Landscape Lighting for Chatsworth’s Acre Lots
Chatsworth is a North Raleigh neighborhood of about 86 homesites, reached from Norwood Road at Brass Kettle, in the 27614 area. The lots are typically one to two acres, and the homes, most of them built in the 2000s in a transitional style, range from about 4,000 to 15,000 square feet. The community holds some 40 acres of protected green space, along with a pool, a basketball court and a playground. Utilities are underground, and the homes are on septic.
A lot this size is a wonderful canvas for landscape lighting, and an easy one to get wrong. The temptation is to light everything. Do that, and an estate starts to look like a ballfield after dark. The goal is the opposite: choose the moments that matter, leave purposeful shadows between them, and let the protected woods stay quiet. The result is composition, not installation, and an ambient atmosphere you notice before you notice the fixtures.
The Approach, the Trees and the Green Space
On an acre or two, the evening starts at the road, not at the front door. A long drive can be a dark tunnel, or it can be the opening scene. Instead of lining it with path lights like a runway, Joe prefers to light the trees and plantings along the way, one side and then the other, so the drive glows from its edges and the house reveals itself last.
Ideas that often fit a Chatsworth property:
- Warm 2700K light only, the color of candlelight and lamplight
- Specimen trees lit from several soft angles, so they look three-dimensional
- Moonlighting from high in the canopy, so leaf shadows fall across the drive and lawn the way real moonlight does
- The front entry and walks lit so guests arrive comfortably, without glare
- The protected green space left dark, so the lit edge of your property feels framed and calm
Joe explains the thinking behind this in You Can’t Un-See Bad Landscape Lighting.
Featured in Masters of Landscape Lighting
Joe’s work is featured in the book Masters of Landscape Lighting, alongside designers recognized for what the craft can be at its best.
Designed by a Stage Lighting Veteran
Joe Yanulevich spent more than 35 years working in the concert and stage lighting industry before he brought that craft to residential landscapes. On a stage, light decides what the audience sees and what stays in shadow, and the dark spaces are what give the lit ones their drama. That is how he would approach a Chatsworth property: something lit, something dark, then something lit again.
Every project starts with a daytime design consultation. Joe walks the grounds with you in daylight to see where the trees, the approach and the views are, and how you use the property. He designs every job himself, and after installation he returns after dark to make the final adjustments to each fixture’s angle and brightness. Lite Visions is locally owned, it isn’t a franchise, and lighting is all we do.
See More of Our Work
Browse the landscape lighting portfolio, or read about our approach to landscape lighting around Falls Lake and North Raleigh. Also along Norwood Road in the Bayleaf area: The Registry at Bailey Farm, Montreaux, Norwood Ridge and Bay Leaf Farm.
From the Lite Visions Portfolio
Lite Visions has not yet completed a project in Chatsworth. The photos in this section come from other Lite Visions work around the Triangle, and they show the kind of approach we would bring here.
Start With a Daytime Design Consultation
If you’re curious what your Chatsworth property could feel like after dark, Joe would enjoy walking it with you in daylight. The first conversation is about how you live outdoors, where you sit, and what you see from inside.
Schedule Your Daytime Design Consultation
Prefer to talk first? Call Joe at Nine one Nine-518-9950, or email litevisionsrdu@gmail.com.
Please have a look through our website and see what makes Lite Visions different.