Hi - I was hoping to get any suggestions on landscape lighting design help around our house. I know I'd like to spotlight the feature (anchor chain and wood post in rockbed) next to the driveway, as well as pathway lights all the way around the house along the gravel walkway. Other than that, I'm looking for any and all suggestions! I'm having a hard time thinking on the best way to light up the flower beds going around the outside of the property. I am also looking for suggestions on lighting up the gravel RV parking on the side of the house (pic 5). Thank you so much!
Beautiful property! I'd be happy to help with some general recommendations. I think you're already on the right track with highlighting the feature and planning for path lighting around the house. For the feature, I'd likely recommend considering a low-profile spotlight - one of our mini spotlights. Likely the All-Star Mini or Spark. I recommended some general locations you could install path lights and uplights in the front yard in the attached photo. We have many styles of each category to choose from - that would come down to personal preference & budget. For the columns, narrowest beam spreads would be ideal, 38-degree likely ideal for the other highlighted spaces. For the RV parking, you could consider using a series of deck lights on the fence posts. Other than that, the classic approach would probably be using a flood light mounted on the exterior wall of the house. Illuminating the large garden bed up front is a bit tricky - typically you don't want to illuminate low-lying shrubs with a direct spotlight or floodlight unless they were up against a wall and you were doing so for a shadowing type effect on the wall behind. So, for the most part, path lights might be ideal; we have decorative bollard lights that could look beautiful in those beds. For any of the larger shrubs (like the sunshine ligustrums) you could consider subtle flood lights (Round Wall Wash or Gentle Splash) - with these you could increase the wattage of the bulb as the shrubs grew overtime as well. For any of the smaller trees in this garden bed, you could use also consider using MR11 spotlights (like the All-Star Mini again), or starting with a low-wattage bulb in any MR16 spotlight and increasing overtime if you expect those smaller trees to grow significantly. This same approach applies to the garden bed as it extends into the backyard as well. And, for the garden bed up against the house in the backyard, uplights likely aren't needed with it being the backside of the house - better to keep it functional with some path lights along those beds as well.
Evan - Thank you so much for your recommendations! You have helped me build an initial plan for our yard. I was hoping to utilize any current Costco deals. If I do that, I think I would purchase the items below. -2 Costco 150W transformers to separate the back yard from the front -Costco Premium Brass Spotlights - Used for uplighting the siding on the house and any of the larger trees around the property -Costco Brass Path & Area Lights - Used for pathways -VOLT MR11 Lusitano Cast Brass Spotlight (Bronze) - Used for uplighting the front yard feature and columns -VOLT® Cast Brass Round Wall Wash or VOLT® Integrated Big Splash Brass Floodlight? - Used for larger shrubs -VOLT® 6" Brass Rotatable LED Hardscape Light - Used on fence for lighting side of house Would these products work for my intended use or would you recommend something different? Again, thank you so much for all your help!
Always happy to help! Purchasing directly from VOLT you will definitely receive more customization options - for the Lusitano and Round Wall wash for example, you probably noticed all of the bulb, mounting, and extension options you had available. I personally prefer more customization options, but I am also not a COSTCO member myself. Our products on COSTCO are definitely budget-friendly and even more so if COSTCO is running a sale as well. It really comes down to personal preference - our COSTCO products are brass LEDs with lifetime warranties as well, but overall you will notice more flexibility and overall quality purchasing directly from www.VOLTlighting.com
