We had an email 3 weeks ago asking for help to light a stand at The Chelsea Flower Show 2013 for the RHS. Of course we couldn’t say ‘no’ especially as it is the 100th Anniversary but to add a twist, the stand is ‘hush hush’, in fact the email stated ‘Confidential’ which added a certain element of ‘we know something you don’t', childish yes, but fun to!

Attached to the email was an artist’s impression and scaled design; our brief was ‘to light it’ and that was it! We’re very fortunate at Moonlight Design; David Haslehurst has worked at the Chelsea Flower show before, in fact on a Gold Medal stand plus his experience in the Film & TV world would prove vital in getting the lighting just right. With David was his project manager Phil Jackson who knows a thing or two about electrical installations however his ability to be inventive would prove to be vital.

There is no doubt about it, time was short and information was scant so we had to survey the stand quickly and get an overall feel for the ‘confidential’ display. We bought a variety of fittings that we thought would do the show garden justice.

Nothing to see here!

Anyone that has worked on a stand at Chelsea will know how chaotic the show grounds can be, vans, trucks, diggers, dumpers constantly driving around with landscapers and designers all dashing about trying to fight for space to build their dream. However we were quite lucky, as it was a surprise show garden, all of the area around it was closed off to stop people looking and parking their vehicles. We had to work alongside our friends from Crocus who were landscaping the garden but all was calm.

The lights used were all made by Hunza adding a touch of quality to the garden and all had LED bulbs to keep the electricity bill small and help the environment. We installed the lighting as if it were a real garden. All cables hidden and exterior products used; imagine if it rains and we had used junction boxes that weren’t waterproof!  The lights are switched by remote control made by Light Symphony allowing the people on the stand to dim the lights up and down if required.

We installed the system over 1 day and 2 nights although admittedly, we only just finished within the time we were allowed; well, we did go a little over the time allotted but it’s got to look good!

So the big day arrives tomorrow where the judges wander around choosing their Gold medal stands; upsetting those who thought theirs was worthy of a medal but got nothing; well, there is always next year!

The Queen will wander around the show as usual and this year Prince Harry has a personal involvement with Jinny Blom’s Sentebale garden; very exciting.

For us, our job is done and we look forward to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 100th Anniversary Surprise being unveiled to lots of applause and hopefully plenty of night photographs!

Project ‘Garden Lighting London ‘ is complete.

Happy Birthday to Us!

28^th March 2003 Moonlight Design Limited was incorporated!

Statistics….

33% of all new businesses will fail within the first 6 months, 50% will fail in the first 2 years and 75% within the first 3 years.

Since the start of the recession in 2008, less than half the businesses started in 2004 were still going in 2009.

There is no doubt that it’s tough ‘out there’ and the present economic woes still carry on; Cyprus is a grim reminder that we have a long way to go.

However when Moonlight Design started, the economy was doing well but our raison d’etre was a desire to offer high quality products and an even higher quality service. We set out our stall to be the best and to always try to improve; that is still our philosophy today because ‘you’re only as good as your last job’.

In 2003 there were very few quality lighting manufacturers and fortunately we sold and installed the best, Hunza garden lighting. Moonlight Design and Hunza lighting is like strawberries and cream; a perfect match that bring out the best of each other.

When we started, garden design was certainly growing and garden lighting design was very much in its infancy. Exterior lighting has been around for many, many years however it was crude and poorly designed.  In the last 10 years garden lighting has become sophisticated and sharp. Now we have contemporary fittings from Hunza to the high-tech LED lights from LuxR. The lights are getting smaller and more efficient. Designers now incorporate lighting into their schemes as a matter of course as it is deemed an important element in making a design complete.

We now work with some of the UK’s top garden designers and are presently working on three large estates in Gloucester, Lincolnshire and Oxfordshire. However we don’t forget our roots and still install exterior lighting into small gardens including roof terraces etc.

