Landscape Lighting for Buckingham Manor
Buckingham Manor is a small enclave of fewer than two dozen custom homes in north Raleigh, built in the early 2000s on wooded lots of roughly one to nearly two acres. The homes lean Southern: brick facades, columns, rocking-chair front porches and circular drives, set among hardwoods that have had twenty-plus years to grow. Falls Lake’s hiking trails are a short walk away.
Lite Visions has designed lighting for homes in Buckingham Manor, so we know these lots firsthand: how the land falls away behind the houses, how the big trees read after dark, and how much of the neighborhood’s charm lives on the front porch.
The Porch Is the Stage
A Southern front porch is made for evenings, and it’s the first thing guests see when they pull around a circular drive. Lit well, the columns glow softly, the brick gets a warm, even texture, and the porch reads like a room you’d want to sit in. Lit badly, it’s a pair of glaring coach lights and a dark yard.
For homes like these, we often focus on:
- Columns and brick grazed gently, with shadows that give the facade depth
- The circular drive revealed by the trees and plantings around it, not by a runway of path lights
- Front walks and steps lit low and warm for safe, easy arrivals
- Mature hardwoods lit from several angles, so the canopy frames the house
- Back decks, verandas and pools composed as views from the kitchen and family room
Twenty Years of Growth
Landscapes in a neighborhood this age have changed a lot since the first owners moved in. Foundation shrubs have filled out, small trees have become shade trees, and any lighting put in back then may now be buried in foliage or aimed at branches that aren’t there anymore. A fresh design starts with what the property looks like today, and plans for how it will keep growing.
Mature trees are also the best tool we have. A few soft lights placed high in an old oak, aimed down, give you moonlighting: dappled leaf shadows across the lawn and drive that make the whole lot feel calm. With neighbors close by and trails nearby, everything stays warm, shielded and aimed into the landscape rather than the sky.
Stage Lighting Experience, Personal Design
Joe Yanulevich spent more than 35 years lighting concert and theatrical stages. On stage, the best lighting is the kind the audience never thinks about. They just feel the mood. He designs landscapes the same way: lower lumens, more fixtures and shadows on purpose, so you notice the home and garden, not the lights. His work appears in the book Masters of Landscape Lighting, and he explains what to look for in You Can’t Un-See Bad Landscape Lighting.
Every project starts with Joe on your property after dark. He designs every job personally and comes back at night after installation to fine-tune the aim himself.
Explore More
Browse our landscape lighting portfolio or our page on North Raleigh and Falls Lake.
Nearby communities we serve: Bay Leaf Farm, Norwood Ridge, Morning Mountain Estates, Sanctuary at Falls Lake, Maple Ridge Cove, Glenhill, Alpine Creek Estates, Greywalls at Trego, The Cove at Falls Lake, Avalaire, Radcliffe.
Porches, Brick and Trees: From Our Portfolio
The photos on this page come from other Lite Visions projects around the Triangle.
Request a Design Consultation
If you live in Buckingham Manor and want your porch, drive and trees to look as good at night as they do on a spring afternoon, Joe would enjoy walking your property with you at dusk.
Prefer to talk first? Call Joe at Nine one Nine-518-9950.