Lighting & Hardscaping
Hardscaping decides where people walk and sit. Lighting decides whether they can still do it after five o'clock — which, from October to March here, is most of the evening. The two are worth planning as one job rather than two.
Good lighting is mostly restraint. A few fixtures placed where the eye needs them, aimed so you see the path and the tree rather than the bulb. A garden lit evenly all over reads like a car park.
What This Covers
Swipe to see all eight →
01
Deciding what actually needs lighting before a single fixture is chosen: the route from the car to the door, every change in level, and the one or two trees worth looking at. Fewer fixtures placed well beats more fixtures spread evenly.
See this work02
Low fixtures that wash across the surface rather than shine back into your eyes. Every change in level gets light on the tread, because the step nobody can see is the one that actually hurts someone.
See this work03
Fixtures set at the base and aimed up the trunk into the canopy, which is what gives a garden depth after dark. Shielded and angled so the light lands on the tree and not in a neighbour's bedroom window.
See this work04
A transformer sized with headroom for the run and for whatever gets added later, cable buried at a sensible depth, and connections made to survive being wet. Most systems that fail out here failed at a connector.
See this work05
The base under the pavers is most of the work. We excavate to depth, compact crushed rock in layers rather than all at once, and give water a route out underneath — that is what decides whether it is still level in ten years.
See this work06
Gravel and stepping-stone paths, with edging that holds its line instead of migrating into the beds. Less money than paving and better suited to the parts of a garden that are walked through rather than sat in.
See this work07
The piece that makes a patio usable through a Northwest spring. Built in block or stone, sized to the seating that goes around it, and sited with proper clearance from the house, the fence and anything overhanging.
See this work08
Adding lighting to a landscape that is already planted. Low-voltage cable runs through existing beds with very little disturbance — it is tidiest during a build, but a retrofit is well worth doing and the beds close back over it in a season.
See this workHow We Approach It
The common mistake is treating lighting as coverage. What makes a garden look good after dark is contrast — a lit path against a dark lawn, one tree standing out, and the fixtures themselves out of sight. Flooding everything removes the contrast, and the effect goes with it.
Low-voltage cable is easiest and tidiest to run during a build, alongside the irrigation, before the paving and the planting go in. Dropping a sleeve under a walkway takes minutes while it is being laid, and means not taking it up later.
None of which is a reason to wait. If the landscape is already in, cable goes through existing beds with very little disturbance, and the planting closes back over it within a season.
CONTACT US
If you would like to request service or a consultation, please contact us by phone, email or use the form below.
Where We Work
From our base in Lynnwood we work across thirty cities in both counties. What needs a permit — a patio over a certain area, a retaining wall over a certain height, an outdoor circuit — changes between jurisdictions, and it is worth knowing at the design stage rather than mid-build.
Alderwood, WA
Bothell, WA
Edmonds, WA
Everett, WA
Lynnwood, WA
Marysville, WA
Mountlake Terrace, WA
Mukilteo, WA
North Creek, WA
Snohomish, WA
Auburn, WA
Bellevue, WA
Clyde Hill, WA
East Renton Highlands, WA
Federal Way, WA
Hunts Point, WA
Issaquah, WA
Kenmore, WA
Kent, WA
Kirkland, WA
Maple Valley, WA
Medina, WA
Mercer Island, WA
Newcastle, WA
Redmond, WA
Renton, WA
Sammamish, WA
Seattle, WA
Shoreline, WA
Woodinville, WA
How It Works
01
Send the form or call (425) 648-9443 and tell us what you want to use the space for after dark. Photos in daylight, plus a couple taken at night, show us more than a description can.
02
We walk the property, agree what is worth lighting and what the paving actually has to do, check the power and the access for materials, and confirm anything that needs a permit before quoting.
03
Our own crew does the base work, the paving and the wiring — and we come back after dark once the planting is in to aim and adjust the fixtures, which is the part that decides how it all looks.
Free consultation across Kirkland, Lynnwood and Redmond, WA.
