Use knee-height bollards (450–800mm), spaced 2–3 metres apart and staggered on alternating sides, running 2700K warm white at modest brightness. Aim for pools of light that just touch — the path should read as a rhythm of glows, not a floodlit strip. Fittings need IP44 minimum, and garden wiring is an electrician's job.
There are two ways a lit garden path can go. One reads as an invitation — soft pools of warm light drawing you down the garden. The other reads as Gatwick's northern runway. The difference is almost never the fittings; it is spacing, height, brightness and colour, and all four are decisions you make before anything is wired. Here are the five rules, in the order they matter.
Rule 1 — Light the route, not the path
The job is not to illuminate tarmac evenly; it is to make the route legible — where it starts, where it bends, where a step or an edge waits. Put light where a decision happens: the gate, the curve, the step, the door. Long straight stretches between those points can stay almost dark, and the garden will feel bigger and calmer for it.
Rule 2 — Knee height, staggered, 2–3 metres apart
Path light belongs low. A 450–800mm bollard throws a pool a couple of metres wide at ground level without ever putting the source in your eyes. Space them so the pools just touch — for most bollards that is every 2–3 metres — and stagger them left-right-left rather than pairing them opposite each other. Paired lights are what produces the runway; a staggered line produces a walk.
| Fitting height | Spacing | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 450mm bollard | ~2m, staggered | Intimate pools; best for short cottage paths |
| 650–800mm bollard | ~3m, staggered | The standard: broad pools, few fittings |
| Wall light at the door | Route ends | Destination glow that anchors the whole run |
Halden Garden Bollard · 450 / 650 / 800mm
One family in three heights, so a path can keep its rhythm while borders and drive get the taller posts — matt black, downward-biased light, no glare at eye level.
Rule 3 — 2700K, and dimmer than you think
Outdoors, cool white light does not read as clean — it reads as CCTV. Warm 2700K flatters brick, stone and planting, and because your eyes are dark-adapted in a garden, far less brightness is needed than instinct suggests: a few hundred lumens per fitting is plenty. The whole logic of colour temperature is mapped room by room — and garden — in our colour temperature guide.
Rule 4 — Give the path a destination
A lit path that ends in darkness feels wrong in a way people can't articulate. End the run with something to walk towards: a wall lantern at the door, a glow at the seating area. One warm fitting at the destination does more for the garden's atmosphere than three more bollards along the way.
Working routes: add a sensor
For the side return or the way to the bins, the Dark path light's motion sensor gives light only when the route is actually in use — the right call for paths you pass through rather than live with.
Rule 5 — Respect the wiring (and the neighbours)
Garden electrics are notifiable work under Part P — outdoor-rated cable, RCD protection, proper glands, a registered electrician. Fittings want IP44 as a floor, IP65 in planted beds that get watered. And aim every fitting so its light lands inside your boundary: spill into a neighbour's bedroom window is the fastest way for a beautiful garden scheme to become a dispute.
