you Want it at eye level.

the sconces will be great, 66" off the floor.

I prefer sconces that shine both Up & Down. Houzz.com has some nice options.

Thanks @Lyn Nielson if the sconces shine up and down, would you get enough lighting looking in the mirror?

Yes, go to a lighting show room and look at displays with sconces on either side of mirrors, they create nice , soft light without the harsh overhead shadowing light.

If you think you need more light, get a lighted medicine cabinet.

@Lyn Nielson thanks again. I did go to a few show rooms. There are lots of lights in the show rooms so it's hard to know whether the sconces alone will be enough. But I like the "up and down" ideas.

I have a single Tech Lighting Lufe 24 light over my bathroom vanity. It emits 1676 lumens and its maximum brightness is so high it's on a dimmer.* The Tech Light Milan 13 emits 906 lumens so a pair (of this fixture or something similar) would be even brighter than the single Lufe, plenty bright to illuminate the room.

(In my opinion, 3000K is a good color temperature for bathroom lights.)

-- amateur

*I recommend the Lutron Maestro MACL-153x dimmer

First architects are usually not IDs and you need good ambient light and sconces IMO a bathroom where you do make up needs to be kind of like the kitchen an operating room sort of. I like all LED 4000K for both of those spaces since both require color choices and both need a lot of overall lighting . 4000K is close to bright daylight so colors tend to stay true.

We have a bathroom about the same size and added sconces on each side of the mirror and also added a ceiling light in the shower. I've been told by my teen daughter and her friends that it's the best place for selfies because the light is so good in there. :) Is there anyway you can add a ceiling light? Maybe one of the fan/light combos. I don't think it was too much extra to add in the shower light, but it did need to be on it's own GFCI switch.

I love having a heating fan/ exhaust fan/ light combo in my bathrooms. No reason you can't have ceiling lights with an 8' ceiling.

We have sconces alongside recessed medicine cabinets in both of our bathrooms and find it plenty of light for standing at the sink, but both bathrooms also have fan/light combos on the ceiling for general lighting, and I like having that option too. For anything where I'm not at the mirror, I use the overhead light. In the bathroom that also has a bathtub, I sometimes wish we had lighting directly over the tub for reading in the tub. But for the other shower-only bathroom, it's plenty of lighting and we often don't need it at all with natural light.

One bathroom has sconces that face down, the other up. I prefer the ones that face down for the overall lighting but both are plenty of light.

@Kim H Thanks Kim. I'd love to have a ceiling light. However the ceiling is concrete and I don't want to spend extra money dropping the ceiling. My architect also suggested putting an additional sconce on another wall, but I kinda don't like to see too many sconces in one room...

I love your daughter and her friends' comment about the best place for selfies. I should think about that, even it's not in the bathroom!

@Patricia Colwell Consulting@Kim H@Jennifer Hogan@artemis78 Since so many of you suggested ceiling/ambient lighting, I'm going to get a quote from the contractor to see how much it's going to cost to lower the ceiling. Thank you all.

@Jeanne Z - I am not understanding why you need to lower the ceiling. You said it was slightly higher than 8'. 8' is a normal to low ceiling height, with many homes having 9' ad 10' ceilings. There should be no need to change the ceiling height to accommodate lighting.

Where is the fan, assuming there’s a tub or shower somewhere? You could do a fan/light combo if it’s in the ceiling though doesn’t help if it’s in a side wall.

@Jennifer Hogan it's an apartment in an old high rise building. The ceiling is concrete. I think the building code does not allow cutting the concrete.

@artemis78 There's an electric fan forced heater on a side wall. There's nothing in the ceiling. It's a concrete ceiling.

That's tricky. I do think you'll want some sort of ventilation fan for the shower--what have other people in your building done? I'd ask around a bit and see what solutions they've landed on.

@artemis78 There's a window.

@Lyn Nielson@wdccruise@Patricia Colwell Consulting@Kim H@Jennifer Hogan@artemis78 hi here's the drawing of the new bathroom. artemis78 asked me what my neighbors have. Well, the orignal bathroom is only 5'x7' and the vanity is about 30" wide so most people have a sconce over the medicine cabinet/mirror which provides ample lighting.

In the drawing, where the toilet is was actually a closet outside of the original bathroom.

Today I just realized there's an existing flush mounted light right outside of the original bathroom (see the blue circled red dot). So this ceiling light will be inside of the new, enlarged bathroom. However, it'll be way off the center.

Again, the situation is: the ceiling is concrete so it's impossible to install any new lighting fixture in the ceiling without lowering it. Also I try to save money so prefer not to lower the ceiling.

If I install this way-off-the-center ceiling light in the new bathroom, would it look wierd or crazy?

Thanks!

I just installed a light over my toilet - wanted it for reading, so I probably would use it, but it won't do much for when you are doing makeup.

I think that light in the new area and the 2 sconces will be just right for what you need. My ceiling light and sconces are in about the same spots as yours and it works great.

@Kim H Thanks! Good to know