Exterior lighting is the set of fixtures that keeps a house and yard readable once the sun is down: lights along the walks and steps, set into seat walls and pillars, around a fire pit or pool, and on the face of the house. Green Scene designs a lighting package with each homeowner and installs it, mostly in Franklin, Brentwood, Spring Hill and Nolensville, and often as part of a patio or fireplace the crew is building anyway.
It’s for people who want to use the backyard they paid for after 8 p.m. in July, and for anyone who has felt for the front steps with a foot. What it takes is a walk around the property, a budget, and some honest answers about which spots you use at night.
What can outdoor lighting do for a house and yard?
3 jobs, mostly. It shows off the house and the stonework around it. It makes the ground safer to cross, since steps, edges and changes in grade are where people stumble, and better visibility around a home means fewer nighttime falls. And it takes away the dark corners beside the house, which is the security half of the argument.
The yards in Green Scene’s own night photographs tend to do all 3 at once. In Nolensville the crew lit the front of a home. In Brentwood the lights went around a stacked-stone fireplace and the cedar pergola over its patio. And in Westhaven, in Franklin, a whole backyard was lit, from the kitchen under the pergola out to the fire pit and the putting green, so every corner of it works in the evening.
How is a lighting plan put together?
It starts on paper, yours or Green Scene’s. From there the order is the one the company follows for any backyard addition:
- Bring your own plan, or have one drawn
- Set a budget
- Choose the style, the features and the fixtures
- Get a written estimate
The useful part of the site visit is walking the yard with one question in mind: where do people actually go at night? The path from the driveway, the steps down to the patio, the chairs around the pit. Light those first. Everything after that is decoration, which is fine, as long as you pick it on purpose.
Why plan the lighting while the patio is being built?
Because the wire has to go somewhere. When lighting is part of a new patio, seat wall or pool deck, the cable runs under the base and inside the walls before the stone closes over it, and each fixture lands where the plan put it. Green Scene is plain about the alternative: adding electrical to a design that’s already finished can be tricky.
That’s why the company builds today’s project ready for the next one. One lit feature has a habit of leading to another, so a fire pit patio gets wired with a step light or a water feature in mind, even if that comes two summers later. If a patio is in your plans, bring up lighting at the hardscape design stage, not after the pavers are down.
What does a Green Scene lighting job look like at night?
The company filmed some of its own lit yards. The clip is short, and it’s the quickest way to judge if light kept low along walls and paths suits your house before anyone draws your plan.
Who designs it, and who do you call afterward?
Lighting is drawn by the same person as the patio: Jose Garcia, who owns Green Scene and still prices and designs each job himself. During the install Antonio Estrada keeps you posted on the schedule, and he stays your contact once the crew has packed up, whether that’s a question about a fixture or a decision that the walk needs one more light. Teresa Garcia books the first visit from the Franklin office.