Some people are content with having two lighting fixtures on the ceiling of their bathroom. One lighting fixture is placed above the area where the vanity and lavatory are located and the other is directly above the toilet bowl wherein its light radiates up to the enclosed area where the shower is placed. These two ceiling-mounted fixtures are composed of bulbs and simple smoked glass square diffuser that illuminates the mirror quite insufficiently and as a general light for the bathroom produces a very glaring white light that’s unflattering and makes the bathroom look like an operating room. Contentment doesn’t equate to settling for anything less than what you need and deserve. It is achieved through constant progress and improvement of what you have at the moment. You need a bit of reality check and a truckload of imagination to transport you to a level of realistic fulfillment and personal satisfaction. A bathroom with insufficient and inappropriate lighting doesn’t serve its rightful purpose of providing ease and comfort, and a person who emerges from it is dissatisfied and not at all happy.
Some Interesting Lighting Ideas for Bathrooms
Redecorating your bathroom through the aid of feasible bathroom lighting design is a functional and practical matter. The bathroom has the most diverse lighting requirement than any other room in the house. It needs task lighting for specific areas such as the toilet, shower, bath and vanity. Appropriate ambient lighting is also required because a bathroom has to cater to the occupants’ need for a restful and rejuvenating time when they wake up and before going to sleep. Taking care of your bathroom through lighting design and providing the necessary tools for it to function accordingly are not as difficult as they seem. You will always find workable solutions and simple yet innovative ideas to do so. It is also quite an economical way to revamp the look of your bathroom because lighting fixtures have a wide price range so you could easily find good alternatives for the expensive ones that you have set your eyes on first.
Ceiling-mounted Lighting Fixtures
Installing cove lighting in the ceiling is a very effective way to brighten up the bathroom and it adds interest and drama to a plain and bland interior. It will also serve as indirect lighting to the dark corners in your bathroom. All you need to do is to cut-out a few inch wide of ply board and connect it to one end of the ceiling up to the other end. It will also depend on the design that you want. You just need to place an interval space where you can conceal the fluorescent bulbs that you will use. It would also require a sort of nosing or edge flap so that the edge of the ply board can be terminated and the bulbs will not be visible when you are standing at the opposite side of the room. Use warm yellow light for the fluorescent bulbs to act as mood lighting and do install dimmers so the brightness can be adjusted. You can also use flushed lighting fixtures with halogen bulbs on the ceiling especially above the area for the mirror and lavatory because this will provide appropriate task light when shaving or doing makeup. The shower and toilet area can also utilize recessed down light for sufficient illumination. A ceiling lighting fixture that points to the side of the bathtub and does not directly target the inside can divert the glare of the light so as not to agitate the user and at the same time, to provide indirect ambient lighting.
In a large bathroom with an ample amount of space to play with and decorate, do use track lighting for an accent wall with a water feature resembling a mini-waterfall. Hide rope lights underneath the wood steps if you have a Zen-type mini-garden in your spacious bathroom. A chunky designed pendant light can be placed in one corner of the interior mainly for a decorative purpose. It doesn’t have to be high up on the ceiling or with sufficient headroom as long as it cannot be touched. Flushed lighting can also be used in the ceiling for general light but make sure to use a diffuser that will minimize the glare of the lighting fixture.
For a smaller bathroom, you can use a wall-washer that starts up from the ceiling going down. The lighting fixture itself could be hidden at the soffit or a gap from the uppermost part of the wall to the ceiling or you could provide a small beam using ply board or gypsum board for that purpose. The inexpensive way to go about redecorating your small space is to use flushed lighting fixtures that are simple yet with interesting forms and moderate size so the bathroom will not be overwhelmed by too much detail. You can also reuse your lighting fixtures by changing the wattage of the bulb within to provide more light or the other way around, finding a fixture cover that will reduce the light and that will also fit nicely with your interior scheme.
Wall-mounted Lighting Fixtures
If you can’t do anything much with the ceiling then do not feel dispirited just yet. You can still compensate this by adorning the walls with beautiful lighting. You can place decorative sconces on the walls especially on both sides of the vanity mirror. For more efficient task lighting, you can use exposed halogen bulbs that line the mirror, resembling makeup dressing tables in movie sets, to provide sufficient lighting for doing your makeup. Use frosted or coated bulbs that can enhance people’s reflection. Do make sure that the installation is correct in such a way that you will be able to easily replace the bulbs whenever it is necessary.
Cove lighting in the walls can again save the dreary ambiance of your bathroom interior. This type of lighting can be placed in negligible wall corners and dark areas that need to be given fair attention. You should, however, limit the use of this only in key areas that require them because too much lighting detail can also add clutter to a room and you will have to pay more for electric consumption. They should not be situated in areas where water and moist can reach them. As in any coved surfaces, dust can easily accumulate within so you have to provide space to accommodate your hand or a cleaning tool to reach the secluded portion.
Practical Lighting ideas for the Bathroom
- The bathroom is one of the rooms in the house that can always use functional lighting. It is also the room where you want to experience a convenient and relaxing comfort while taking utmost care of your health and body. It needs to be a place where you would want to enter and stay for awhile; to rest and engage in unhurried and stress-free personal indulgence. The interior should be tranquil and inviting and one tried and tested way to actualize that goal is through the use of practical yet stylish mood or ambient lighting.
- Place decorative table lamps in the bathroom provided that you have ample space that is not adjacent to any faucet or water supply. A floor lamp can also add elegance and desirable mood lighting in the bathroom. Just be absolutely certain that the area is far away from water supplies. It helps to segregate the bathroom with a dry and wet area. The dry area can house all your decorative paraphernalia that will not interfere with bathroom function instead will make the interior very soothing and cozy.
- Add cove lighting in any area of the bathroom that needs to be lighted or emphasized. You can have more switches installed so you don’t have to open all the lights in one push. You can turn off the others that are not needed at the moment.
- Do place more convenience outlets in the bathroom for task and emergency lighting and also for the beauty products you have that needs electric energy to function.
- Provide night lights near bathroom cabinets so you could easily see and access the things that you need. Plus night lights illuminating the floors add more drama and pizzazz to the interior look of the bathroom.
- A glass vanity cabinet can also look great when you add a lighting fixture inside it so that the bathroom paraphernalia you have within can be lighted.
- Experiment with colored light covers and bulbs so you can achieve a unique and colorful glow in your bathroom.
- Explore new lighting technologies like LED lights. They come in a wide range of colors and designs. They have characteristically soft and diffused lights that do not directly target areas but spread out evenly making them suitable for the bathroom. They are costly at the present but they will save you money on maintenance because they are long-lasting thus you don’t have to change them frequently.
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