Houston Outdoor Lighting, Indoor Art Lights, Landscape Lighting Designs, Home Automation Blog

Planning Landscape Lighting

Your yard and landscape are just as much a part of your home as your house, so planning your landscape lighting should be done with as much care as you have taken to light your home’s interior. Covered patios and porches, and outdoor entertaining areas may need indoor lighting techniques such as recessed down lights and wall box dimmer controls that allow you to adjust light levels, show off the structure, and make your home a lighting gallery. Setting the tone between the threshold of your home lighting plan and your outdoor lights in such a manner will establish the conceptual and emotional foundation of your design plan that will then extend into the green, open landscape of your yard.

You should develop a landscape lighting plan that uses a combination of light and shadows.
Homeowners often mistakenly think that shadows are a bad thing when planning a lighting design. They believe the purpose of lighting is to get rid of all the dark spots in an area. The opposite is really true. Landscape lights best used to create a healthy balance between light and shadow. Depending on the degree to which you vary the contrast of these two elements, you can create all sorts of luminary effects and differing states of mind. Bathing dark places in your yard in soft ambient lighting mimics the effects of moonlight and is highly romantic. Outdoor path lighting provides a visual aid to trip hazards and other obstacles in the garden. Up lighting ornamental statuary and structures will help create an elevated sense of emotion apropos to outdoor parties. Hidden lighting inside shrubbery and flower beds will create a mystical effect where objects seem to glow with a light of their own. How you plan your outdoor garden lighting will really depend in the end on how you plan to feel when you look out of your window at night, or entertain family and guests outdoors. Begin by evaluating plant materials, flower beds, trees, and gardens. These are elements that create shadow, and they make for excellent guidelines to follow when laying down the basics of an outdoor custom home lighting system.

Think of layering the light when you are developing a plan for illuminating your landscape.
ILD landscaping lighting professionals recommend four distinctive layers of luminance, some of which will distinctly overlap one another; and others of which will blend and synthesize together. Every landscape lighting design is different and has to be planned around the unique dimensions of a yard and its contents. Fountains, sculptures, rock formations, bridges, and ornamental structures provide ideal accent and feature lighting opportunities. Tree lighting with mercury vapor tree lights creates pools of artificial moonlight, and is a favorite design theme among ILD clientele. Depending on the overall mood you wish to create, any number of light fixtures types can be used to light these objects. You may want to install fixtures that are completely hidden and only illuminate objects of interest, or you may go the other route and use highly visible, decorative lights that add an additional aesthetic to your yard. If you are unsure of what type of fixtures to use, call an outdoor lighting contractor like Illuminations Lighting Design and request a consultation with one of our professionals who can explain the benefits of specialty commercial grade fixtures made especially for what you have in mind.

Illuminations Lighting Design is the only "One Stop" destination for lighting design, engineering, landscape lighting services and installation in the state of Texas, and remains unrivaled by any lighting firm in the United States for lighting that is art. As homes grow larger and needs become more complex, having a single resource provides home owners with peace of mind. This translates into a smoother process, reduced costs and a better product.

Where is your landscape lighting design studio located?
We are located in the heart of Houston just west of Downtown at the corner of Durham Drive and Blossom Street, which is located between Memorial Drive and Washington Avenue in the Rice Military Subdivision.Although we are located in Houston Texas we provide lighting and design services in Austin TX, El Paso Texas, San Antonio TX, College Station Texas, Beaumont TX, Dallas Texas, Midland Tx and points beyond.

Call us today at 713-863-1133 or 800-863-1184, visit our lighting blog or request a consultation online using our contact us form.

Labels: Austin Landscape Lighting, Houston Electrical Contractors, Landscape Lighting Consultants, Landscape Lighting Professional, Landscape Outdoor Lighting, Planning Landscape Lighting

Austin Texas Lighting Firm Specialzing in Art Lighting, Outdoor Landscape Lighting & Home Lighting Control Systems.

Illuminations lighting Design will soon be opening a new location in Austin, Texas. Already, we have received a number of questions and work from excited Austin resident’s business owners about the multiple service offerings we bring to the table.

We introduce ourselves to the Capitol of Texas not only as a company that can meet all the lighting design needs of Austin businesses and homeowners, but also as a firm who shares the same core values of one of America’s most beloved cities.

What makes ILD’s architectural lighting unique?
We are unique in that we enhance, rather than replace, the creativity of the client. We design architectural and landscape lighting systems through ongoing consultation, and we use our equipment and expertise to complete and magnify what the client initiates.

Austin building owners often have excellent ideas of their own on how to light their buildings. They may not have access to the same equipment, however, that a commercial Austin lighting company such as ILD can obtain. We can obtain fixtures from the world’s leading manufacturers in lighting equipment and install them with special techniques learned from architectural design partners.

