I have seen this light in person and thought it was fabulous

It is made by Tech Lighting and comes in a 24" and a 48" width. The specs say that it has a depth of 5.5 inches so that should be enough projection past you medicine cabinets.

According to Tech, "The ultra-thin, modern Span bath vanity light from Tech Lighting is made possible through the use of edge-lit LED light guide technology. What appears to be a simple plate of frosted glass when off, then illuminates across the entire surface as if the light is coming out of thin air. 2' version includes 25 watt, 1215 delivered lumen; 4' version includes 50 watt, 2433 delivered lumen, 3000K LED module. Dimmable with low-voltage electronic dimmer. Mounts horizontally only. ADA compliant."Available Finishes: Chrome, Satin Nickel

The 2ft light runs $329.00 on most websites. I realize it's more money than the light you are considering but it is a more appropriate size (you won't have to buy two of them and it will provide much more light. I have seen it lit and it looks great. I hope to use it when I remodel my hall bath someday.

Thanks!! Is it a warm or a cool light? Also, the IKEA cabinet is about five inches deep, so it actually won't project much, unfortunately.

And do you have a link??

Purdue,

The light is LED and the specs say the light is 3,000k so it would be considered a more warm than cool light. It seems that most people prefer LED lights in that range than the 4,500k to 5,000k cool lights that often have a bluish cast to them.

If the 5.5 inch Span light does not have enough projection, how would the Talo-mini that you linked work when it is only 4" deep?

Below is the link to the Tech website page. They do not sell directly so you'd have to look at lighting stores on the web or locally. Good luck finding a light that works for you.

Tech Lighting Span light

Thanks!! To answer your question about the mini light, I would have to have a soffit built. I would rather not do that, for sure.

When I was looking for lighting fixtures for my bathroom, I found a lot of nice, acceptable fixtures. However, many of them did not put out sufficient light to be practical. They were beautiful accents, but would not give the minimum of light I felt I needed to light the bathroom adequately. My point is, before you fall in love with what you think is the right fixture, assess the wattage and if it will be adequate.

Another option from Wega Bath light from Holtkoetter, it is not cheap but it has the same look as the Artemide. It is also LED and has a 6" progression. The links takes you to Lumens.com.

I personally like the Tech Lighting fixture. YOu should check the CRI and Kelvin ratings to determine how well the fixture would light your space. A minimum of 80CRI is required. The higher the CRI, the better the color rendering. 2700 to 3000K is considered warm lighting.

Good luck!

I'm just not sure about the tech lighting fixture in my particular layout, which I am posting below. If I build a small soffit so that it sticks out even further, it's going to protrude even further into the room. It's already quite close to the shower and will possibly make the room feel even more cluttered because it is so wide. (I'm probably overthinking, yes?) The width is what is making me pause for a second. I'd still need a soffit for either, of course.

Homepro, that is a really cool light! But wow, the specs I'd need/want would put me over $1000. Unfortunately way too much money for me. As it is, spending over $300 feels insane, and my spouse will likely keel over when he finds out.

The tech lighting fixture fits wonderfully with the choices you have made. You know you are overthinking it but you have to do it!!! That is why you are on this forum. Try out the Techlighting fixture. I think it will go with all the choices you have made in your bathroom. For a 24" vanity, you would not need more than the 2lights from the Wega Bath light. What other lighting fixtures are you using in the bathroom for the bathtub and general lighting in the remainder of the room? I would vote against building a soffit for any reason at all. If you like the linear tube lighting, a few of these come with extensions to get you to the 5" depth that you need.

But but but... my vanity is 5.5 inches deep and cannot be recessed. There must be a soffit, or the light will not hit my face directly, and shadows will result. There are no other lights in the bathroom.

I'm sold on the tech lighting fixture--I do love it and the price is good for me (even though it's expensive in the context of what I usually spend on lighting). But I do need to bump it out a bit. Did you see the bath reveal I posted in my OP above? They had to build a soffit as well above the same kind of ikea medicine cabinets for the same reason. They are very deep and theirs also were not recessed. The lighting world just doesn't care to help out us non-recessed medicine cabinet folks. :)

(And i don't wear a lot of makeup, but I do need task lighting in the bathroom.)

Purrus,

Don't do a soffit. With the tech lighting fixture, ask your electrician if he can put a piece of wood over the box to make the point where you mount the light fixture deeper. You just need about another 1". The techlighting fixture is 5.25" deep already.

