Stacked stone wall grazed with warm light from in-grade fixtures beside a pool at dusk

Landscape lighting · Chicago and the North Shore

Landscape lighting for Chicago and North Shore homes

We design and install architectural landscape lighting with HK Lighting fixtures in the garden and DMF downlights on the house, dimmed and scheduled with Lutron. Light lands on the trees, the stone, and the way to the door, and very little of it lands in your eyes.

Book a night walk Try the Lutron scenes

Photo: HK Lighting

The idea

What landscape lighting design is

Landscape lighting design is the plan for where light goes outside your house after dark: which trees, walls, paths, and steps get light, which fixtures do it, how bright each one is, and when it comes on. Most of the craft is restraint. A property looks composed at night when a few things are lit well and the rest is allowed to stay dark.

We design by walking the property at night, then place each fixture for a reason you can name: to show the oak, to find the steps, to see who is at the side door. Everything runs on your Lutron system, so it follows sunset through the year without anyone touching a timer.

r:home is an HK Lighting and DMF dealer.

Contemporary home at dusk with uplit trees, lit terrace, and path lighting across the garden — Photo: HK Lighting

Techniques

How we light a property

Single tree uplit from its base against a dark sky — Photo: HK Lighting

Uplighting

Fixtures at the base of a tree aimed into the canopy. A mature oak usually takes two or three, from different sides, so it reads in three dimensions.

HK ARTOAL16 · 14° to 70° beam

Hiroshi Kira mounting a light high in a tree at night — Photo: HK Lighting

Moonlighting

Fixtures mounted high in a tree and aimed down, so branch shadows fall across the lawn and path the way moonlight does.

HK accent lights in the canopy

Row of in-grade lights casting even scallops up a wall — Photo: HK Lighting

Grazing

Light set close to a stone or brick wall and aimed straight up, to pull out the texture of the masonry between windows.

HK in-grade and accent lights

Stone garden wall washed with light behind young trees — Photo: HK Lighting

Washing

A wider beam set back from a wall or hedge for even, quiet light across the whole surface.

HK flood lights

Single HK path light casting a soft pool of warm light — Photo: HK Lighting

Path lighting

Low fixtures that put light on the ground, not in your eyes, spaced so the pools meet softly.

HK Radius · 360° · 12V

Stone stairs lit by small recessed step lights — Photo: HK Lighting

Steps and in-grade

Small fixtures set into steps, walls, and paving so every change in level is visible.

HK ARTOGL1 · 1-inch brass

Wood-paneled wall and ceiling with small recessed downlights — Photo: DMF Lighting

Eaves and porches

Downlights in soffits and porch ceilings that scallop the wall and light the front door.

DMF wet-location downlights

HK Sentinel area light over a dining terrace at night — Photo: HK Lighting

Security light

Aimable area light for drives and side yards that shows what’s there without floodlight glare.

HK Sentinel · 12V or 120V

Try it

One property, four Lutron scenes

Switch scenes, or turn layers on and off, to see how each technique adds to the house at night. This one is a rendering, so you can take it apart.

Arrival scene

Lutron scenes

Sunset to 10 p.m. Everything on for guests arriving.

Layers, tap to switch

Fixtures

Why we specify HK Lighting

HK Lighting was founded by industrial designer Hiroshi Kira, who introduced one of the first outdoor accent lights built around the MR16 lamp in 1986. The company’s residential fixtures are machined from billet aluminum or solid brass with marine-grade finishes, and they hold their aim with a swivel-lock mechanism.

What that means for you: the fixtures keep pointing where we set them, the finish survives salt and sprinklers, and the LED modules and optics can be changed in the field as the garden grows, without digging the fixture out.

Compare the HK fixtures

Hands changing the LED module of an HK accent light — Field-changeable LED module. Photo: HK Lighting

Machined solid brass stock used for HK fixture bodies — Machined brass stock. Photo: HK Lighting

On the house

DMF on the house, HK in the garden

DMF Lighting and HK Lighting are sister brands. We use DMF’s wet-location downlights in eaves, porch ceilings, and covered terraces, and HK fixtures in the landscape, so the light on the house matches the light in the garden in color and quality.

Where DMF goes outside

Living room opening to a lit terrace and garden at dusk — Photo: DMF Lighting

Control

On with the sunset, off without a thought

We connect landscape lighting to your Lutron system with an astronomic timeclock, so it comes on at sunset in June and in December without anyone resetting a timer. A typical schedule:

Arrival: sunset to 10 p.m., everything on.
Late evening: trees and paths dim, the facade goes dark, steps stay on.
Away: while you travel, the house and drive stay lit from sunset to sunrise.

