The bathroom is becoming a place to relax and recharge. Think more of a home spa than a damp, dark room used for ablutions morning and night. Spend a little money and get some better lighting – after all, this is the room where you start and end your day.
Unless you have a tiny bathroom you should not be satisfied with one ceiling light as the only source of light in your bathroom. A good lighting plan is designed around tasks; showers, shaving, or putting on makeup, for instance, while other light sources enhance the overall mood of the room.
You should consider the following…
Ceiling fixtures directly over the mirror will cast shadows on the face, making daily grooming rituals more difficult.
Vertical fixtures (wall lights) or sconces mounted on either side of the mirror are best for casting an even light across the face.
In smaller bathrooms, if the shower enclosure has a clear glass door, a dedicated shower fixture may not be necessary. But a light in the shower enclosure will work well providing a bright pleasing light.
Ceiling light fixtures provide ambient lighting basically a substitute for natural light. We encourage clients to think more creatively in their choices, suggesting they consider a pendant lamp or chandelier instead. Another option is to use multiple spot light bars but we recommend these to have as many spotlights as possible as a triple spot light in the centre of the room will create lots of shadows.
Choosing Bulbs
A crisp white light tends to render skin tones most accurately. Halogen bulbs set the gold standard. Low-voltage varieties (with remote transformer that converts 240 volts to 12 volts) are especially compact, and the smaller bulb gives a nice sparkling effect. Halogen bulbs cost a few pounds more than standard incandescent lamps but can last four times as long. The newest compact fluorescent bulbs also offer good colour rendering and are up to 10 times more efficient than regular incandescent bulbs but the life of compact fluorescent lamps is reduced in bathrooms because of the frequent switching on and off. |
.jpg)
