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.
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 | Garden circuits are Part P work: outdoor cable, RCD, an electrician |
| 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 |
