Good lighting is the key in order to add accent to your room, to give it more depth and character. This is also true when it comes to your bathroom lighting. In the past years, the bathroom is not given that much thought in terms of lighting fixtures. A single simple light bulb is typically all it takes to light the room. Now, with bathrooms becoming more huge and luxurious as time goes by, improved lighting for the bathroom is called for. The creation of new lighting schemes promotes a friendlier and more adaptable atmosphere in your vanity room.

Interior decorators and designers admit that there is no single way in order to perfectly light a bathroom. The combination of light bulbs and light fixtures needed to make the room look inviting depends solely on three factors. Before bathroom remodeling, decorators need to know the personal preference of the client, the size of the bathroom and the decorations inside it.

The Needs Of Bathroom Light Fixtures

To achieve a certain effect in your lighting scheme, you need to use a combination of light bulbs and fixtures. Usually it only takes a good mix of task lighting and accent lighting to perfectly illuminate not just the bathroom but any room in your house.

The most basic lighting your bathroom needs is general lighting. It will illuminate the floor for safety purposes plus it will eliminate any shadow thus giving the room sufficient lighting. This type of lighting is also called ambient lighting. You can achieve this through skylights, with clear windows or with ceiling-mounted fixtures. Recessed ceiling fixtures are more advisable for bathrooms because it causes fewer glares than those lighting fixtures that hang below the ceiling. For the bulbs, you have the option to put in an incandescent bulb or a compact fluorescent. The standard quantity of light per square foot is 2 ½ to 4 watts of incandescent light as dictated by the National Kitchen and Bath Association of the United States. If you want to go green, you can still have ambient lighting by means of putting additional windows so that natural light comes in the room. You can have frosted glass, glass box or even a skylight.

Task Bathroom Light Fixtures

With regards to task lighting, it provides great illumination to critical areas such as the vanity mirror, shower area and sink. More importantly, it adds to the overall lighting of the bathroom. Task lighting will help you do your bathroom routine more easily such as shaving, doing your manicure and pedicure, putting your make up or even when reading while you soak up in the tub. Get moisture proof ceiling mounted down lights for enclosed shower or tub. You can add dimmer to your lights so you can change the mood at your command. For light switches, it should be placed at least six feet away from the tub or shower.

In order to highlight specific decors or features of the room, make use of accent lighting. For example, putting a row of halogen mini-lights on the overhang of bathroom platform steps or on a hanging tapestry adds mood and more interesting effect to the entire bathroom. Remember that accent lighting should be three times brighter than ambient lighting.

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Bathrooms are the most commonly looked over area in the home by my clients.  Most people just don’t think to invest in bathroom light fixtures, and this leaves that area of the house feeling forgotten and unattended.  Bathrooms are beginning to play a more important role in the home, as multi-head showers and saunas are being installed, but many people are forgetting the importance of lighting and its effect on the entire room.

A bathroom lighting fixture is much more than the light that goes above the mirror.  There are many delicate things that happen in bathroom, things like shaving and putting on makeup need quality light to be done as well as they can be.  A simple plan of where the light shines and how it should look will help you transform your bathroom to extraordinary levels.

When planning your bathroom lighting fixtures, careful attention must be paid to angles and positions of the lights.  Think of the mirror like a flash on a camera, and how harsh and direct light can create sharp shadows on the face.  This type of lighting is going to make shaving and makeup very difficult.  A bathroom vanity light fixture should be above the mirror with bulbs that all the light to shine down.  For increased quality of light, fixtures should be on the sides of the mirror as well.

Choosing the correct bulbs is also very important.  My family is very energy-conscious and uses compact fluorescent lights all throughout our house, except in the bathroom.  CFL bulbs cause the skin to appear very yellow, so we use halogen bulbs that give off a great balance of white light, and last a very long time.  Most bathroom light fixtures are a series of lights that require multiple bulbs.  This can be a major drain on the power meter, so use the lowest voltage light you can.  60 watt bulbs are usually too dim for single use, but when there are 4-5 of them they can be very effective at lighting a large area.

Master bathrooms should always be equipped with a dimmer for the main lights.  This offers the ultimate lighting control and can turn a bathroom from a place to do your “business” to a romantic and relaxing getaway.  Dimmers are surprisingly easy to install, and can be done by the average weekend-warrior who understands how to turn off power to the switch, in just a few minutes.

Bathroom lighting is what makes a bathroom feel like it’s part of the home, and the proper light fixtures are key to making it happen.

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