Landscape Lighting in Southlake, TX — Big Elevations, Strict Committees
Newer estate houses on Cross Timbers ground, where the architecture is usually the subject.
Southlake sits just north of DFW Airport, between Fort Worth and Grapevine, and it is the town in this part of the service area where the house, rather than the canopy, is most often the thing worth lighting.
When the House Is the Subject, Fixture Distance Decides Everything
Much of Southlake was built large and built recently: substantial two-storey elevations in stone, stucco, cast stone and brick, on lots where the planted canopy is still growing into itself. That combination makes the building the main event, and lighting a big elevation well is a more exacting job than lighting a tree.
The variable that matters most is how far the fixture sits from the wall, and it is the one most often got wrong:
- Stone and cast stone want grazing. The fixture goes in close to the base, throwing light up the face at a shallow angle so every course and joint casts its own shadow. Pull it back and the texture you paid for disappears.
- Stucco wants the opposite. Stucco is close to flat, and grazing it reveals every trowel mark and patch. It wants an even wash from further out.
- A two-storey elevation needs reach, not brightness. Getting light to the eave means a tighter beam from further back, not a wider fixture turned up. The usual failure is a bright hot pool at ground-floor level and a dark upper storey.
- Symmetry is unforgiving. On a formal elevation, two fixtures that are not matched in aim or output read as a mistake from the street in a way they never would on a garden.
On most Southlake houses more than one of those materials is present on the same front, and they get lit deliberately differently rather than with one repeated fixture spacing.
Design for the Committee Before You Design for the Garden
Southlake neighbourhoods commonly carry active architectural review, and exterior fixtures visible from the street are the sort of thing that gets looked at. That is not an obstacle so much as a constraint to know about at the start — a plan drawn to the rules is quicker and cheaper than a plan revised after a rejection.
The association and the city set those requirements, not us, and they differ between developments. Tell us at the design visit what applies to your property and Todd builds the plan around it. We are not going to quote you thresholds or fixture restrictions from a web page; what we will do is put the plan in writing, with a fixed price and a start and completion date, in a form you can hand to a committee.
The ground here is Cross Timbers rather than Blackland, which is the kinder of the two for lighting: sandier, better drained, and far less inclined to shift a fixture out of aim across a season.
What This Looks Like on the Ground Near Southlake
We have not photographed a Southlake installation yet, so every photograph below is from Colleyville and Grapevine — 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 client letters in full. If you are in Southlake and want your property to be the first photograph on this page, the design visit is free.
Southlake, TX — and How Far It Is From Us
Just north of DFW Airport, between Fort Worth and Grapevine. Free on-site design visit, and Todd comes out himself.
Southlake, TX · inside the TC Lighting service area · free on-site design visit
All Eight Services, Available in Southlake
Landscape lighting is the bulk of the work, but it is not all of it. Every service below is available on a Southlake property, from the same crew and the same licensed Texas electrical contractor.
Landscape Lighting
Design and installation — uplighting, moonlighting, path and specimen work.
Read more →Holiday Lighting
Seasonal install, maintained through the season, taken down and stored.
Read more →Permanent Festive LED
Govee-type colour-changing track set into the eave line. Invisible by day.
Read more →LED Conversion & Retrofit
Halogen to LED on an existing system, keeping the runs and fixtures worth keeping.
Read more →Pole, Site & Hardscape
Car parks, drives, steps, walls and seating areas, residential and commercial.
Read more →Interior Lighting
Inside work from the same licensed electrical contractor.
Read more →Ring Camera Installation
Cameras and doorbells fitted and wired properly.
Read more →Repair & Maintenance
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.
Southlake Landscape Lighting Questions
Yes. Southlake is just north of DFW Airport, next door to Colleyville. There is no photographed Southlake project in the gallery yet and we would rather say that plainly. The nearest documented work is Colleyville, next door, and Grapevine just east — both on comparable ground with comparable properties.
Differently on each material. Stone is grazed from close in so the texture throws its own shadows; stucco is close to flat and wants an even wash from further back, because grazing it shows every trowel mark. Reaching a second storey needs a tighter beam from further away rather than a brighter fixture close in.
No, but it is much easier to design to the rules than to revise after a rejection. Tell us what your association requires at the design visit. You get a written plan with a fixed price and dates, which is generally what a committee wants to see anyway.
No, but the plan should be honest about it. With a young canopy the architecture, the hardscape and the levels carry the design, and the trees get lit at a level suited to their size. The thing worth doing now is leaving transformer capacity and a spare run toward the trees, so the downlighting layer can be added in ten years without trenching a finished garden.
Where Else Todd Works Near Southlake
- Landscape lighting in Colleyville
- Landscape lighting in Keller
- Landscape lighting in Flower Mound
- Landscape lighting in Fort Worth
- What the work involves, in detail — design, conduit, day-set and night-set.
- Repair and maintenance, including systems somebody else installed.
Ask Todd About Your Southlake Property
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.
- Free, no-obligation design visit and written plan
- Licensed Texas Electrical Contractor — TECL 41495
- Conduit-protected wiring and daily site cleanup
- Every fixture day-set, and a night-set on most projects
Prefer to talk? Call (972) 345-1180.