Home Design Articles

Bathroom lighting is probably the least considered factor when remodeling your bathroom, yet, it can transform a plain bathroom overnight into a spacious practical room by day and a sanctuary by night. We spend a lot of time in this room yet it is often one of the smallest rooms in the house. So lighting is doubly important to get the best from it.

Task Lighting

From a practical perspective task lighting is the light you need to shave properly or apply make up. Don’t rely of a single bulb in the ceiling to help you do this. Your task lighting should be balanced and cast no shadows. A well lit mirror with lights surrounding it or a strip light fitted just behind the edge, is the perfect task lighting and can also be a focal point for the room.

Ambient Lighting

By day, the ambient lighting should be bright and simulate natural daylight. If you have this free resource in plentiful supply use it. Clear any large windows from window sill clutter. Get some good storage to house all of your bathroom paraphernalia and free up space. Keep window dressing simple and unfussy and use a roller blind for privacy if you don’t have frosted glass. If your bathroom is in a loft space, use a skylight. If you have a small window only frosted glass or a roller blind is necessary.

Enhance this with semi flush or full flush mount ceiling lights with low watt bulbs on a dimmer switch. By day, you have a bright practical space. By night, dimmed ceiling lights will produced a diffused tranquil light for relaxation.

Accent Lights

If you place your bathroom ceiling lights close to a wall, it becomes a feature washed in light. You can choose to use this as a highlight for picture or some great tiles or simply leave it plain if you have a small room. If you have a great looking bathroom sink or shower head a carefully placed spotlight can highlight this and make a feature. TIP: This also works great for highlighting your favorite piece of kitchen or bedroom furniture too. Make sure that any lights fitted near water conform to safety rules. Check with an electrician first. Fun lighting effects include special tap fittings that illuminate water as it runs or tiles with integral lighting for a disco bathroom!

Bathroom lighting is no great mystery. With some careful consideration of needs and space and some research you can find the products that could create your dream bathroom almost overnight!