Lighting a Mediterranean Garden After Dark
Colour temperature, layers, and why the best garden lighting is the lighting you never see.
A garden is used more hours after sunset than before it, and lighting is the cheapest thing in the budget with the largest effect on how the space feels. It is also the element most often specified last and worst.
Our approach is subtractive: start with darkness and add only what earns its place.
Warm, and warmer still
Nothing ruins a Mediterranean terrace faster than 4000K light. We specify 2400–2700K throughout, and dim to warm where the fitting allows, so the garden at midnight glows like candlelight rather than a forecourt.
Four layers, in order
Every scheme we design has the same four layers, each on its own circuit so the garden can be tuned scene by scene.
- Orientation: buried ankle-height path lights, just enough to read a step
- Structure: grazing light on stone walls and up two or three key trees
- Task: over the kitchen counter and the dining table, tightly focused
- Atmosphere: fire, candles and concealed strips under benches and coping
Hide every source
If you can see the lamp, the fitting is in the wrong place. Cowls, recesses, planting and glare shields cost very little and are the difference between a designed garden and a car park.
Common questions
- What colour temperature is best for outdoor garden lighting?
- 2400K to 2700K. Cooler temperatures such as 3000K or 4000K make Mediterranean stone and planting look clinical, while warm light flatters travertine, oak and olive foliage.
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