The Bright Ideas Blog

The goal when adding Wash Lighting to your homes exterior is to capture the different textures and dimensions. for example the homes exterior walls, brick or stone work of the architecture. By adding Wash Lighting to different parts of your homes architecture, you'll increase your homes curb appeal and potentially discover some architectural details that you may have not noticed during the day. 

Trees and shrubs

When using the Wash Lighting technique on tree and shrubs, the goal is to create a well structured, balanced & cohesive design that carries the eye from one feature to another. This is achievable by softly Lighting the surrounding area to compliment the center piece instead of focusing the light directly on it. 

Retaining walls

As mentioned above Wash Lighting isn't about drawing attention, but rather to illuminate the often missed or overlooked areas.  When you add Wash Lighting to exterior and retaining walls, you can soften the elements of your outdoor space. By softly lighting these features, you remove the dark patches and holes that can make your Landscape Lighting system feel unbalanced. 

Moonlighting aka downlighting

We may have saved the best for last when it comes to one of our favorite ways to incorporate Wash Lighting into your outdoor Lighting system: Moonlighting. The above image is a great example of how the area is being washed with a subtle, downlight fixture from above. It casts Light down revealing shadows that mimic what occurs naturally.