Gated river estates, club communities, and swim-tennis streets between the Chattahoochee and Medlock Bridge Road
Johns Creek is a young city with large houses. It was incorporated only in 2006, but the subdivisions along the Chattahoochee and off Medlock Bridge Road go back to the 1980s, and many of the homes in the gated club communities are big brick, stone, and stucco houses with formal fronts. We light them the way their architects drew them: the principal gables and cornice in warm white, trees placed to frame the facade, greenery sized to a grand entry. Our installers have worked Atlanta rooflines since 2018. Text a photo for a free written quote.
The city takes its name from the creek that runs through it, which in turn was named for Johnson K. Rogers, the son of John Rogers and his Cherokee wife, who settled here in the early 1800s. Older crossroads names such as Ocee, Newtown, and Warsaw survive on parks, roads, and churches. The houses mostly came much later. The Atlanta Athletic Club moved its golf out to the river from East Lake in the late 1960s, Technology Park later brought offices, and residential development followed on both sides of State Bridge, Old Alabama, and Medlock Bridge Roads.
What sets Johns Creek apart from its neighbors, for lighting purposes, is how much of it sits behind gates or within club communities with their own standards. St. Ives, Country Club of the South, and the neighborhoods around the Atlanta Athletic Club each have their own look, usually traditional and formal, and their own rules about what goes on a house. A display that suits them is restrained, symmetrical, and built from one color temperature. Our residential design service starts from that point.
These houses are also large, and they are often seen at an angle rather than head-on, because the lots curve along cul-de-sacs and golf holes. We walk the street before we design, noting which elevations a visitor actually sees on the drive in. Those faces get the C9 roofline. The rest can stay dark or take a simpler line, which keeps the quote tied to the view rather than to the total square footage of roof.
Finally, Johns Creek has a great deal of mature hardwood, especially near the river and in the older subdivisions. A few well-chosen trunks, wrapped in warm-white mini lights up into the first limbs, do more for these houses than any amount of roofline. We plan trees and landscape together with the house from the start.
One color temperature, clean parallel lines, and a written plan you can show an architectural committee.
We light the elevations seen from the street and the drive, not every plane of a very large roof.
Hardwood trunks near the house are wrapped to frame the facade, planned with the roofline from the start.
Clips on gutters and shingle edges, tension wraps on columns. Nothing is fastened into stucco, stone, or trim.
St. Ives dates from 1989 and sits along the Chattahoochee around a Tom Fazio course and an English manor style clubhouse. Its houses are built in European styles, which here tends to mean steep roofs, stone, and strong chimneys. On a steep roof like that we pick the one or two dominant gables and follow them precisely, then let wrapped trunks between the house and the street do the rest. Outlining every turn of a complex roof would fight the architecture.
Country Club of the South covers more than 900 acres off Barnwell Road, with a Jack Nicklaus Signature course that opened in 1987 and more than 700 homes, many from the late 1990s and early 2000s. The houses are big and set on generous lots, often with long front elevations and paired gables. That symmetry is the design brief. Both sides are measured and matched, the main cornice ties them together, and the entry receives greenery scaled to its height.
The Atlanta Athletic Club, which has hosted the PGA Championship three times, anchors a group of neighborhoods that includes River Club, Thornhill, and Prestwick. River Club was built between about 1984 and 1990, so its houses are among the oldest large homes in the city, with mature trees that now rise well above the ridgelines. Here the canopy is often the first thing we light. A roofline that disappears behind leaves in October can be completely hidden by the time the display turns on, so we check sightlines from the street before choosing runs.
Not every Johns Creek street is gated. Swim-tennis neighborhoods such as Seven Oaks, with its Tudor and traditional houses from the late 1980s on, and Doublegate and Sugar Mill, are closer-set and more relaxed. A Tudor front gable outlined in warm white, a pair of wrapped trunks in the front yard, and a lit wreath at the door is a clean plan that suits these streets and the scale of the lots.
The city lights a tall Christmas tree and a giant dreidel at Newtown Park on Old Alabama Road each December, and City Hall hosts a holiday block party. At home, a timer set at install runs the display every evening. If a section fails, text a photo to (470) 380-7797 and it goes on the next route. In January everything is removed, coiled, and labeled, then stored with us through our takedown and storage service. We also work next door in Alpharetta, Roswell, and Dunwoody.
What owners in the gated and club communities tend to ask before booking.
We send the install date ahead of time so you can add the crew to the gate list. The same applies to in-season service visits and the January takedown. If your community has set work hours, tell us and we schedule within them.
Committees differ, so the rules for your community are the real guide. Seasonal lights that come down in January are generally treated differently from permanent changes. Our written quote describes every run, bulb type, and color, which gives a committee something specific to review if it asks. Permanent track is a year-round alteration and deserves a check before booking.
It depends on the stucco. Warm cream and tan finishes look best under warm white, about 2700K. Bright white or gray stucco can carry cool white well. We look at the house in person or from photos before recommending, and we never mix the two on one line. The journal post on warm white versus cool white explains the reasoning.
Yes. Tall entries in Johns Creek often have a transom, sidelights, and columns, and garland and a wreath scaled to that height look far better than standard porch sizes. Our wreaths, garland, and greenery service sizes each piece to the opening.
Some owners choose it for the ease of never scheduling another install. On a formal house the track can run tight under the trim so it is hard to see by day. See our permanent roofline lighting page, and check community rules first.
Text a photo of the house and the address to (470) 380-7797, and mention if there is a gate or a review committee. We will send a free written, itemized quote for every run, tree, and piece of greenery.
Text us a photo
Scan with your phone's camera to start a text to (470) 380-7797. Attach a picture of the front of the house.
