Landscape Lighting in Franklin, TN

Most homes in Franklin and Brentwood look their best right as the sun goes down and then disappear once it is dark. The stone on the facade, the magnolia in the front bed, the path to the back patio: all of it goes flat. Good landscape lighting brings the property back after sunset, makes steps and walks safe to use, and lets you see the yard from inside on a winter evening.

Bad lighting is easy to spot. Rows of stake lights along the walk like a runway. Floodlights on the gutter that glare into the neighbor’s bedroom. Fixtures that corrode and flicker after a humid summer. We design lighting the way we design a planting plan: every fixture has a job, the light comes from sources you do not see, and the house looks like itself at night, only calmer. Middle Tennessee humidity, clay that shifts, and heavy spring rains all shape how we choose fixtures and run wire so the system keeps working.

What Is Included

• A night design visit, walking your property after dark to decide what to light and what to leave in shadow
• A scaled lighting plan with fixture locations, types, beam angles, and wire runs
• Low voltage LED fixtures in solid brass or copper, chosen to handle our humidity
• Uplighting for trees, facades, columns, and stone walls
• Path, step, and patio lighting, including lights set into seat walls and step risers
• Downlighting from mature trees for a soft, moonlight effect on lawns and patios
• A properly sized transformer with a timer, photocell, or smart control
• Wire trenched shallow through beds and turf, with connections sealed against moisture

Our Lighting Process

1. See it at night. We visit after sunset, walk the property with you, and look at the house, the trees, and how you move between the drive, the door, and the backyard.
2. Plan every fixture. You get a scaled lighting plan showing each fixture, what it lights, and where the wire runs. You approve it before any work starts.
3. Price it in writing. You get a fixed written price for the approved plan. If you add fixtures later, we price them in writing first.
4. Install with care. We call TN811 before we dig, submit to your HOA when your neighborhood requires it, and install with one project lead on your job. Lawns and beds are protected and the site is cleaned each day.
5. Adjust after dark. After installation we come back at night to aim every fixture, fine tune brightness, and set the timer with you. The final walkthrough happens in the dark, where lighting is judged.

When Lighting Makes Sense

• Your front steps, walkway, or back patio steps are hard to see after dark.
• Your house has stone, brick, columns, or a roofline worth seeing at night.
• You have specimen trees like a Southern magnolia, Japanese maple, or mature oak.
• You just finished a patio, fire pit, or outdoor kitchen and want to use it after sunset.
• Your current lights are dim, corroded, flickering, or shining in the wrong places.
• You want the yard to look occupied and cared for when you travel.

Fixtures and Design Choices for Middle Tennessee

Fixture quality matters more here than in dry climates. Humid summers, heavy spring rain, and winter freezes are hard on cheap aluminum and plastic fixtures, which corrode, crack, and fail at the connections. Solid brass and copper fixtures cost more upfront but hold up to the weather, aging to a natural patina that blends into beds. We seal every wire connection and leave extra wire at each fixture so it can be moved as plants grow.

Color temperature changes everything. We use warm white, usually 2700K, which flatters brick, Tennessee fieldstone, and limestone and makes green foliage look natural. Cooler light turns a house blue and harsh. Brightness is set by what surrounds the property: a farm lot outside Leiper’s Fork needs far less light than a home on a lit street in Westhaven, because the eye adjusts to the darkness around it.

Placement is the craft. Uplights at the base of a magnolia or crape myrtle show the structure of the tree. Grazing light across a Crab Orchard stone wall picks up its texture. Downlights mounted high in a mature oak throw soft shadows of branches onto the lawn. Path lights sit low and are spaced so pools of light overlap gently rather than marching in a straight line.

What Drives the Cost

• The number of fixtures and the areas being lit
• Fixture material, style, and whether any mount in trees or hardscape
• Transformer size and the length of wire runs
• Controls: basic timer and photocell or a smart controller with zones
• Trenching conditions, including rock, established beds, or finished hardscape
• Integration with a new patio, wall, or outdoor kitchen versus a retrofit

After the night design visit and your approved lighting plan, you get a fixed written price for the full system.

Book a Night Design Visit

The best way to plan lighting is to stand in your yard after dark and look. We will walk it with you, show you what is worth lighting, and draw a plan you can approve before anything is installed. Book a design consultation or call (615) 703-6725.

How many landscape lights does a typical Franklin home need?

There is no fixed number. It depends on the facade, the trees, the length of the walk, and how much of the backyard you use at night. A front yard might need a dozen fixtures to light the house, the entry, and one or two trees well. We design the layout on site after dark so every fixture has a job, and we would rather use fewer lights placed well than line the walk with runway lights.

Is LED landscape lighting worth it?

Yes. Quality LED fixtures draw a fraction of the power of older halogen systems, run cooler, and last far longer between replacements. That lets us run smaller transformers and longer wire runs. The key is choosing a warm color temperature, usually 2700K, and solid brass or copper fixtures that stand up to Middle Tennessee humidity. Cheap aluminum fixtures corrode and fail quickly here.

Does my HOA need to approve landscape lighting?

In many Franklin neighborhoods, yes. Westhaven, Berry Farms, Ladd Park, Fieldstone Farms, and McKay's Mill all have architectural guidelines that can cover lighting, especially fixtures facing the street or neighbors. Most care about glare, brightness, and color. We prepare a lighting plan with fixture specs for your submittal and design with shielded, downward and upward fixtures that keep light where it belongs.

Can you add lighting to a landscape someone else installed?

Yes. Much of our lighting work is on established yards. We walk the property at night, look at what is already there, and design around mature trees, existing beds, and hardscape. Wire is trenched shallow through beds and turf with minimal disturbance, and we call TN811 before any digging so buried utilities are marked first.