We believe that all projects are equal and whilst some maybe much larger than others, they are all installed in the same way with quality the key word. It’s easy to forget your roots and think that ‘you’ are beyond the small gardens but the lady with the roof terrace may have a weekend home on her estate in the country!

During the last 10 years we have worked with famous people in the pop world, sport stars, TV personalities and film actors however apart from keeping their confidentiality, they are treated the same as all of our customers because as corny as it sounds, all of our customers are special.

After 10 years we have started to blow our own trumpet; we’re not the cheapest but we believe we’re the best!

Slice of cake anyone?

What makes us different from the rest and dare we say it, the best?

It’s a good question and one we hope is obvious once we have finished a project. However potential customers don’t have the benefit of hindsight so it’s important that we get the message to our future clients that the service we offer is more than just putting a light into the soil.

If garden lighting is installed correctly, there is more to it than meets the eye. Our goal is to hide all cables as much as possible, keeping the junction boxes and transformers as discrete as we can. The light fittings aren’t just pushed into the soil, they are thoughtfully positioned so that the plants they are illuminating are lit from the best angle. The cables we install aren’t just ‘thrown’ over the border, they are installed in a logical way so that anyone gardening doesn’t cut a low voltage cable that is ‘miles’ away from the fitting.

The video below shows a short (and speeded-up) glimpse of what we do just to get one light right even using an umbrella to try and reduce the sunlight (so we can see where the light is hitting the water feature). We like to think that our lighting designs are not only thoughtful in their layout but also in their installation.

Choosing the right light fittings is important, not only to how the scheme is lit but also for how discrete they are. The secret of good garden lighting is the effect you get at night but not seeing anything during the day. Yes, cables in some instances will be seen and of course light fittings too but if the overall scheme is kept low key, the lighting is magical.

You don’t see any ‘grey’ junction boxes on our projects, all are sprayed black to make them less obvious. The stakes they are on are also sprayed and they don’t rot like 99% of our competitors stakes!

When we work on mature gardens we are extremely careful. We try not to damage any plants (we haven’t had a complaint about this since we started 9 years ago). We photograph the areas we are going to work on then put everything back as it was. There are no half measures when we install, only the best job possible.

When I have told a client that the lighting will take e.g. a week, they often look shocked. It’s about quality design, quality light fittings, quality materials and quality installation. Good lighting projects are not rushed but thoughtfully installed.

The good folk of the UK are starting to get ready for their annual holidays and many of them going abroad and let’s face it, who can blame them with the weather we’ve been having!

However with the annual escape comes the added stress of leaving the house unattended. I like many others have gone away to come back to a house that has been burgled/ransacked. It’s a terrible feeling that your belongings have been violated, my own feelings at the time were that you could sense someone else’s presence on your possessions; creepy and scary.

Whilst we don’t sell our outdoor lighting schemes as security lighting, we do sell such products and install them. Our main aim with lighting is to create ambience, atmospheric romantic lighting but the reality is this won’t scare the would-be burglar away.

We work for some very, very wealthy clients who may also be very well known, so security is essential. We have started to add this lighting more and more to our portfolio with some great products to keep the house safe. We also now use detecting hardware/software for the controlling of these lights to try and thwart the criminal. We use PIR (Passive Infrared) detectors, timers, beam and laser sensors. One of our favourite products is the Light Symphony Wifi Base Station as this has 6 timers; you can have various parts of your front or back (or both) gardens on at different times. The other added benefit is the ability to control your lights with your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or Android tablet to switch the lights on and off. If you are in bed and the timer has switched the lights off, you can simply tap into your phone and the lights come on to your command without leaving your bedroom!

We have now started to install LED floodlights rather than Halogen or Metal Halides as the LED versions do not require any start-up time to get to their full brightness. There is another major benefit, no bulb changing and they are much, much cheaper to run. No more asking the window cleaner to change the bulbs!

We have just introduced some new security products to our website that can be used to light up the area but also sound out a warning to whoever approaches. These devices can alert the homeowner, take photos or video the intruder. 

