I have a FL winter home that has a short backyard (11-13" deep) that abuts a rough hewn rock face block wall (7' tall) . Looking to create a courtyard look, that I can admire at night (bring outside in). So far I have installed the paver surface, leaving room for plants against wall (3' deep), and a plinth for a small fountain (on order) that comes forward a bit more. I also have 12' wide English trellis (on order) as a backdrop behind fountain, and another 4' wide one by the pergola (installed) On the wall, I want to accent the wall texture. Three exposed wall areas are 12', 6' and 8' wide. Use wide angle linear lights to evenly up light up each whole section? or use multiples of the small spots facing up to get a more sawtooth looking "V V V" of overlapping effects? Best way to light the trellises, fountain, plants (types and qty TBD)? Attached are current (as built so far) and two photoshopped images w/ and w/o plants).
Hey Lumpy, Beautiful area! Some lighting will definitely help make it a comfortable outdoor living space. I'd be happy to help with some general recommendations. For the most part, I'd say a combo of up lighting and path lighting would be the most convenient and provide beautiful results. For the up light spots, you could use spotlights or in-ground lights if you desired extremely low-profile light sources; the in-ground lights would obviously require a bit more labor to recess them properly. Either would work beautifully and we have MR16 and MR11 versions of both; just a matter of preference. For the palm tree, any of our MR16 fixtures with a 2-3W, 38-60 degree spread bulb. If the tree is going to grow exponentially overtime, starting with a higher wattage and wider beam spread would be a preferential choice. Path lights staggered along the edge of the pavers could provide subtle lighting on the lower lying plants and area illumination for the living space. 2-3W bulbs for these as well unless you preferred brighter illumination for the area. A set of linear hardscapes around the lip of the fountain pedestal would help to accent the feature and texture of those bricks. A set of mini under water lights could be used to highlight the fountain (or a combo of the single version): VOLT® Mini Brass LED Underwater Pond Lights (Set of 3) VOLT® Mini Brass LED Underwater Pond Light (Bronze) A set of compact MR11 up lights for the smaller trees near the trellis (definitely keep these beam spreads as narrow as possible if illuminating these). For highlighting the trellis & wall, any of our LED floodlights or our new VOLT® 18" High Output Brass Rotatable/Pivoting LED Hardscape Light (Bronze) w/ the Y mount would likely be your best option for minimizing the amount of fixtures you had to install while grazing wider portions of the wall at once. You really have a wide variety of options for how to up-light the wall; largely preferential to budget and factors like if you'd prefer to have replaceable bulb fixtures or integrated LEDs.
