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The Chalfonts, Bucks
New build, private road
Full external lighting design & install
James Rudoni
Director, KG Electrical
The property is a substantial Tudor Revival new build on a private road in the Chalfonts — black timber framing, brick, steeply gabled rooflines, a rear extension with full-height Crittall glazing. A house built with real ambition and a strong architectural identity.
KG Electrical had already designed the full internal electrical scheme, so when the client turned his attention to the garden, it was a natural conversation. He’d been given a lighting plan by his garden designer. He wasn’t happy with it. He wanted something that matched the house — so he handed it to Kyle and said, in effect: start again.
The brief was simple: make it exceptional. No inherited scheme to work around, no compromises baked in. Kyle approached the garden the way a lighting designer would — starting with the architecture and working outwards.
The front elevation is lit to show the scale and character of the house: uplighters on the timber framing, wash lighting across the brickwork, the generous gravel forecourt revealed rather than flattened. Seen from above — the drone shots show this clearly — you understand the full extent of the scheme and how each element relates to the next.
At the rear, the design opens up. The garden runs in layers — terrace, lawn, planting beds, mature trees — and the lighting follows each one. The blue hour shots capture what happens when the scheme finds its balance with the fading sky: the house glows, the garden breathes.
Uplighting the trees was a decision, not a default. In autumn, with red and amber foliage lit from below, the effect is extraordinary — the canopies almost look like they’re on fire, warm and alive against a dark sky. That only works if the positions and beam angles are right. A fixture in the wrong place becomes obvious very quickly.
The water feature — a cascade fountain with multiple jets — is lit from below, the water catching and throwing light in a way that changes through the evening. The path and step lighting at the rear guides movement without announcing itself. The Crittall windows and doors draw the light from inside and outside together.
The fixtures were chosen with the same care as everything else. The bollard lights are corten steel — that warm, weathered patina ties them to the garden materials rather than standing apart from them. The wall-mounted fittings are dark green. Nothing was picked from a default catalogue. Every fitting had to earn its place against a house this considered.
Photographed by James Rudoni across blue hour and full night — the front elevation, the uplit trees, the cascade fountain and the garden in layers.
That’s not a throwaway line — this is someone who knew exactly what he didn’t want and trusted us completely with what he did. The scheme was professionally photographed by James Rudoni, whose architectural work speaks for itself.
This is also just half the story. The internal electrical design at Oak Beams is a separate project — and a separate case study.
If you’re building or renovating and thinking seriously about external lighting — architecture first, fittings second, nothing from a default list.
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