Lighting Tips for Having Your Dream Bathroom
When it comes to the full home remodeling, bathrooms seem to be the area of the house that receives the least attention. However, it’s the most functional room in the house and it’s a place where your every single day starts and ends. For this reason, it may be an incredibly important factor for the overall quality of your lifestyle. Also, should you ever decide to sell the place, this is the first room that the potential buyer will visit. Therefore, it is something that definitely deserves your full attention.
As you could already tell, there are two main functions of the bathroom lighting. First, it needs an ambient light in order to make the time spent there more enjoyable. Second, it requires a reliable task light in order to improve visibility for the essential, high-focus tasks like shaving or facial care. This is why you need to use different types of lighting within the same bathroom in order to make it both aesthetic and functional. Here are several such ideas that you should seriously consider.
1. Consider the lighting needs of your bathroom
The first thing you need to do is make an assessment of the lighting needs of your bathroom. First of all, the size of the place will determine the intensity of the illumination. Here you can go with the ambient light in order to set the general mood and then enrich it with accent lighting which will help to highlight perfume, cologne, wall art or any architectural feature that can enhance the general ambiance of the bathroom. By setting the light properly, you can choose the focal point of the room without much effort.
2. Put a special emphasis on task lighting
As far as the task lighting goes, you need a plan that provides optimal functionality. By this, we mean more than just focusing on vanity lighting. Shower lighting, bathtub lighting and toilet room lighting are also something that you need to seriously consider. Even when working on the vanity, you need to take a smarter, more functional approach. For instance, don’t fit a downlight directly above a vanity unit or mirror, as this will throw a strong light on to your forehead and cast shadows below the eyes, nose and chin. As far as your options go, a pendant lamp or a ceiling fixture is your safest bet, while some people prefer to go for a chandelier instead.
3. Pick adequate bulbs for these fixtures
When buying bulbs for the bathroom, you need to opt for the right intensity and type. LED is a clear choice, due to its longevity and eco-friendliness. For the sake of the ambiance, you might decide to dim some of these lights and there are two general options that you have available here. First, you can go with a dimming switch, which would allow you to reduce the glare early in the morning and late at night when your eyes are the most sensitive to these stimuli. In the era of smart lights, having adequate lighting controls is not a bad idea either.
4. Consider some tips for maximizing the natural light
In order to fix the natural light situation in your bathroom, you might want to do a complete bathroom remodel. This will give you so many additional options like installing new windows and tiles (both of which increase the energy-efficiency) of the place, as well as revamping your bathroom’s plumbing system. Needless to say, the latter is the most effective when overseen by commercial plumbing services with a background in renovations. You can also use this opportunity to expand your small bathroom by knocking down a wall and building into a whole new area. What this does for your lighting plans remains to be seen.
5. Enhance the effect of your lighting system through other means
What you also need to keep in mind is the fact that your windows and lighting fixtures aren’t all that affects the lighting situation in the room. Other than this, you also need to consider the material and color of the wall and floor surfaces, due to the fact that they might enhance the lighting through its reflective features. Also, keep in mind that this is where wall scones excel at setting the overall mood of the place. A mirror in the bathroom can also increase the intensity of the illumination, which is why so much depends on its orientation.
6. Study safety regulations
You must also keep in mind that the functionality of the bathroom lighting is regulated by the law. After all, these are electrical fixtures, which can’t be endangered by being placed too close to the major source of water. According to it, there are four different zones. First, you have the Zone 0, which is the inside of the bath or shower. The second zone covers the area above the bath or shower (Zone 1), which is about 2.25m from the floor. Then, you have the Zone 2 which covers about 0.6 m outside the bath and to the height mentioned in the Zone 1 section. Finally, everything that’s outside of one of these three zones is considered as the separate case and it has its own IP rating (regarding the protection from moisture).
In conclusion
As you can see, by handling the issue of lighting within your bathroom, what you’ll manage to achieve is to increase the functionality, as well as to increase the resale value of your home and turn it into a more pleasant environment. Due to the fact that you get to reap all of these benefits from a single remodeling project, the ROI is always more than worth it.
Author Bio
Mia Ackerson is a Melbourne-based writer. Loves writing about home decorations and home improvements. She’s also interested in reading books, movies, music, baking, and gardening. You can follow her on twitter.
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