You need more lighting in the bathroom. You need at least 2 other fixtures. One over the bathtub and another in the open space behind the vanity.

Consider these really cool looking surface mount fixtures from George Kovacs if you can't do recessed. They are wet rated for somewhere like the bathtub. I can't live without lighting in my shower. I am a vampire by nature but having light fixtures in the right places on dimmers is essential to me.

You don't think it needs to project further beyond the vanity??

I mean the cabinet...

You'll always have shadows on your face from overhead lighting. You could add a hard-wired lighted make-up mirror with an extension arm and mount it to the right of the mirror.

My guest bath is 5 x 9 and I haven't felt the need for additional lighting beside the three-light over the vanity. My toilet and sink is switched from your layout so my light is farther away from the shower.

You don't need it to project much further than the medicine cabinet face. When you get the fixture, you can play with the placement and projection. The Tech Lighting fixture will be wall mounted so you just need to stub it from the wall a few inches at most.

My master bath is 8x8 and I have five light fixtures. Two side mounted light fixtures on the mirror, a fixture over the toilet, one in the shower and one in the general open space in the bathroom. Having the light fixtures makes cleaning the bathroom easy and I have zero shadows over my face. I personally don't wear makeup, too lazy to do it but I have had a makeup artist apply makeup at my home for events. They commented on how flattering the layered lighting was. My bathroom also has a small 24" window. Apart from my master bathroom, all other bathrooms in the house a similarly lit.

Good luck!

Oh, I did neglect to mention that I have a small window in there too, that does help. It gets afternoon light--it's west facing. But in general, it's not an overly bright room.

I am also not sure that, given the price of this fixture, installation of many other fixtures are in the budget.

So I could just ask my contractor to use wood or something similar to make it jut out a bit more and then it wouldn't interrupt the tile job? And then paint the wood? Still sort of like a soffit, but less pronounced?

You need to have enough light from the fixture(s) that it's adequate at 6 am on a winter morning.

Exactly Purrus. I also agree with Kudzu9. The fixtures I posted were $50 a piece. You just need two of them. Once you have well lit bathroom, you won't be able to understand how you lived without it. I love the lighting in my bathroom more in the Fall and Winter when we have limited amounts of daylight.

And just to confirm, you are getting the small Span fixture which is roughly 24" wide.

yes, the small one.

I just don't know what to do. I have ordered it now; I guess I'll see what it looks like when it comes in. I do feel like my other bathroom, which is much larger, is lit well enough with just one (very bright) light.

(Meaning, soffit vs. bumping out with small piece of wood; I have no idea how it will all look put together and how much light it will create when the whole bathroom is done, with white tile, the mirror is up, etc..)

No problem!

Well, I wanted an outlet put inside the IKEA cabinet. It's got a wooden back so I could do it with that one, not so much with others that have mirrored insides and I can't afford super high-end like Robern.

Though I was thinking today...what if I got a kohler medicine cabinet and then put an IKEA godmorgon cabinet over the toilet with an outlet in it? I had planned on a large train rack there for towel storage (and hand towels hanging down), but maybe this is how I get my hidden outlets. It would eliminate the problem of a light above the cabinet and the soffit and all that, for sure.

Purrus,

Can you recess a medicine cabinet in your current configuration? If you can, you could consider an 8" deep medicine cabinet and that will just protrude about 4". These units are cavernous and can hold toilet paper and other bulky items easily. You may not need a second storage unit in the bathroom.

I thought I couldn't recess a cabinet above the sink, but it turns out I can. I thought a pipe was in the way. Anyway, if I get a cabinet that deep, it will not solve my lighting problems--needing to find a fixture that juts out beyond it. Besides that, most of those super-deep cabinets are probably out of my price range.

I am, however, trying to figure how else I might plug in my H's razor and toothbrush since I am now going with a recessed Kohler cabinet that has a mirrored interior (so no outlet can be added--that was the whole point of my using the IKEa one, which I now realize is just too big for my space). I'm sort of considering just using it over the toilet instead... I wonder if the two mirrors, one over the toilet and one over the sink, would just be too much?? (They are next to each other, and they don't look alike--the Kohler is arched on the top and the bottom and is smaller and the IKEA one is really big and is square.)

Would it be better to just get one cabinet with electric built in? The cost of a Kohler Medicine cabinet and the Ikea Cabinet should be pretty close to the Robern PLM series or a similar cabinet from Broan. Restoration Hardware also has medicine cabinets that have built in Electric in the $600 price range which is what the Robern is.

Good luck! Lots of tough choices.