Pathway lighting is essential in all lighting designs. When homes are properly illuminated with pathway lighting, residents and guests can safely enjoy the outdoors without worrying about tripping on any unseen hazards. Pathway lighting is also a great addition to an
outdoor lighting project because it can frame view corridors and guide the eyes to the ultimate destination. A common mistake we see in the field is the use of short path lights that are too spaced out, creating dark pockets along walkways. This can be more disorienting than no lights at all because the human eye has to constantly adjust from high to low levels of light. Our approach to pathway lighting uses as few path lights as possible and illuminates foot traffic areas with reflective light from other fixtures in the landscape. A typical example of this lighting technique is illuminating palms that are flanking the driveway or casting a floodlight up a wall that is adjacent to a walkway. The path lights we do use, we elevate on 18”+ risers with large hats or bollard lights, these techniques create more evenly distributed light across a pathway.