, placement of lights along the walkway  and maybe a few spotlights on the house or trees in the planting beds. At Rochester Landscape Designs, we have a many lighting design options that can greatly improve how your home and property are viewed during the night time hours. 

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When we design a lighting system for a property, we start by dividing the landscape spaces into different sections and identifying the key elements that will be highlighted. The functional use of the spaces also determine lighting needs, such as entertainment areas.

Functional Lighting

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Includes light fixtures that are needed to improve safety, including deck lights, stair lights, and patio light. These lights are placed in locations to give excellent light coverage without necessarily being obvious during the day time. Stair lights, for instance, can be nondescript louvered covers that stand up to being kicked occasionally as the steps are used. Patio lights can fit under wall coping to light the patio while highlighting the stone work of a sitting wall.

Walkway and Patio Lighting (Pathlighting)

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Includes above ground and in the open light fixtures. Fixtures can vary greatly in height, style, material (brass, copper, painted) and cost. Pathlighting certainly improves safety, but are generally more decorative as they will be seen during daytime as well.

Up Lighting

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Up lights are placed underneath a tree to highlight the shape and branches of it. This provides an warming glow that also adds to the tree visibility at night, Depending on the tree's size, one fixture up to several may placed around the branches perimeter. The placing of the up lights, are determined by the light strength and beam spread required for each tree based on its importance in the landscape. We strategically place up lights on trees in different locations around the yard to help balance light and dark spaces. Our goal is to create a full and balanced lighting across the home and landscape.

 

After establishing these three main types of lighting, we consider other lighting options. Some examples may include:

Lighting effects for your landscape!

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  • Down lighting: mounting lights fixture up in a tree or off the house to shine light down on the ground.

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  • Wall Washing: placing a light at the base of a homes foundation and casting a beam of light to softly accent the features on the homes facade.

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  • Silhouette lighting: placing a light behind an object like a lattice, plant or garden art, so that the object is not directly lit in the front, but you still can define the structure shape at night. This is an excellent way to highlight a statue in the garden.

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  • Shadowing: shining a light through a shrub or tree to create a shadow on a wall or structure. This is a beautiful effect.

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  • Underwater lighting: shining a light through water, particularly moving water, such as a waterfall. The moving water and light creates a stunning effect above the water feature.

ALREADY HAVE POOL LIGHTING?it may be time for an upgrade

In many cases, we can work with your existing pool lighting to save money on materials and installation. Our low-voltage retrofit kits will enhance your lighting fixtures, using less energy and producing more light around your pool. See the difference for yourself during your free consultation with a lighting designer near you.

Maintenance Service Offered:

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  • Bulb replacement.

  • Lens cleaning.

  • Lubrication of electrical contacts where applicable.

  • Minor fixture adjustments and pruning around fixtures.

  • In store lighting display with assorted pathlight styles, bullet lights, tiki torch lights and several well light options!

  • We update and repair older lighting systems  that may no longer work as originally intended. 

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