The secret to good bathroom lighting

To design and install a good bathroom lighting scheme you need to consider both how a customer uses it and what IP rated products to use where.

A bathroom can be a place to relax and soak or very task orientated as the occupant gets ready in the morning. It can also be a place to have a bit of fun and add a touch of glamour with some interesting lighting effects. A good trick is to put the lighting on more than one circuit to provide different options.

Designing a scheme

It’s useful to have a ceiling pendant or downlights and to supplement this with task lighting around a mirror. Mirror lighting needs to be practical but not unflattering. Using a combination of wall lights with a warm colour temperature, set at cheek height, and a tiltable downlight to provide crisper light provides a good combination of brightness without the harsh shadows from a solo fixed downlight.

Ground Lights

You can also suggest recessed LEDs in the floor or wall to provide a soft wash of low-level light or to highlight materials and features, adding a touch of drama and luxury to the bathroom experience. Remember that it is important to position ground lights close to a vertical surface for your customer to enjoy its effect as the light needs something to reflect it. This works well on tiles and bath panels.

Free-standing bathtubs look great when they are back-lit using ground lights set in the floor behind them close to the wall or in the corners of the space. You should install these lights on their own circuit so that your customer can use them on their own, with the main lights dimmed down or turned off, to create a relaxing atmosphere in the room.

Safety first – bathroom zones

You will need to know the IP rating for a light fitting and which zone in the room you are installing it in.

For areas outside these zones and where there are unlikely to be any water jets there are no specific IP requirements.

We want to help you banish boring one-dimensional lighting in the home. Download our guide, Lighting Design for the Home, to help light your customers moment.