Jennifer Aniston’s tree lighting trick is the garden upgrade everyone will want this season. Here’s how to recreate it

Jennifer Aniston's sprawling Bel Air garden already looks like a private resort during the day. But once the sun goes down, a surprisingly simple lighting trick gives the outdoor space an entirely different character. Instead of relying on a handful of powerful garden lights, trees across the actress's property are wrapped in warm white lights, with strands extending from the trunks towards the lower branches. Combined with smaller lights closer to the ground, the technique creates layers of illumination around the garden and swimming pool.

Trees become part of the lighting design

The idea works because the trees aren't merely illuminated from below they effectively become light fixtures themselves. Homes & Gardens reports that the warm lights trace the shape of the trunks and branches after dark. Smaller lights illuminate plants underneath, while reflections from the swimming pool add another layer without flooding the garden with excessive brightness.

The approach is particularly suited to autumn, when earlier sunsets can make gardens feel unusable long before the evening is over. Reilly, co-founder of outdoor-living company Suns Lifestyle, told the publication that gardens don't have to “hibernate” when nights begin drawing in. He recommends approaching outdoor lighting much like lighting inside a home using different sources for ambience and practical illumination.

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Aniston's garden was designed as a sanctuary

The lighting fits into a much larger design philosophy at Aniston's home. She bought the 8,500-square-foot Bel Air property for $20.97 million in 2011, according to Architectural Digest. The house itself was designed in 1965 by celebrated modernist architect A. Quincy Jones. Aniston subsequently spent two years reworking the property with designer Stephen Shadley and other collaborators.

Landscape designers Marcello Villano and Anne Attinger worked on its outdoor areas, including private gardens around the house. Architectural Digest reports that part of the land had previously been planted as a vineyard. The relationship between indoors and outdoors was deliberately emphasised. One bathroom, for instance, features a glass panel that slides open to a private garden and outdoor shower.

The garden follows a less-is-more approach

Aniston's landscaping also avoids filling every available patch with colourful flowers. Villano's garden relies heavily on foliage and sculptural plants, with Homes & Gardens noting the use of water-conscious varieties such as agave, rockrose and California lilac. The restrained planting helps complement the property's mid-century architecture rather than compete with it. That philosophy echoes Aniston's approach to the interiors. Designer Stephen Shadley previously told Architectural Digest that she gravitates towards wood, stone and bronze because she wants even glamorous spaces to feel “warm and inviting.”

A simple idea that doesn't require a celebrity garden

The scale of Aniston's property may be difficult to replicate, but the underlying lighting trick isn't. A single tree wrapped selectively in warm lights, supplemented by low-level lanterns or pathway lighting, can create a similar layered effect without illuminating an entire backyard. And that may be the most useful lesson from Aniston's elaborate Bel Air garden: creating atmosphere after sunset isn't necessarily about adding more light. Sometimes, it is about choosing what to illuminate and allowing the darkness around it to do the rest.