Garden Step Lighting

Leading lighting designer Sally Stephenson gives a talk to the Hampshire division of the Royal Society of Garden Designers and shares her advice for creating both stimulating and practical garden lighting.

Gardens should create a visual nightscape and provide a sense of safety and security throughout the year.  The creation of external rooms is particularly pertinent during the summer months when entertaining but the use of lighting to create focal points and define boundaries is just as important during those darker months too.

Sculpture Lighting

Sally gives her top 5 tips for making the most of lighting your outside space:

1. Use lighting to emphasise parts of the garden that may not be so obvious during the day and so create both a day and a night garden. It is easier to manipulate the eye at night and create new lines of sight and perspective.
2. Consider view points internally through windows and avoid black voids at night by using garden lighting to draw the eye through the space.
3. Contrast is a powerful part of lighting design so don’t overlight an area. The shadows are just as important as the light.
4. Think about different heights of lighting – perhaps fit a light high up in one of your favourite trees.
5. Don’t forget those garden steps – a warm wash of light across them is always an effective and practical solution.

Tree Lighting