Bathroom Lighting

Bathrooms are by far one of the most important rooms in your house as well as one of the hardest rooms to light. Many bathrooms do not have windows and rely completely on artificial lighting. Also, bathrooms are often smaller rooms making it easy to over light and white out the space.

The bathroom is most likely the first room you go to when you wake up and the last before you go to bed at night. Bathroom lighting is important for you to see, but more importantly this space should be enjoyable and attractive. Your bathroom should be a place where you feel good getting ready each day.

The bathroom should be a relatively well lit space. Fixtures should be recessed into the ceiling, hung from the ceiling, or on the wall to maximize the space. Lamps and other stand alone fixtures are rarely used for bathroom lighting.

Bathroom lighting should begin with task lighting. Task lighting, as the name implies lights an area where you do a task.  When you walk into a typical bathroom the first thing you see is a sink with a mirror over it. This is a great starting point because it is a central point in the space. This bathroom lighting has a few options, but don’t forget that the mirror is not the task, it is the face you want well lit, not the mirror. A nice recessed fixture in the ceiling will light the area from above, shinning down light overall. Light fixtures hung on either side of the mirror will do the job as well and can be aesthetically pleasing, depending on the style of your bathroom. Your goal is to light the whole area in front of the mirror, distributing the light all around where the face would be: sides and under the chin. This is especially important for men when shaving and women when doing their make-up. Other areas that should have task lighting are above the shower/bath, counter tops, near closets and cabinets.

The type of lights to use for bathroom lighting depends on personal differences such as preference, age, and interior colors. These are major factors when choosing the light color and amount of lighting. Bathroom lighting should enhance your facial color. In American culture, red lighting makes the skin appear healthier. In Eastern cultures, red is not considered to be flattering, while blue light is. If you work in an office building that uses blue fluorescent lights, you may want to use them for part of your bathroom lighting to do your make-up accordingly and to match the lighting you will be around the most. Older people may require brighter bathroom lighting, as well as those who have eye conditions such as nearsightedness.

The interior colors of the bathroom affect the color of light. It can affect it so skin tone may appear slightly different in another bathroom. Keep in mind that light, no matter what type, will pick up some of the colors around the bathroom and will reflect in the mirror. Try not to paint the wall adjacent to the mirror a color that is unflattering to skin tone, like yellows and tans. You can have the colors around the bathroom if you like, just not on the wall behind the mirror.

The bathroom is not just for bathing.  It is a private space that should have adjustable lighting that can change from functional to romantic. Sometimes when you want to relax and take a bath, it is nice to have the bathroom lighting low. Accent lights can give you that soft, quiet mood. Accent bathroom lighting can be subtle, like lining the ceiling with soft red fluorescent tubes that shine from behind crown molding. A few wall hung fixtures with low light can be used. Having different sources for your bathroom lighting will allow you different choices from a soft glow to a bright glare.

 

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Grosslight, Jane. Lighting Kitchens and Baths. Tallahassee, Fl: Durwood, 1993.

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Stewart Inc., 2002.

McCloud, Kevin. Lighting Style: the Complete Guide to Lighting
Everyroom in Your Home. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.