Category Design & Inspiration

Mixing warm white and cool white solar lights in the same yard is the most common lighting mistake I see,…

The narrow urban backyard is a specific beast. I am talking about the 20-foot-wide, 40-foot-deep rectangle flanked by a six-foot…

A Japanese garden is a composed landscape, built around principles of asymmetry, restraint, and the suggestion of nature rather than…

Most yards have one kind of solar light. Usually it is a row of path lights, or a single flood…

A funny thing happens to most backyards after sunset. The patio still exists. The flower beds are still there. The…

A courtyard garden is a specific lighting challenge that most guides do not address, because it is not like a…

Outdoor dining has a lighting problem that most people solve badly. You set a beautiful table on the patio, you…

Outdoor spaces suffer from a problem that indoor spaces solved centuries ago. Inside your home, walls, doorways, and ceiling height…

Walk through any garden center in 2026 and you will find them nestled between the ferns and the ceramic planters:…

Modern minimalist landscapes are built on a specific discipline. Every element earns its place, or it does not belong. The…

Pendant lighting has been an interior design staple for decades. The classic mid-century modern cage pendant, with its open geometric…

The English cottage garden is the hardest style to light well, and I will tell you why up front. It…

Static lighting is safe. Static lighting is predictable. Static lighting is also, after a few weeks, invisible. Your eye stops…

Walk through any garden center in spring and you will find racks of solar flower lights. Most of them look…

I found the candelabra at a thrift store for eight dollars. It was a five-arm brass thing, slightly tarnished, missing…