Hi, We are looking to add some low voltage outdoor lighting. We live in a pretty dark wooded area so I don't want it to be harsh or overpowering. We have a 20in tall by 80ft rock wall at the front of the property that I would like to have some soft lighting on. Would well lights 6in from the wall work? How many and how far apart should they be? Or spotlights? In the winter the area is bare (as the pictures show) but in the Spring/Summer there are a fair number of bushes and flowers in front of the wall (see last picture below). The wall is also pretty short, so not sure if lighting even makes sense here? I also wanted to uplight some trees. Would you recommend well lights or spotlights? Again I want some soft lighting but nothing harsh. We also have some tall pine trees I thought we could do downlighting in. Any recommendations on lighting for the house too would be really appreciated! Thank you!
Hi Rachel. Fellow landscape lighting enthusiast here. You have a nice big beautiful blank canvas to work with and so your options are practically endless. If you're like most DIY landscape lighting fans, you'll find yourself tweaking your lighting plan over time. So try not to worry about getting everything perfect the first time. My first recommendation before thinking about numbers and types of fixtures is to consider which areas and features of your house and yard you want to highlight and the vantage points from which you and visitors to your home will be viewing your home and landscaping. Often people I communicate with think solely in terms of how the lighting will look to those who are viewing the property from the outside. Nothing wrong with that. But IMO, first and foremost, lighting should be about enhancing the beauty of your property for your own enjoyment. So, for instance, when you consider how or whether to light that retaining wall in the front of your house, are you thinking about how you can light it so that you can enjoy the view from your house as well as when you drive up to your house at night? What are all those different types of shrubs on the side of that retaining wall that's facing your house? Are there flowering shrubs there that you might want to highlight as they start to bloom in the spring? What is that tall dark structure that's standing near the front of that wall? Is that a person or perhaps a statue that you might want to illuminate. The answers to questions like those might determine how or whether you choose to try to illuminate that wall. With deciduous plants and trees, there will be times of the year that you're illuminating blooming flowers or just foliage or bare branches. And all of those stages can be illuminated in a way that's aesthetically pleasing. I posted a handful of photos to show you some different ways you might consider lighting the wall (or not) and your landscaping and I encourage you to look in the VOLT site galleries and online sites for inspiration while you develop your lighting plan.The purpose of these photos is to demonstrate that there are a variety of ways you can highlight that 80 foot long area. The first photos includes hardscape lighting. The second photo shows a wall of boulders being illuminated with flood lights. In the third photo, spotlight-illuminated trees are the "stars" of this property and a border garden highlighted with path lights is in the foreground. In the last example, ornamental grasses in front of a wall are illuminated. If/when those die at the end of a growing season, you can see what kind of cool lighting pattern would be projected onto the bare wall behind it. I highlighted one of your photos with those blue lines to show you all the different layers you could choose to highlight (either in addition to or instead of the wall) that would allow you to define the boundaries of your property. You mentioned possibly installing downlights in the tall trees near the base of that wall. That is another way you could gently highlight that entire area so that the wall shrubbery and border gardens in front of the wall are all illuminated. The point, again, is that your options are practically endless. I also diagrammed a photo of the facade of your house to show you one possible way to illuminate your house and yard. You could easily alter that plan to include more or fewer lights on the house. Finally, you mentioned wanting to keep your lighting subtle. It sounds like you have a nice dark night sky. My recommendation is to stick with wattages in the 1.5 to 2W range for most of your fixtures. If you decide to go with downlighting, I think 3 watts should be sufficient to make sure the light reaches the ground without being overpowering. It's hard for me to imagine you needing more than 5w for your downlights. You also asked about spotlights vs well lights. There are pros and cons to each of these, depending on where you use them. Spotlights are great because it's easier to adjust them and change bulbs when necessary. In mulched areas where there's no danger of lawn equipment, I tend to rely more on spotlights, floodlights and path lights. When the fixture will be subject to a fair amount of foot traffic or lawn maintenance equipment, I rely more on well lights. One of the downsides to well lights is that they can get covered with leaves and other debris (especially in the fall). If you have a lot of them, it can be annoying to have to keep sweeping the leaves away or cleaning the lenses. HTH helps and was not too overwhelming.
