not to position lights directly over your head in front of a mirror

We might be a bit confused by terms. Many of us in US think of a cloakroom as a walk-in coat closet, and it would not have a toilet. Perhaps you can post a floor plan, and tell us how you use the space, and where in your home it is located?

In British usage, cloakroom is a euphemism for powder room, which is a euphemism for....

The dimensions are approximately 3 feet by 6 feet.

Lol, thank you, it’s for a downstairs toilet room. It is a small narrow room, maybe a little over 2 meters long and a meter wide (approx). I’ve done a rough sketch. The toilet is at the far end and there will be recessed shelving above it which will have a down lighter. The basin and mirror will be opposite you as you walk into the room. Unsure whether to have the mirror illuminated as well so as to show off the tile (which isn’t particularly textured but it is stone so it’s not smooth), or whether that would be too much lighting in addition to a ceiling light? And in terms of the ceiling light, I had thought about having spotlights but since we will have a spotlight to shine down on the recessed shelves, the room could probably only cope with one more spotlight more it was too many, and that might look weird having a single spotlight on the ceiling... so will probably go with a flush light. My main issue really, how much is enough and what’s too much and which combination of lighting do I go with? It won’t be our main toilet room, so I don’t need task lighting for make up etc.

Thank you

What is the reason for the the light on the recessed shelving? Is the light in the ceiling? Can you be sure that the light won't shine on the toilet or -- even worse -- on the person sitting on the toilet?

Unless the shelving light were important, I'd put a recessed, downlight centered on ceiling instead. I'd then put a horizontal light above the mirror or, perhaps, a pair of sconces on either side of the mirror. (I put the Tech Lighting Span over the mirror in one of my bathrooms and the Tech Lighting Lufe in two.)

-- amateur

The shelves are quite deep so the lights should just shine onto the shelves, a bit like in the attached photos:
Just not sure how to do the ceiling lights, would 2 more spotlights be too much light in addition to the spotlight above the shelves and an illuminated mirror? Or flush ceiling light? Thank you

Thank you for sending those links across

The shelves are recessed in the wall like in the photos? How deep? Is there more than one shelf in the recessed opening? What are the shelves made of?

Maybe about 20cm deep shelves

And yes they are recessed, thank you

You could certainly put small LEDs (example) inside the recessed opening as shown in the second and third photos. However, those lights also shine on and therefore highlight the toilet -- particularly noticeable in photo #2 -- which I think is weird.

Another way to illuminate the recessed opening would be to use LED tape lights (example, example installation in cabinet) on the sides or top/bottom of the opening, or even attached to the backs of shelves. These would concentrate the light on the recessed opening, allow for multiple shelves (even solid ones that would otherwise block light from above), and not highlight the toilet below.

There are lots of recessed lights you could install in the ceiling, many of which don't even require a housing ("can") (example).

Recommended: use dimmers for the lights.

Dimmer light is a good idea (why didn’t I think of that?), and the lighting under the toilet is weird! I hadn’t noticed that before! We were thinking of glass shelves and shine the light through them, but still open to ideas and will definitely look into the links you sent across, thank you very much!