Outdoor Lighting Design & Installation Los Angeles

Los Angeles Evenings Are Too Good to Spend Inside

Greater Los Angeles has warm, usable evenings for nine to ten months out of the year. That's not a selling point, it's a fact that shapes how we approach every landscape project in this city. A patio in Redondo Beach stays comfortable until 9 p.m. through most of October. A backyard in Burbank averages over 280 sunny days annually, which means outdoor entertaining doesn't stop when the workday ends.

Here's what most homeowners don't realize about outdoor lighting in LA: the marine layer along the coast actually diffuses ambient light on summer evenings, which means coastal properties need more deliberate accent and pathway lighting than inland homes where sky conditions are clearer. That single climate detail changes how we position fixtures in Santa Monica versus how we approach a project in Pasadena or Van Nuys.

Operating out of Beverly Hills with crews across Greater Los Angeles, we cover residential and estate lighting projects from coastal neighborhoods through the San Fernando Valley and deep into the South Bay. We know how each microclimate behaves after dark, and we design accordingly. Whether we're lighting a finished hardscape and patio installation in Los Angeles or working from the ground up on a new build, that local knowledge shapes every fixture placement decision we make.

How We Approached a Brentwood-Adjacent Backyard Lighting Rebuild

I've been working on outdoor spaces across Los Angeles since we started The Landscapers LA in 2015. One project I still think about was a backyard entertaining space, a full hardscape build with a pergola, fire pit, and planting refresh, where the homeowner specifically asked us to build the lighting in from day one.

The property had gone through a previous patio installation without any lighting in the plan. The homeowner described what that looked like: wire runs through finished pavers, a transformer wedged beside the garage because every practical location was taken, and pathway fixtures that landed on top of a drainage channel nobody had mapped. They wanted the new pergola area done differently.

We handled this rebuild with the lighting plan on the table before the pavers went down. I walked the yard at dusk with the homeowner. We identified the outdoor entertainment space, the area where guests actually gather, and worked backwards. Transformer placement came first. Zone planning, grouping lights by function, so security, ambiance, and pathway fixtures run on independent circuits, came second. Wire runs went into the trench with the irrigation lines, not through finished surfaces.

The final result had five distinct outdoor lighting zones. Uplighting on a mature olive tree at the corner of the yard. Step lighting along the three risers from the lawn to the entertaining deck. Path and step lighting, fixtures mounted along walkways and outdoor staircases for navigation safety and visual definition, ran the full perimeter. And a set of moonlighting fixtures, positioned high in the tree canopy and aimed downward to simulate natural moonlight on the lawn below, covered the turf zone without any visible hardware from the seating area.

That homeowner uses that backyard four nights a week. That's what integrated lighting does.

distinct outdoor lighting zones on a typical entertaining rebuild

low-voltage systems, safer and cleaner than line-voltage wiring

Our Outdoor Lighting Standards

Every fixture, wire, and connection we install is built for Southern California's outdoor environment.

How We Design and Install Your Outdoor Lighting

Our process runs from site evaluation through final zone testing before we call a project complete.

Site Evaluation and Lighting Plan

We start with a full evening walkthrough of the property. We map your outdoor entertainment space, the patios, pergolas, fire pit areas, and pool surrounds where you actually spend time, and work zone-by-zone from there. We note existing structures, mature trees, grade changes, and surface materials. Transformer location is confirmed before any wire is specified. We document the plan and review it with you before work begins. For properties with a pool, our pool area and poolscape landscaping gets its own dedicated zone planning so water feature lighting is handled safely and independently from the rest of the system.

For properties with existing landscape lighting that isn't performing, we test each circuit, measure voltage drop across runs, and inspect every connector point before recommending replacements. Sometimes a system needs a transformer upgrade and new connectors. We tell you that honestly.

Installation by Zone

Wire runs are installed first, before fixtures go in. Trenching follows irrigation lines where possible. Transformer and timer configuration is mounted in a permanent, accessible location, not zip-tied to a fence post. Each outdoor lighting zone gets its own circuit back to the transformer so zones can be adjusted independently. You can verify a California landscape contractor's license before any contractor begins wiring work on your property, proper licensing is a baseline requirement for this scope of installation.

Zone Walk and Voltage Check

After installation, we walk every zone after dark with the homeowner. We verify coverage, check for glare angles that need adjusting, and confirm timer settings match how the space is actually used. Voltage is measured at the end of each run, a healthy low-voltage landscape lighting system reads between 10.8 and 12 volts at the last fixture. Any reading below that gets traced and corrected before we leave.

Outdoor Lighting Installation Across Greater Los Angeles

We design and install landscape lighting throughout the Greater Los Angeles area.

Our crews serve Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Torrance, Redondo Beach, Long Beach, El Segundo, Hawthorne, Culver City, West Hollywood, Van Nuys, Chatsworth, and the surrounding communities. We also cover the Inland Empire including Riverside, Rancho Cucamonga, and Fontana, along with Ventura County and Orange County markets. If you're in our service area, we have a crew near you.

Ready to Use Your Outdoor Space After Sunset?

The Landscapers LA has been designing and installing outdoor lighting across Greater Los Angeles since 2015. Ten professional crews, three service locations, and a planning process that puts your lighting on the table at the start, not as an afterthought. Call us or email to schedule your site walkthrough. We'll walk your property, map your zones, and show you exactly what a lighting plan looks like before any work begins.

Tell us about your outdoor space and we'll map a lighting plan that works with your landscape, not against it.