A county seat with a real centre, where the best houses are older than the suburbs and wear their detail on the front.
Denton is organised the way Texas towns were organised before the Metroplex existed: around a square, with a courthouse in the middle of it. W. C. Dodson's Courthouse-on-the-Square was begun in 1895 and dedicated in 1897, and it is a deliberately showy building — a free combination of Victorian styles with French Second Empire pavilions under its domes. It has been on the National Register since 1977, and the commercial district around it since 1990.
What matters for lighting is the ring of streets outside that. The Oak-Hickory district, the old Silk Stocking Row, holds the period houses, and they are a different proposition from anything in a 1990s subdivision: deep porches, turned posts, bracket work under the eaves, and front elevations designed to be looked at. There is also a fact about Denton that nobody in this trade says out loud, which is that two universities make a large share of the central housing stock rented rather than owned. That changes the right answer, and we would rather talk about it than pretend it away.
The defining feature of a period Denton house is the porch, and it is the feature most often ruined. The instinct is to put uplights in the bed at the front of the house and let them do everything. On a flat 1990s elevation that works. On a house with a six-foot porch it does not, because the porch roof intercepts the beam: you get a brightly lit porch ceiling, a fence of hard shadows from the posts, and a porch floor you still cannot see.
A porch wants to be lit from within its own volume. That usually means a small, low-output fixture or two mounted at the ceiling and aimed down and slightly outward, so the turned posts are modelled from inside and the floor is usable. It is a modest amount of light; the point is that it is in the right place. Done that way the porch reads from the street as a lit depth behind the posts, which is exactly how the house was designed to look, and the posts themselves throw no shadows across the facade at all.
Outside the porch, the detail that is worth light is the bracket and bargeboard work under the eaves, and that is reached with a narrow beam from well out in the garden rather than from the bed at the wall. The two systems do different jobs and they are aimed on different evenings, which is part of why the night-set exists.
Brick and stone are forgiving surfaces. Painted timber, which is most of what an Oak-Hickory elevation is made of, is not. Two things go wrong on it.
The first is colour. A cool white lamp on a warm paint colour — cream, ochre, the soft greens and blues these houses often wear — drains it, and a house that looks handsome by day reads grey and institutional at night. We run warm throughout, and on painted period elevations we run it warmer still, because the paint was mixed to be seen in daylight or under incandescent and nothing else flatters it.
The second is grazing. A hundred-year-old painted wall is not flat. It has brush texture, patched boards, slight waves in the clapboard, and a fixture set tight to the wall aiming straight up will find every one of them and make the elevation look tired. Period timber nearly always wants the light from further back and at a flatter angle than stone would, so the surface is lit evenly and the detail that carries the house — the posts, the brackets, the window surrounds — does the work instead. It is the opposite of the advice for a stone house, which is why a plan copied from one to the other never looks right.
A good share of central Denton is rented, including some very fine houses near the square, and landlords ask us about lighting more often than people expect. The honest answer is that the brief changes, and anyone who quotes you the same scheme either way is not thinking about it.
For an owner-occupied period house the opposite is true and the system should be as zoned and as controllable as you like — the Preston Hollow page covers what proper control looks like. The point is that these are two different briefs and the visit should start by establishing which one you have.
We have not photographed a Denton installation yet, so every photograph below is from Argyle — the nearest documented work, on the same ground and the same kind of property. Each one is captioned with the town it was actually taken in. All are TC Lighting installations, shot after dark on the property. Click any of them to see it full screen.
The full gallery is grouped by town, and the reviews page carries thirty-one client letters in full. If you are in Denton and want your property to be the first photograph on this page, the design visit is free.
No Denton client has written to us yet, so rather than dress a letter from somewhere else up as a local one, here are three from elsewhere in the service area with the towns they were written from. All thirty-one are on the reviews page in full.
“I wanted to address your promptness in responding to us. You and Augie should be applauded for your work! Thanks again! If people want a reference to speak to, I would be glad to oblige!”
“When we had the initial meeting with Todd, he showed up with plans of how all the lighting was laid out and an estimate. He addressed all our concerns and had no problem adding extra items per our request. Todd and his crew were great…”
“I needed work done on my lights in the backyard. I called Todd who owns TC Lighting LLC. Todd came to my house to give me an estimate and I found Todd to be very knowledgable and with many years of experience. Todd also suggested lighting my three tall trees in the backyard…”
Denton County seat, at the top of I-35E and I-35W, about twenty-five miles north of Carrollton. Free on-site design visit, and Todd comes out himself.
Denton, TX · inside the TC Lighting service area · free on-site design visit
Landscape lighting is the bulk of the work, but it is not all of it. Every service below is available on a Denton property, from the same crew and the same licensed Texas electrical contractor.
Design and installation — uplighting, moonlighting, path and specimen work.
Read more →Seasonal install, maintained through the season, taken down and stored.
Read more →Govee-type colour-changing track set into the eave line. Invisible by day.
Read more →Halogen to LED on an existing system, keeping the runs and fixtures worth keeping.
Read more →Car parks, drives, steps, walls and seating areas, residential and commercial.
Read more →Inside work from the same licensed electrical contractor.
Read more →Cameras and doorbells fitted and wired properly.
Read more →Diagnosing and rebuilding failing systems, including ones we did not install.
Read more →Or start here: the home page for the whole picture, about Todd Cormier for who turns up, the photo gallery for the work itself, reviews for what clients say, and contact to reach us directly.
Almost certainly because it is lit from outside. Uplights in the bed at the wall are intercepted by the porch roof, so you get a bright ceiling, a fence of post shadows and a floor you still cannot see. A porch wants small, low-output fixtures inside its own volume, mounted at the ceiling and aimed down and slightly out.
It is worth raising at the design visit rather than afterwards, because what may be fixed to a street-facing elevation can be constrained in a historic district. We bring a written plan with a fixed price and dates that can be handed to whoever approves it. Confirm the current requirements for your address with the city.
Colour temperature, nearly always. A cool white lamp drains warm paint colours, and the creams, ochres and soft greens these houses wear were mixed to be seen in daylight. We run warm throughout and warmer still on painted period elevations.
Often yes, but as a different system. Fewer fixtures concentrated on the frontage and safe access, an astronomical timer set once at the transformer rather than anything a tenant has to operate, and everything serviceable from outside the house so maintenance never depends on arranging entry.
About twenty-five miles north of Carrollton, straight up I-35E, and well inside the area Todd covers himself. Denton County is one of the five counties TC Lighting works across.
Four fields, about fifteen seconds. Send the address and what you are hoping to light. Todd walks the property himself, in daylight, and you get a written plan with a fixed price and dates before any work begins.
Prefer to talk? Call (972) 345-1180.