Safe and beautiful walkway lighting

Sunset, June, 1996 by Peter O. Whiteley

You shield the light source and balance the light level

Lighting designers call them glare bombs: the poorly designed light fixtures with unshielded high-wattage light-bulbs that many homeowners unwittingly install along a front walkway or mount to the wall by the front door. Instead of subtly defining the path from street to house, as the homeowners intended, these lights almost blind you.

That's not the way to do it. Entry lighting should be harmonious and muted, letting you see only the result of the light, not its source. Soft light should pool evenly on the path, wash across shrubbery, cast shadows on walls, and uplight trees as it directs you to the entry. Proper lighting should promote safety and security and be aesthetically pleasing at the same time. The key principles are simple: shield the light source, and keep the light level low and balanced.

FIXTURE ADVICE

Outdoor light fixtures fall into two categories: decorative and hidden. The decorative ones are meant to be seen, as part of the overall architecture and landscape plan for both day and night. Streetside bollards, post-mounted pathway fixtures, and wall-mounted carriage lamps are three examples. Hidden fixtures are either mounted farther away from the walkway (under eaves or attached to trees, where they downlight a surface) or aimed away from the path - at shrubs or up into a mantle of leaves, where the light bounces back. Small, low-voltage fixtures are well suited for downlighting and are easier to install than their larger, standard-voltage counterparts. On some fixtures, you can even add honeycombed louvers to further mask the source of light.

Experts recommend post-mounted fixtures with hoods that block direct views of the lightbulbs. This type of fixture can have a rounded, mushroom-shaped top that allows light to spill in a 360 [degrees] circle over both path and planting, or an angled top that directs light to the walking surface alone. Although widely available, the post-mounted pagoda-style fixture does not adequately shield the light source and is not recommended.

AT THE FRONT DOOR

Shielding the light source becomes a bigger problem when you get to the front door. Wall-mounted decorative fixtures can overpower the yard and put a bright light source at eye level. "People will often spend several hundred dollars on a carriage lamp, but at night all you really see is a 60-cent lightbulb," says Randy Whitehead of San Francisco-based Lightsource. The big mistake made with this fixture style is trying to use it to light the landscape, when all it should be doing is glowing amiably. The real light at the front door should be shed by hidden fixtures mounted under the eaves.

TIPS FOR WALL-MOUNTED FIXTURES

* Select fixtures with translucent panels - frosted, sandblasted, or iridescent stained glass. The translucence spreads out the light and emphasizes the form of the lantern. If you already have one with clear- or beveled-glass panels, you can have the inside face sandblasted.

* Choose a low-wattage, frosted-glass lightbulb, such as a 25-watt model. It will keep the overall level of light balanced and give the illusion that the decorative fixture is providing the lighting.