Build the garden's light in four small layers — a lantern at the door (centre ~1.6–1.7m high), staggered pools along the route, one or two accents in the planting, and a glow at the seating area — all at 2700K, all far dimmer than instinct suggests. IP44 minimum, IP65 near ground and watering. If a fitting is visible as a bright point from the house, it is glaring; shield it or aim it away.
British gardens are lit at their two extremes: not at all, or by a security floodlight that turns the lawn into a car park. The middle — the garden that glows — is not a bigger budget, it is a different unit of thought. Indoors we light rooms; outdoors you light moments: an arrival, a walk, a tree, a table. Four of them, in order of importance.
1 — The arrival: a lantern at the door
The front door light is the garden's anchor and the house's handshake, and it has a correct height: centre of the fitting at 1.6–1.7 metres — eye level — beside the door rather than above it, so it lights faces and keys instead of hair partings. One lantern suits most doors; a matched pair suits a wide porch. This is also the fitting to put on a dusk-to-dawn photocell, because a house that greets you dark undoes everything else. See our outdoor wall lights, all IP44 or better, for doorways and the face of the house.
Mirage Wall Lantern
Anthracite, glazed on all sides, glare-shielded from above — an arrival light that reads as welcome at 1.65m. The matching path and post versions carry the same language down the garden.
2 — The route: pools, not coverage
From door to gate, or house to shed: knee-height bollards, staggered, 2–3 metres apart, pools just touching. The full spacing arithmetic — and the runway-avoidance rules — live in the garden path guide; the short version is that a route should read as a rhythm of glows with honest darkness between them.
3 — The picture: light one thing well
The layer that makes a garden look designed costs the least: a single accent on the best thing the garden owns. A spike spot up into the canopy of one tree; an up/down washer throwing light across brick; a wall light grazing a fence of climbers. One lit tree at the end of a dark lawn does more than twenty fittings scattered evenly — and from the sofa, it turns the black window into a view.
4 — The destination: somewhere to sit in the light
The seating area wants the logic of an outdoor living room: low, warm, and switched by choice rather than automation — a wall light dimmed low, festoons overhead, a rechargeable lamp on the table. Keep it dimmer than the path; arriving somewhere darker and warmer than the route is what makes it feel like arriving.
The disciplines that hold it together
| Discipline | The rule |
|---|---|
| Colour | 2700K everywhere outdoors — cool white reads as CCTV |
| Glare | No bare source visible from house or seat — shielded, hooded, or aimed away |
| Ratings | IP44 minimum; IP65 near ground, beds and weather — how to read IP numbers |
| Wiring | Outdoor cable and RCD protection to BS 7671, fitted by a registered electrician. In England a new garden circuit is notifiable under Part P; a light added to an existing circuit usually isn't — the full UK rules |
| Neighbours & wildlife | Light lands inside your boundary, aimed down — kinder to bedrooms, bats and moths alike |
| Controls | Welcome layer on photocell · working routes on sensors · seating on a switch |
