Illuminate Your Architectural Features

Create the wow factor this summer by illuminating your architectural features. Summer evenings are a joy many people look forward to, and once you’ve renovated you home and garden landscape make sure you can enjoy it past sundown with the right lighting. But what features should you highlight? Well there are no rules, but here are some projects we have worked on that have the wow factor.

Light The Way – Entrances

A well lit entrance is important all year round, that’s not new. But there are more interesting ways to light the path to your abode than a lonely lamp hung above the front door. Start from the curbside. Uplighters at the base of your gate piers frame the view of your entrance from the road and show off your finals and neatly finished gate pier capitals. Our architectural components are handmade to achieve the highest quality finish to impress your guests.  They also help visitors to navigate your gates.

Uplighters at the base of gate posts help to guide visitors through your gates whilst presenting a smart entrance from the road with quality gate pier capitals and finials.

Once you light your gate posts, make sure you light your property entrance effectively too. A well proportioned portico designed by our architectural team can transform an entrance. This modern house was a mis-mash of extensions with no central focal point until we added a large stone portico. This was painted along with the rest of the house with soft spot lighting inset into the interior of the portico to make the entrance a chic and inviting feature.

A well proportioned Chilstone portico pulls together a modern home with mis-matched extensions. The spot lights inlaid inside the portico create soft, modern lighting around the front door for a smart entrance.

A Guiding Light for Steps and Balustrades

It’s important to light steps for safety reasons, but the way you light steps and staircases can make them a beautiful feature. Well chosen statues on wider stairway sections creates an elegant focal point, using the elevation to draw the eye, adding a softness to the hard landscaping. The curvaceous balustrades and smooth coping stones create a timeless, classical finish to this stylish garden staircase.

A handmade Chilstone cast stone garden staircase with coping stones and stone balustrades, lit with spotlights from the steps to make a feature of the hard landscaping.

Well placed lighting can create an ambience for your whole garden, making your space feel welcoming and extra special for warm summer evenings and crisp winter nights. The use of low level spotlights in the stone pool surround, at the base of statues and along the line between steptreds and balustrades creates an inviting garden glow. It makes the space usable after dark all year round for dinner parties or drinks with friends and family, so don’t forget to incorporate a beautiful lighting scheme in your garden design. Lighting also improves security and can potentially increase your property value.

A large garden design is brought to life after dark with low level spotlights around the stone swimming pool surround, handmade Chilstone statues, stone steps and balustrades. This creates a welcoming outside space after sundown to enjoy summer evenings.

Fairytale Fountains And Romantic Pavilions

Our handmade fountains feel magical lit up at night! If you are investing in a modern water feature or classical fountain consider incorporating lights too. After all, you have to have the electrical fixtures installed for the pump so it makes sense to consider lighting options at the same time. An illuminated fountain enhances your garden design, allowing you to enjoy this elegant feature late into the evening and make the most of the tranquilly it exudes in warm evenings from spring through to late autumn.

A handcrafted, classical fountain by Chilstone looks magical lit up at night.

For the ultimate in garden romance, especially for summer weddings, make sure you light your garden pavilions! These are also referred to as stone temples and although they have no religious affiliation, they do meet registrar requirements so you can hold your nuptials in an idyllic outdoor setting and celebrate into the small hours together. You could even add one to your garden as an anniversary gift to relive the romance all year round! They are also perfect for string quartets and DJs for entertainment, or add a stone bench and a firepit for a cosy garden gathering!

A handmade ionic temple, sometimes called a garden pavilion illuminated to create a gorgeous, romantic garden setting.

Entirely Handmade For Seventy Years

However you style your home and landscaping we can create garden ornaments and architectural stone to suit your needs. From coping stones and gate pier capitals for fine finishing touches, to stone porticos, garden temples, and fountains for impressive focal points, we a have a wide range of products created entirely by hand by our skilled artisan team. We are unique in the market, making everything entirely by hand, the same way we have for seventy years using hand tools, never machinery. This sets us apart and it’s why our cast stone has the fine, crisp finish our customers love.

You can book an appointment to see our craftsmen at work in our Kent workshop, but please feel free to pop in and take a stroll around our gardens for some inspiration. We also produce bespoke work and offer a restoration service too, so please talk to the team.