2025 Landscape Trends: Lighting
Under the Stars in Style: The Art of Luxury Outdoor Illumination
Imagine driving up to a beautiful home at night, but it is completely pitch black. Or hosting a pool party in the dark. Lighting is an essential element in outdoor settings from the front facade to all of the exterior living spaces. In fact, thoughtful illumination brings a home to life as the sun sets. Just as lighting in interior spaces is layered with varied light sources, exterior lighting serves many purposes. We think about lighting when designing landscapes - whether for aesthetic purposes, functionality, or safety considerations. And luxury outdoor lighting sets the mood.
Project by Norman Orsman
Creating Ambiance
In gathering spaces, gentle lighting encourages relaxation. We want to provide enough light to be able to see one another, but not so much as to ruin the moment. We prefer warmer color temperatures in bulbs that create a soft, inviting glow.
We also use fire features in our landscape design to provide warmth and comfort. Fire pits and fireplaces offer cozy, intimate settings for socializing or solitude. They often become a focal point. We have designed custom firepits as well as dramatic fireplaces.
Another favorite of ours is the moróro fire pit, available from Plein Air Atelier. This metal structure can serve a dual purpose as it can also be used as a wine chiller in the summer months rather than as a fire feature.
Outdoor Lighting Types
Ambient lighting: Provides overall illumination and ambiance. It includes fixtures such as sconces on walls or low voltage landscape lighting. It provides light that is a comfortable level of brightness without glare and often on dimmers. This can also be from hanging pendants or ceiling lights in covered areas. Lanterns and lamps also offer ambient lighting. Ambient lighting is never harsh.
Accent or spotlight illumination: These types of fixtures highlight focal points like art such as sculpture, trees, water features or architectural elements. This can be uplighting emphasizing textures or downlighting in trees or pergolas to mimic moonlight. Well designed accent lighting adds drama to the landscape.
Photo by Neil Landino | Lanterns installed by e2 Illumination Designs
3. Task Lighting: Used for functional areas like outdoor kitchens, sport courts, staircases, and other areas where activity at night requires brighter light.
Urban Electric fixtures | Photo by Stephen Karlisch
Outdoor Lighting for Specific Purposes:
Path lights: This is a common type of landscape lighting, sometimes bollard (on a small post) and sometimes in ground. They can delineate a space like a walkway or driveway, or frame a space like a garden or pond. We design a wash of even light without showing the light source or creating weird patterns on the ground or overdoing it along a driveway or walkway which gives a “runway effect.”
Wall lights: These can include porch lights and lights beside doorways. This is a way to bring great design into a space and complement the architecture. We love a good sconce like the one on the left from Visual Comfort and the one on the right from Royal Botania (available through Plein Air Atelier).
3. Deck and Stair Lighting: We often incorporate these into the structure and there are several models we prefer. Below we incorporated the brick lights into the columns on either side of the steps to provide a warm wash, which illuminates the stairs for safety and also provides ambiance.
Trends in Luxury Landscape Lighting
Sustainability: Solar-powered fixtures have become more popular and low-voltage and LED lighting reduces the impact on the environment. Having fixtures also pre-set for on-off timing is eco-friendly as well as budget-friendly,
Interactivity: On one hand this can be a fun dimension with lights that change color (seen in pools and entertaining spaces) as well as lighting that responds automatically to motion or weather.
Reflective surfaces: by using polished stone, glass or metals, lighting from fixtures and fire features are amplified further contributing to the mood.
Smart integration: Many light fixtures can be controlled by apps or automation and tied into existing whole house systems like Savant, Control4, Crestron or others. This is especially important for clients with multiple homes where the system also serves as a security measure. These can be pre-set with specific scenes for romance or entertaining as well as timing features.
Audio and heat sources: We prefer that audio sources are hidden within the landscape and there are many products we like for this category. Another option for lighting also provides heat for cooler nights to extend the outdoor season. We are fans of HEATSAIL, available through Plein Air Atelier. Not only do we like the functionality, but the pleasing aesthetic integrates beautifully with upscale landscapes.
As we design landscapes, we’re considering the scale of your space - from intimate gardens to expansive yards - to make sure all of the fixtures accomplish the goal of the lighting plan. We work with highly qualified partners to install and maintain exterior lighting, providing the proper connectivity with safety in mind.
Combining the allure of flame with the elegance of beautiful fixtures, outdoor lighting enhances the experience of being with nature after dark. Ready to light up your landscape? Get in touch.