By concealing the fixtures themselves, we can light Austin buildings with what appears to be sourceless illumination.

Does Illuminations Lighting also do outdoor and landscape lighting?
Yes, and we do it in a way that is hand in glove with Austin’s Earth conscious value system.

We are one of the few Austin lighting companies to make it a matter of policy to only use environmentally friendly equipment and methods of installation. No trees are ever harmed or damaged in our lighting arrays.

Unlike competing firms who only use two layers of light, ILD uses four. We combine security, tree lighting, architectural lighting, and a number of decorative lighting techniques to develop an entire outdoor lighting system that unifies human progress with Natural form and evolution.

Do you offer indoor commercial interior lighting?
Yes, and we do so with practical aesthetics and power savings foremost in mind. We create an upbeat environment that dispels all pockets of shadow throughout the room. When necessary, we use special fixtures with glare shielding to protect employee eyes and maximize morale by maximizing comfort and ergonomics.

Regardless of the nature or size of any Austin business, our boardroom lighting, executive office lighting, and even kitchen lighting designs can reduce costs and improve office moral with better light and sensibility.

What type of lighting designs do you offer to Austin residential clients?
Lighting control systems, whole house audio, home theaters, and even home automation networks are just some of the many options we can integrate into residential lighting systems.

The exact nature of the system is always customized according the preference of the client. Functionality and taste must be a reflection of the person, not an imposition of the vendor.

Our philosophy is to listen, plan, and equip. Our team consists of licensed electricians and electrical design professionals who can not only install the best systems, but also lay the safest and most cost effective foundation for those systems.

Residents of Austin’s West Lake and South Brodie neighborhoods are also people with high expectations of themselves and lighting their art. They did not accomplish their success by being underachievers. When we work with such a art lighting client, we work to make his or her home a high-performance extension of personality, mind, and activity.

Read more here about the specific offerings we bring to Austin and all of the Texas hill country.

Labels: Austin Landscape Lighting, Austin Lighting Control Systems, Austin Texas Lighting, Hospitality Lighting Austin

Illuminations Lighting Design supports the Texas Youth Rodeo Association

Illuminations Lighting Design is a proud sponsor of the Texas Youth Rodeo Association. This year at the 2006 State Finals Rodeo held in Gonzales Texas, Illuminations Lighting Design was a saddle sponsor.

The Texas Youth Rodeo Association (TYRA) is a family oriented organization that strives to produce youth rodeos that support and promote the sport of youth rodeo throughout Texas. Over 240 kids from all over the state of Texas gathered to compete in one of the oldest Youth Rodeos in the State of Texas. As a contributor and sponsor of the TYRA we are proud of the hard work and dedication these youngsters put forth working with their animals, their parents and their peers.

This year the Texas Youth Rodeo Association was able to reward the youth with 62 saddles, 126 custom belt buckles and 12 scholarships and $10,000 in added cash. The prizes were extraordinary and the kids were very excited to be rewarded for their hard work! Pictured above is the new 2006 TYRA Queen Ms. Kelsey Bohlen.

Illuminations Lighting Design is a proud sponsor of the Texas Youth Rodeo Association. Any and all donations for the TYRA organization from clubs, individuals or organizations would be greatly welcomed and appreciated. TYRA is a non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible. Anyone wishing to make a donation to TYRA please contact Mo Cox, Corporate secretary at 361-368-2989 or by email.

Labels: Austin Landscape Lighting, Houston Texas Contractors, Texas Youth Rodeo Association

Do you travel outside of Houston to design and install lighting?

We have been blessed since 1980 to travel to many locations around the country to design and install both interior home lighting and outdoor landscape lighting.

Our lighting projects have taken us to a plethora of cities in Texas such as Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Beaumont, El Paso, Brownsville, Kerrville, Sequin, New Braunfels and Plano. In addition, we have also worked in Colorado, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mexico, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Rhode Island, Florida and California to name a few.

We are accustomed to working with architects, interior designers, custom home builders, contractors and homeowners by provide professional services, from consulting, energy code calculations, CAD drawings, documentation and project management, to furnishing, installing and fine tuning all types of lighting fixtures and control systems.

Wherever you live, rest assured that Illuminations Lighting Design is here to assist you with your indoor and outdoor lighting in any way! Give us a call at 800-863-1184 and we will be happy to discuss your project.

Labels: Architectural Lighting Houston Texas, Austin Landscape Lighting, Beaumont Landscape Lighting, Commercial Landscape Lighting, Fine art lighting, Hotel Lighting Design