GuardCam™ RF Combined Security Floodlight

The GuardCam products by ESP are clever bits of kit and relatively affordable. They will require an electrician to install them but that’s a small price to pay compared to a burglary.

We certainly won’t be abandoning what we do best but know that security is very important to our customers therefore we need to be able to offer this as part of our service. With the economy in a poor state and people becoming unemployed, burglary is always an issue.

Better to be prepared than to worry about your home when you should be relaxing and enjoying your holiday.

We are specialists in garden lighting but on many occasions we have been asked whether we supply exterior fires.

Moonlight Design is all about quality so there is no way we would consider the mushroom type gas heaters apart from the fact that you can buy them anywhere plus they are bad for the environment.

After some research we have been appointed to sell EcoSmart Environmentally Friendly Bio-ethanol fires. These originate from Australia and look superb.

All of these are quality fire places offering models for interior and exterior use.

EcoSmart Fire Dish

We really believe that these compliment the lighting we sell and install and above all, match the quality.

Have a look at a video of these which will give you some more information.

If you want to look at the range please click here

You would think that living in the UK we’d be used to rain, well, we are….sort of!

The wet weather can be a real problem for our guys installing electrics outside, it might sound strange but electrics and water don’t mix!!

So far this year we have been severely delayed yet we have managed to carry on as much as possible because we, like others, are often held to a tight schedule. There are times though that we just can’t carry on as the smallest amount of water can cause problems. Even when we are installing the lights bulbs (by the way, we call them lamps, bulbs are what you plant in the soil!), it’s very important that this small enclosure is kept dry otherwise condensation forms and the fitting eventually fills with water (over a period of time).

Flooded...got a boat?

More often than not, when a person has problems with their lighting it’s often due to water ingress. This can be a sign that the installation is poor but the light fittings have a major part to play. Hunza from New Zealand are made to withstand the harshest conditions and if installed right, they will carry on no matter how poor the weather.

All items used outside must be made to withstand wet weather yet we see it so many times, interior products placed into an external junction box. why do electricians do this? It’s all about the money!

We have been told that we are more expensive than others and yes, sometimes we are, but that’s because we use the right materials for the job.

When we install lighting, we do it right first time and then we only plan to return if the customer wants more lighting, not because the weather has stopped the lights from working. It’s true, the weather is an issue but unless one uses the right light fittings and products, it’s too easy to blame the weather.

We have to consider the garden and if we are going to damage the soil however sometimes we can’t avoid walking onto wet ground and in some instances, sodden ground!

It is a fine line we walk and we will always weigh up whether we can work in the garden when it is raining but we will not put the plants or soil at risk just to get the job done.

The bottom line is that a good garden lighting company will use the right products for the outside environment which means the installation should last for years to come.

Anyone got an umbrella?

I had a customer telephone the office today to discuss his garden lighting. The conversation was based around the price and then the quality of the light fittings. However, the bottom line with most people is cost and the perceived quality associated with the price.

The honest answer is that if one wants a lighting system that is going to last, then it’s not going to be cheap. When I started in exterior lighting (12 years ago) and I used to offer a quote/ price in an apologetic manner however, this soon changed when I looked at the cheap alternatives and the poor installations that we see all the time.

The old adage ‘you pay for what you get’ is certainly true for exterior lighting. If you look at the UK weather throughout the year and see what a light fitting has to withstand there is no doubt that if you buy cheap, you purchase a ‘short term’ light. How long ‘short term’ is depends on how cheap the fitting is.

As a rule, you need to look for a quality brand such as Hunza. The brand alone will not necessarily offer a guarantee so you need to look for other indicators. If the IP rating is low (click here for an explanation on IP Ratings) then the chances are that water ingress will be an issue. It’s important to see if the fitting is CE approved although a fitting can be ‘labelled’ as being ‘approved’, which may not be the case.

