Use a solar tube

We have a skylight in large powder room, that has no windows. This room is painted with a dark color, and I believe this is the brightest room in the house. I love it, go for the skylight you won't be sorry.

Our skylight is in front of vanity, no issues with shadows and provides perfect natural light to apply makeup.

A Solatube or Sun Tunnel (Velux) can be offset so the light is where you want it.

How deep will the skylight shaft be? (i.e. how high is the roof above the ceiling?)

The advantage of a skylight is being able to see the sky and open it for ventilation.

Neither solution will leak if its installed properly. Proper installation requires self-adhered flexible base flashing and stepped metal counter flashing which is usually supplied by the manufacturer.

I have a skylight in line with my vanity about two feet in front of it, as I have the same issue about placement like you. I have no problems with shadows or leakage. It is over 20 years old and is Velux skylight. They now make a solar powered "Fresh Air" skylight that opens and closed without electrical wiring during installation. https://www.veluxusa.com/products/skylights

There is a skylight in DD's bathroom and it'g great. No leaks, doesn't look dirty and provides wonderful natural light. Only issue is that she has to make sure the door is closed before going to bed so if there's a full moon, the light won't wake her up.

Tar paper? Its probably asphalt saturated felt. Always use Grace Ice & Water Shield or Vycor Plus self-adhering flashing at a skylight. A tile roof should have full coverage of Ice & Water Shield underlayment. I use it under shingles as well.

I'm a big fan of solar tubes mostly because of the quality of the light. It seems more even than the light from skylights (though I love skylights too). The comments about not liking the look of the solar tubes resonates with me but I must admit that I enjoy the light they provide so much that I don't notice the 'look.' YMMV of course. Another aspect that may not be an issue with the OP is sound. We were going to install skylights in the living room of our Oregon home and changed our minds. Afterwards we were glad we hadn't installed them because when there is heavy rain, the noise is amazing. Solar tubes don't seem to transfer sound like that.

Just installed a Velux S06 skylight (45" x 44") in our bathroom remodel. Light is fantastic, and probably too much...but if you have a problem, it's nice to have one a set of blinds can address. Read that a skylight admits about three times the light of the same sized window, so keep thta in mind. Perfect size for our light needs woudl have been a one bay (22.5" x 44") unit, but it would have been terribly uneven on the ceiling, and this unit is perfect.

This is a north facing roof slope at 33 degrees north, so the sun will only be a direct issue of any sort for about 3-4 months of the year, and even now, the UV coating and heat rejection technology does a wonderful job of minimizing heat gain. The granite remains cool to the touch under the direct sunlight. The skylight is centered over the floor directly in front of the vanity.

I love my skylight (it's over 42") and do my makeup right where that bench is. (i have a make up shelf there now). The natural light is perfect. I never turn on the lights during the day. And I guess it can get dirty, but we never get any rain! And that exposure is a S/W, so it's a lot of light! If yours is north, it will be a lot less, and way less during the winter.

i also have one of those tubes in the other smaller bath. it's ok, but nothing like a skylight. and those tubes catch flies and stuff!)

I have had Solatubes in the past and I highly recommend them. And yes, even after 5 years of living with them, I still tried to shut off that bright light. In the bathroom, I installed on with a light kit and a bath fan. At night, even without turning on the light, there was enough of it coming in to act as a night light.

In the same house I installed 3 Velux roof windows in my now ex-wifes craft room. They did open so it allowed for ventilation which was nice.

Now that I have moved on to Colorado, and a new wife, I will be installing a Velux light tube in our bathroom when I remodel it. And, a Velux fixed sky light in the other.

Thank you so much for all your comments and suggestions! I think I'm going to go for it, especially since the smaller size means the quote came in even lower that I anticipated. A couple notes:

- We live in Texas, so not a ton of rain. As in California, the noise is a welcome change of pace! As far as keeping it clean, it should be in a relatively accessible portion of the roof, and my husband just bought a nice 8' ladder for the new house, so I can add it to his chore list when needed ;)

- The orientation will be south or west facing, I'm pretty sure south. I expect that will mean more muted light in the morning, but certainly a ton of light later in the day.

- The skylight expert is suggesting it be perfectly flush with the wall. That is the wall with our mirror/mirrors on it. Should I try to get it moved out at all? On a related note, should that impact my decision to get a single framed mirror or two mirrors for the vanity? Wondering is a full length mirror would reflect too much light with that orientation, or if that could actually be a benefit for the lighting the whole room?

Definitely do the skylight. We have one centered between over the vanity counter, centered between the two sinks and facing south. The natural light is great. Only thing better is the skylight we have in the shower...

j k, south facing will possibly be brutal in late spring to early fall. We got the fixed Velux (northfacing) and are considering the Velux manual blinds even so. The "remote control" all seem to get 2-3 stars, with many complaints of trouble pairing the controls and keeping them paired. Assumig it will be low enough, the manual blinds would be sub-$200, get 5 stars, and the adjustment stick is about $20 for 6-7' reach.

