What the word actually means
Most outdoor lighting is trying to cover ground. Accent lighting asks which one thing should be looked at. It is selective by definition. One feature, chosen on purpose, while everything around it stays dark. The dark part is not an oversight. It is doing the work.The concept is simple to say and hard to hold to. Pick the handful worth seeing and resist adding to it. The pull is always to light one more thing, and holding the line is what keeps the result looking designed.
Good candidates
Some things take light well and plenty do not. Anything with texture picks up light and shows it off, since the shadows a texture throws are the point. Smooth surfaces reflect light without doing anything with it. Form is the other thing to look for.
How people get it wrong
Plans go wrong by addition. One feature becomes four over a couple of conversations. At some point the property is evenly lit, and nothing stands out anymore. A disciplined plan leaves most of the property dark on purpose.A good accent plan looks thin written down and right in person, which is an awkward thing to sell
https://evercrestlighting.com/contact/ and an easy thing to live with.
Where it sits among the other work
On most properties it works alongside other lighting. Landscape lighting handles the yard. Security lighting covers approaches and dark corners. Roofline lighting handles the building. It is what makes a plan look considered.
One more thing about brightness
Output is easy to get wrong upward. Your eyes adjust to darkness, so a modest amount of light on a dark property does a great deal. The goal is to draw attention, not to interrogate the shrubbery.
Uplight and downlight
Direction is a mood decision. Uplighting throws shadows upward, which nothing in nature does, so it feels staged, in a good way on the right subject. Light from above reads as ordinary, which is exactly why it works so well over seating and paths.
Plants grow. Accents need adjusting
Landscape accents are aimed at living things that keep changing. A shrub uplit perfectly when it went in will grow past the beam. Nothing is broken. It simply needs adjusting. Re aiming is worth doing periodically.Aim gets checked the way everything else here is judged: by standing on the property after dark and looking.
Having a plan drawn
The choices are property specific, which is why the design starts with a visit. EverCrest Lighting installs accent lighting along with landscape, patio, security and permanent roofline systems for residential and commercial properties throughout Upstate South Carolina and Western North Carolina, based in Greenville. The consultation is free. Reach them at (864) 252-1732 or
[email protected].