paul_hefford

Can't decide on bathroom vanity lighting

Paul Hefford
4 years ago

We are getting a new house built and the photo below fairly closely shows the style of our bathrooms, i.e. dark grey floor tiles, white wall tiles (600w x 200h, brick lay), smartstone marble-look benches, inset basins, and chrome wall mixers. And we really like the idea of the circular mirrors although we haven't decided on mirrors yet.


East Malvern Renovation · More Info



We just can't decide what to do with vanity lighting, i.e. lighting for looking in the mirror. We want the lighting to be both functional and aesthetic. We are fairly conservative so don't want anything eccentric. The majority of the very-functional horizontal vanity lights placed directly above mirrors look ugly (to us) and I don't think they work from an aesthetic perspective with circular mirrors. We could try to put sconces on either side of each mirror but not sure if that would work / fit. We could have pendant lights but don't think that matches our more conservative tastes. Another option we are considering is the circular mirrors with inbuilt LED lighting.


A salesperson at a lighting store suggested gimble lights above the basins pointed at the mirrors to reflect light onto our faces. Would this work? Has anyone done this successfully. We have been in bathrooms with standard downlights right above the basin and they tend to cast shadows over your face. We want to avoid that if we can. Don't know if the gimble lights would fix that problem.


I've attached a picture of our plans showing two bathrooms - the kids have a NOOK separate nook to their MAIN BATH and the MASTER ENSUITE has two basins. The red dots show where wall lights were tentatively planned to be installed. The ceilings (2700mm high) in the bathrooms will just have a standard light/heat/exhaust unit fairly central to each room (blue diamond). The nook will just have a standard LED downlight in the middle.


Would love your thoughts ideas on vanity lighting. We are feeling stuck!








Comments (20)