Lighting In Main bath?

10 years ago

We are planning a complete reno of our main bathroom. Our current bathroom has a lot of very old ugly things. We currently have a large medicine cabinet with 3 mirrored doors and a long 4 light fixture over it that has an opaque plastic cover across the entire length. In our new bath we wouldn't have one with this complete opaque cover for sure. We also have a light fixture hanging from the centre of the ceiling and the ceiling has gross brown cork tiles and some old gold veined mirror pieces. The new bath will have a smooth white ceiling that will reflect light better than the current one. Our contractor said no-one usually puts a light in the ceiling anymore and that the lighting over the vanity should be ample for a small to medium sized bath depending which direction the lights face and how large a fixture we buy. We will buy a good sized one with at least 4 lights and have a large wall inset medicine cabinet with mirrors on the doors of it.

Do people find one multi-light fixture over the vanity to be enough lighting?

Featured Answer

sjhockeyfan325

10 years ago

How big (square footage is the bathroom)? Ours is small with low ceilings (about 6 x 10, with not quite 7' ceilings). We find that about 3500 lumens works for that size room (my friend has a smaller bath with higher ceilings and the same number of lumens). So, for that, we have an LED fixture over each sink, a shower light, and a more-decorative LED light over the toilet. Nothing on the ceiling itself.

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Comments (8)

silken1
Original Author
10 years ago
Ours is about 6 1/2ft x 9ft with 8 ft. ceiling. I am trying to avoid any more clutter than I have to. I guess I will have to find out how many lumens some of the 4 or 5 light fixtures are. We don''t want it too dull and once the ceiling has been all dry-walled and finished its a bit late to add a ceiling fixture. But we really don't want extra light fixtures if they aren't necessary.
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User
10 years ago
I think four lights is fine. I have a three-light in my 5 x 9' windowless guest bath. I have 75 watt incandescent bulbs in it. My tub has a shower curtain and I see fine to shower and clean the tub. There is enough light for most tasks. I do tweeze eyebrows in front of a window, but I'd really like a lighted magnifying mirror. They can be hard-wired in.

They make exhaust fans with lights if you think you'll need a light near the shower.
silken1
Original Author
10 years ago
I should have added, ours is windowless too. We do need a new exhaust fan, so the lighted one may be an option. I definitely don't want a hanging light like we currently have in there. My bathroom could win prizes for the ugliest and grossest bathroom ever. I have been waiting years to get it reno'd.
sjhockeyfan325
10 years ago
Mine is windowless too - I also forgot to say that!
chispa
10 years ago
Just a light over a vanity is not enough for me. I like to have the ability to light up a bathroom for cleaning or performing homestyle "surgery" or dim it down for a late night shower! My windowless secondary bathroom has 2 x sconces on the sides of the vanity mirror, 2 x 4" cans in the ceiling and 2 x 4" cans in the shower ... ALL on dimmers.
silken1 thanked chispa
monicakm_gw
10 years ago
My bathroom is 10x10. I have 3 recessed lights, one wall sconce and one chandy over the tub. I can't think of any of them I'd be ok without. Pre-reno, there were (hanging from the ceiling) two sconces. One at each end of vanity. 100w bulb in each. It was plenty of light. It was like an operating room! The new configuration did NOT improve on the overall lighting...bil electrician thought he knew better than me but that's another story.

My husband's recently renovated bathroom is 5x8. He has a 3 light (300w) fixture above the mirror. It's "ok" but could be better. The color palette is dark. I encouraged him to put a light over the tub/shower combination. He didn't and won't admit he should have (LOL). The moral of the story is listen to your wife/sil (g) AND it depends on not just room size but type and placement of fixture, overall color (light or dark) of the room.
silken1
Original Author
10 years ago
Well, I will hope for the best. I just ordered a ceiling fan with 2 13W CFL's in it. Our reno hasn't started yet but we will get a good size fixture over the sink as well when the time comes. Like 4 or 5 lights.