Bathroom Light Fixture Guide

How To Get The Best Results From A Bathroom Ceiling Light

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Whether you are buying a new or updating your existing bathroom ceiling light, there are a few things that you can do to improve its performance.  In this post I want to look at this topic from the both perspectives, new installations and existing fixtures, so that you can take some simple steps to be as happy as possible with your bathroom ceiling lights.

When installing new bathroom ceiling lighting, your possibilities are almost limitless, but most of them won’t do much good at all!  There are a few key things to consider when deciding the light’s placement that will have the biggest impact.  If you don’t already have a fixture installed, look at the bathroom closely to figure out which area needs light the most.  I know that sounds obvious, but look at it like you’ve never been in there before and you’ll see things very differently than the person who uses that shower every day.  Look for corners that are darker than others or what the light is like in the shower to figure out the best placement.  Also, avoid placing ceiling lights near any tall bathroom storage cabinets, as they will block a lot of the light that comes down.

Another couple of things to consider when installing a new light fixture are what it’s going to be exposed to and how easy it will be to change it.  Light fixtures above the shower are going to need to be water proof to be able to take the steam and moisture that rise out of the shower.  Also, Murphy’s law states that the light is going to burn out at the time that you need it the most, so how easy is it going to be to change when your kid is sick on the toilet in complete darkness?

If you’re looking to upgrade an existing fixture you can improve its performance in a few different ways.  The type of bulbs that you use in the bathroom ceiling light are going to have a big effect on your bathroom’s overall lighting.  CFL bulbs last forever, but give a bathroom a yellow tint.  Instead, try tungsten or halogen to get energy saving benefits and cool, natural light.

A really cool thing you can do with bathroom ceiling light fixtures is install a dimmer switch.  This has all sorts of benefits.  The most obvious is setting the mood for a romantic and relaxing bath.  Another, not so obvious, feature that I love about having bathroom dimmer switch is that you can turn on the light as much as you want when you first get up in the morning or have to “go” in the middle of the night.  The harsh and instant light from a traditional switch is incredible stressful when you’re still groggy, instead use a dimmer to get just as much light as you need to take care of business.

There are a lot of cool things that you can do with a bathroom ceiling light.  Use the tips outlined above and you’ll be on your way to having a bathroom that you actually enjoy spending time in!

How To Save Money On Bathroom Vanity Lights

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Upgrading bathroom vanity lights are expensive, but there are some easy ways to save some serious cash on them.  Expensive is obviously a relative term, but generally when you have more money, you spend more money.  I might be budgeted $200 for my bathroom vanity lights, whereas my neighbor with the Porsche would have a lot bigger budget and tastes.  Whatever your budget is, I’ll show you some really easy ways to save as much as possible.

Here’s a trick that many of the “big box bigwigs” probably don’t want you to know.  It’s cheaper to buy lights online, than from your local Home Depot or Lowe’s.  They say that they guarantee the lowest prices, but that normally only applies to things that available in other brick and mortar stores, not online sales.  So here’s what you do – Go to homedepot.com and find the section to choose your “home store”, whichever is closest to you.  After you set that you can browse through their website to see which bathroom vanity light fixtures you like and are available at your “home store.”  There will be a little green box at the bottom which tells you if it’s available at your store so you can go and see it in person.  Go check the ones that you like out, come home and buy it online for cheap bathroom vanity lights!

If vintage is your style, check out estate and remodeling sales.  It’s incredibly easy to find really cool vintage bathroom light fixtures at these, and they’ll only cost you a few bucks.  You’ll probably have to spend some time cleaning it up to make it look good, but the money that you save will be well worth it.

Another easy trick is to buy a vanity light fixture that will fit right into where your existing ones do.  This will eliminate the need for paying someone for installation.  If it fits right in the existing spot all you have to do is turn the power off, remove the old one, and install the new.  You just saved at least a hundred bucks by doing it yourself and you get the pride of a job well done!

To save money once it’s installed, use energy efficient light bulbs.  You may think that you should jump right into compact fluorescent lights, but put the brakes on instead!  CFL bulbs (and fluorescent light in general) makes a very yellow cast on the skin.  This means that your blue makeup will look green on your face when you’re looking in the mirror.  Not good!  Instead, try tungsten or halogen.  These aren’t as efficient as CFL’s but will give you natural and even light that saves a ton of money over regular incandescent bulbs.

Saving money on bathroom vanity lights isn’t tough at all.  Use the tricks and tips outlined above and you’ll be well on your way to new lights at a fraction of the price.

Do You Really Need A New Bathroom Light Fixture?

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Before going shopping for a new bathroom light fixture, be sure to read this post!  I know this goes against everything else that I’ve written on this site, but many people go out and spend lots of money on new lights when they really don’t need to.  Of course, some bathroom light fixtures are so hideous that there should be an exorcism to make sure that its spirit doesn’t hang around after it’s gone, but many people can get away with the ones that they already have.  This post will show you some simple steps that you can take before going shopping to make sure that you don’t have to spend any unnecessary funds on new light fixtures.

The first step is to clean.  I’m not saying that your bathroom is dirty (maybe I am) but there are parts of every bathroom that haven’t been cleaned in years, including the lights.  Sometimes a thorough cleaning can brighten up a bathroom enough that new lights aren’t needed.  Remove the glass cover (called a globe) from your lights and let it soak in some warm soapy water and proceed to give it a good bath.  You’re going to be surprised at the years worth of grime that comes off of it!  Also be sure to wipe down the walls to get all of the grime that a steamy shower deposits up there.  This will do wonders for many bathrooms, and if you do end up changing the lights you’ll at least have a clean space to do it in!

Second, figure out why you want new lights.  If you only want to improve the appearance of your bathroom, choose “vanity” lights!  Just kidding.  If you’re remodeling, this part won’t help you, but if you need to brighten the bathroom it will.  Bathrooms are really dark for all sorts of reasons, but many times you can get away without changing the entire fixture.  An important rule to keep in mind is that dark colors absorb light and light ones reflect it, so if you have dark paint, shower curtain, towels, or drapes in the bathroom those might be what’s sucking all of the light out of the room.  You can try swapping those out for reflective colors and it should make a huge difference in the brightness of the room.

Also, look at the light bulbs that are in the fixtures.  Bathrooms don’t like fluorescent light because it gives skin a yellow tint when looking in the mirror.  Instead try a tungsten or halogen light in the vanity light fixture, they’re very bright with a very natural and sunlight-esque tone to them.  Traditional incandescent light works well, but they are major energy hogs.

Unless you’re swapping out the bathroom light fixture for purely “vanity” reasons (I’ll stop…) try these other ways to bring some new life into your bathroom.  It can save you a lot of money and help you work with what you already have.

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