Scenes live on the same keypads as the house. If Lutron runs your shades and interior lighting, see our Lutron work.

Outdoor dining terrace beside a lit stone wall and open kitchen at night — Photo: HK Lighting

Chicago

Designed for Chicago winters

In early December the sun sets around 4:20 p.m., so the system works hardest when the garden is bare. Road salt, snowplows, and freeze-thaw cycles decide what fixtures are made of and where they go. Bare branches and fresh snow also make winter one of the best seasons to see a good design.

How we plan for winter

HK accent light standing in heavy rain — Photo: HK Lighting

At night

What HK fixtures do after dark

Modern hillside home at dusk with uplit trees and softly lit terraces — Photo: HK Lighting

A row of trees uplit across a lawn at night — Photo: HK Lighting

Stone walkway lined with low path lights leading to a lit house — Photo: HK Lighting

Wood deck with small step lights set into the edge at dusk — Photo: HK Lighting

Mature trees uplit at night at the edge of a wooded lot — Photo: HK Lighting

Application photography from HK Lighting, shown to illustrate the fixtures and techniques we use.

Process

How a project runs

HK Lighting application sketch of uplit trees framing a modern house — A design starts as a sketch like this. Rendering: HK Lighting

Hands stripping low-voltage landscape lighting wire — Then it’s wire, connections, and aim. Photo: HK Lighting

Night walk
We walk the property with you after sunset and talk about what you want to see.
Design
A plan with every fixture, beam, and zone, and a written price.
Install
Transformers, wire, and fixtures go in with as little disruption to the garden as we can manage.
Night aiming
We come back after dark to aim each fixture and set levels with you.
Lutron scenes
We program the schedule and scenes, then show you how to change them.

Where we work

Chicago, the North Shore, and second homes

We’re based in Northbrook and light homes in Chicago, along the North Shore in Evanston, Wilmette, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Glencoe, Highland Park, Lake Forest, and Lake Bluff, and in the north and west suburbs including Northbrook, Glenview, Deerfield, Hinsdale, and Western Springs. We also work on second homes in Lake Geneva, southwest Michigan, and northwest Indiana.

Questions

Landscape lighting questions

How much does landscape lighting cost?

National cost guides put a typical professionally installed system at $2,000 to $6,000, averaging about $3,500, and $100 to $500 per fixture. Designed systems with architectural fixtures and lighting control cost more per fixture than those averages. The number of fixtures drives the total. See the cost guide and planner.

What color temperature should landscape lighting be?

Most homes here look best at 2700K, which reads warm against limestone, brick, and cedar. We use 3000K on some foliage and pale stone where 2700K looks muddy. HK’s accent lights come in both, and we keep one color temperature per area so nothing looks patched together.

Low voltage or line voltage?

Most landscape lighting runs at 12 volts from transformers. It’s safer in planting beds and easy to move as the garden grows. We use 120-volt fixtures where the job calls for it, such as some security lighting, and HK makes its Sentinel area lights in both.

Can landscape lighting run on our Lutron system?

Yes. We put the landscape lighting on your Lutron system so it follows sunset automatically, dims to a late-evening level, and shares a keypad with the house. HK’s integrated LED accent lights are rated for MLV dimming.

Will the lights bother the neighbors?

They shouldn’t. We aim light at the tree, wall, or path and away from windows, use glare shields and louvers where a fixture is visible, and choose exterior downlights with Dark Sky ratings where they’re available.

Do LED landscape lights need maintenance?

A little. Trees grow and get pruned, mulch buries fixtures, and snowplows nudge them. Plan on a yearly visit to re-aim, clean lenses, and trim around fixtures. HK rates its integrated LED accent lights for 50,000 hours.

Can you add to our existing landscape lighting?

Often, yes. We look at the transformers and wire already in the ground and tell you what’s worth keeping and what isn’t.

When is the best time to install?

Spring through late fall, while the ground can be trenched. Winter is a good time to design, because you see the trees’ structure and how early the evenings start.

Night walk

Walk the property with us after dark

Landscape lighting is designed at night. We’ll walk the property with you after sunset, talk through what you want to see from the street, the terrace, and the windows, and send a written design and price.

Call or text (773) 248-4830 Email hey@rhome.co 3225 Arnold Lane, Northbrook, IL 60062

Sources

Manufacturer specifications and prices are as published in September 2026 and can change. We confirm current figures when we quote.