The guarantee that comes with the light fitting; Hunza offer a 5 year warranty on powder coated finish lights and a 10 year warranty on solid copper and 316 marine grade stainless steel fittings. You may see some lights guaranteed for 25 years but they are more likely to be wall mounted lights where weather isn’t a major issue. However light fittings in the soil are the ones that need the warranty as these are the ones that can suffer the most from the UK’s weather.

There are other indicators, such as the weight of the fitting, where the screws are mounted, the seals around the lenses and where/how the cable enters the fitting.  All of these can help you decide on whether your proposed lights are going to go the distance or fall at the first hurdle.

Once you have established a decent light fitting you then need to find a good electrician, this in my experience is a minefield! Just because you know an excellent electrician who can do anything inside the house doesn’t mean they will be any good outside. We have seen too many poor installations to know that when it comes to an exterior electrician, you need to employ an expert who works on outside lighting for a living.

Remember, if you do it right first time it’s going to cost but not half as much if you do it  cheaply the first time round.

Just been to see another project in London; a very smart sharp garden with a welcoming client looking to improve the exterior lighting they inherited.

The previous owners had a lighting system installed and to be honest, it wasn’t great. One could argue that I would say that but the truth is, the installation was potentially dangerous. This, I know, is quite a statement to make but the lights in the borders were 240v mains supplied right to the fitting itself.

The fittings looked like any other non-branded light, black in colour and poor build quality. My first thought was “another poor low voltage light fitting” but upon closer inspection the cables coming from the light and aimlessly sprawling through the soil were in fact, 240v mains. To be precise, unprotected electrical flex made from rubber with high voltage electricity running through them.

Anyone gardening with a careless snip or the spade pushed into the soil without looking could potentially find themselves stuck to the cable with very serious consequences. I can hear you, “you’re scaremongering because the electrics are protected by an RCD”. The truth is, an RCD (Residual Current Device) should be checked on a regular basis to make sure it is working correctly. However, how many people actually test their RCD’s, my guess is very few.

An RCD is a safety device that will automatically switch off the power if there is a fault with your electrics thus protecting you from an electric shock or a fire. They come in various guises, portable plugin RCD’s, built into sockets or installed into fuse boards.

Having a faulty RCD is about as much use as a chocolate teapot!

The lesson from this is to make sure that if you decide to have garden lighting it should be low voltage. The installation should still be protected by an RCD as this is a regulatory requirement. Not only are low voltage installations safer but they are also neater and cheaper to run.

An electrician offering mains fittings (especially in borders) is not proposing the best solution for your garden lighting and perhaps your health!

The first blog I wrote was just a teaser to see what it looked like on our new site however the time delay from the first blog to the second got me thinking.

It reminded me of some projects we work on. The client call’s us with an urgent tone to their enquiry, “we want garden lighting and really need you down here ASAP”. The initial enquiry whets the appetite and a meeting is set. Upon arrival at the client’s property it becomes apparent that perhaps the urgency for a meeting isn’t as ‘urgent’ as one would have first thought.

The garden is untouched and looking rather sad and certainly in no state for lighting. There are no landscapers on site and the local fox is happy in its home at the bottom of the garden. The client (often very friendly) enthuses about the future of the garden and how important lighting is within this outside room.

Don’t get me wrong, planning is very important and essential to a well designed and installed exterior lighting system. Getting to a garden early is superb, it allows all opportunities to be explored enabling the best system to be installed.

The real tricky projects are when we arrive to find the garden has just been landscaped and fully planted and the client realises that he/she needs garden lighting.

Sometimes a long period of planning and thoughtful design offers the best solution. The client’s ‘urgency’ is just enthusiasm that should be encouraged and explored.

Time, if used wisely, can be a perfect partner for a well thought out design where all the T’s are crossed and I’s dotted and the garden is lit to perfection.

Blogging….well it seems we are now part of the blog community!

The trouble is, I have to think about what to write and then have the time to sit and type it..oh for the old days, life was so easy!

A quick nap is required for inspiration…..