Signature Lighting and Fans, Calgary, Alberta

Designing with Light

Bathrooms

Lighting Tips from Signature Lighting & Fans THE NUMBER ONE TRICK to lighting bathrooms effectively is to provide task light that’s gently flattering yet strong enough for grooming. Lights around a mirror used for shaving or applying makeup should spread light over a person’s face rather than onto the mirror surface. To avoid heavy shadows, place lights at the side rather than only at the top of the bathroom mirror.

Bathroom Vanity Lights

Wall Sconces

Popular solutions include theater makeup bars, wall sconces, and tubes mounted vertically. Some mirror units have integral tubes, insert light diffusers, or swing-out makeup mirrors with their own light source. Choose warm tubes or bulbs for accurate makeup light and good skin tones.

Because they are the most energy-efficient choice, fluorescent lights are required for general bathroom lighting in some locales. Indirect sources work well here: consider cove and soffit lighting, translucent diffusers, and other “bounce” lighting to spread a soft, even level of illumination.

Tub, shower, and toilet compartments may need their own light fixtures. Bath and shower lights must be sealed and approved for wet locations. Any light fixture within reach of water should be protected by a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) to prevent electrical shock.

Multiple light sources and multiple controls allow you to alternate between morning efficiency and nighttime serenity. Consider dimmers here. Also plan to provide low-energy night lighting for safety and convenience.

Bathroom Lighting Tips from Signature Lighting & Fans

A fluorescent ring surrounds the mirror above a stylish pedestal sink. The fixture supplies even grooming light from all directions.

During daylight hours, decorative glass is a source of discreet ambient light; at night, one wall is washed by a bank of angled downlights with slot apertures. At the mirror; a glareproof frosted wall sconce provides efficient side light for grooming; a downlight fills in from above. The undercounter glow is just for fun.

While lighting was kept intentionally spare in the modern bath shown below, it maximizes both task and decorative opportunities. At the mirror, a diffused inset fixture gives just the right amount of makeup light. The lighted niche at right glows with warm fluorescent light that passes through the diffusing panel between open and closed storage areas. Through another opening, the niche glows as a decorative "night-light" for the hallway beyond.

This master bath features a long vanity with hand-tooled marble top and a matching mirror cabinet broken by flush-mounted, vertical incandescent tubes for even make-up lighting. The backsplash and counter are washed by additional light from the cabinet's bottom edge.

Workaday, sinkside porcelain wall sockets retain some of their down-home feel but are dressed up and shielded by "lodge-style" twigs supporting translucent diffusers.

Twin wall sconces flank the chestlike wood mirror frame, providing warm, welcoming grooming light in a small powder room. The glass-block wall passes available light around the windowless space, adding decoration and a mottled, shimmering light.

A powder room showcases a handpainted pedestal sink, brash black-and-white marble, and-embedded in diamond-shaped floor accents-a decorative flourish of fiber-optic lighting. A garage below yielded a home for the lighting tubes, which shine up through glass inserts in the subfloor.