Solar tubes make no sense in places where you can use a skylight directly. You might as well put a ceiling light in.

A real skylight in a bathroom is swell, and can really brighten your mood in the morning if it's sunny. You'll still need side sconces for makeup, shaving, etc., since the angle of light will cast shadows. But I'd go for it--definitely.

jk, did you see my pic of the skylight? mine is also s/w. in spring/summer that entire wall (you can see the light beating down on it in the pic) gets light from about 10AM, shown here:

3:00

Until here, at 5PM

it moves from the left to the right. that entire black/white tile wall is bathed in sunlight (which is why I have my plant wall there). In fall/winter, the light is much more subtle, and mainly gets the uppermost portion of the wall. It's quite a difference.

It's the Velux w/the heat resistant coating (and since i'm in Cal, it had to have an earthquake resistant thing as well)

Blinds.com makes blinds for skylights if you feel you need something.

Reviving my old thread because the skylight saga continues!

I was all set to do a 2x2 skylight essentially centered over the vanity. The specialist came out to install it last Friday. But when he actually went into the attic and dropped a nail through the ceiling, we realized it would end up significantly off center - over a 96" long vanity, the skylight would end up with it's right edge just a few inches past center, and the left edge basically centered over the left sink. So, almost centered over the left third of the edge the vanity, versus the half point of the vanity.

Given that the vanity itself will be symmetrical and is already ordered (plus that is how the plumbing is arranged) I'm not sure what to do. Will a skylight that is significantly not centered over that type of vanity look really off putting? I really can't find any good examples of this online. I would love to get the natural light in that area, but I'm not sure it would work the way I hoped or be aesthetically pleasing if it is super off center.

The second option is to put the skylight over the new walk-in shower instead. It would be towards the front half of the shower, but would cover quite a bit of space and I see plenty examples that are similar to that layout. It is across the room from the vanity, but we're doing stacked white 8x2 subway tile and a glass door, so I think it would bounce the light around. I actually haven't ordered the subway tile yet since both are in stock, so even though I was planning to do matte I could do glossy instead.

The third option is solar tubes, but I just can't get excited about them - I want to bring the outside in somehow, and the tiny window in the tiny water closet doesn't cut it.

Would love any opinions on the layout, or experience with shower skylights, etc. Thank you!

This diagram isn't perfectly to scale in terms of the sinks and skylights, but it gives you a basic idea of layout...

Could you go up the ceiling to between options 1 and 2? Our's is off center toward the shower, but symetrical on the ceiling.

you will love having the skylight over the shower. you've seen mine. it's actually not even centered over the shower. You really don't notice that it's not perfectly square over the shower or the vanity.

but if you do, why can't they rearrange the joists so that you can put yours where you want it? this was ours on install.

I open the window when I shower and don't have issues. if I take a long shower w/really hot water for more than 10 mins, the mirrors fog and the skylight will also accumulate steam. I leave the door/window open and it clears out. we do not have a fan. after 2 years, no issue. other than I have to get up on the roof to really clean it. we get no rain here so it gets rather dirty.

OMG, you get up on the roof yourself?

You are one brave lady!!

JK, do you have a vaulted ceiling in this bathroom, so that your ceiling is right near the roof, like in Beth's photo? (Beth, I love your plant wall!) Or is yours more an 8 or 9 ft ceiling , with the roof several feet higher? If it is, there will be a well - a walled tunnel like in Jolene's comment from June 24 - and you won't be seeing much out of the skylight anyway.

We added a skylight to our dark kitchen when we had it remodeled in 2010, and it was the best choice we made in the whole remodel.

The well was made very big at the bottom so that the light spreads out into the room. I would guess that the skylight is 3 to 4 feet higher than the ceiling, in my case.

In no way have I ever looked up at the sky to see the weather or for any other reason. There really is nothing you can see through the skylight.

We had a skylight (installed by PO) over one of our bathtubs. It had a sheetrocked shaft going from the bathroom through the attic to the roof, and that shaft trapped all the steam from the shower. It gradually steamed off the tape on the sheetrock seams, and they had to be periodically repaired and painted. I loved the skylight for the light it provided, but you do not want it over a shower.

Bruce

Is your bathroom finished? I'd love to see pictures and to hear how you ended up liking your skylight.

Same! Would love to see some finished pics!!

I never heard of a room with the toilet called a water closet. A water closet is the term for the toilet itself. Skylights aren't that noticeable in their placement whether centered or not because the light moves across the room. Avoid tall shafts. probably better with a tube than a tall shaft skylight. You will loose a lot of light and can have the moisture problems.

My builder made my shaft trapezoidal, which spread the incoming light even though I had a longer shaft.

Here in the US, we do not call the fixture a water closet. We just say toilet. That left the term free to be used to describe the small enclosed toilet room - usually without even a sink to wash your hands with - that people started putting inside the larger bathroom a while back.

Another positive aspect of skylights is LED uplighting around the 4 walls of the skylight ..beautiful at night for ambient lighting.