Shadow free lighting is what you need but not what you are going to get. The order of preferecne is: Lighting completly surrounding the face. (a makeup mirror) Sconces at face level on each side of a face. Sconce centered over face. Multiple cans so light can wash down sides of face. When you see sconces accompanied by a recessed fixture over the sink, the recessed fixture's main job is to light the beautiful sink and faucet, not your face as it creates shadows under eyebrows, nose, chin.

thank you. that's more helpful than you imagine. you had 8 different bids and every single one of them told you that you needed recessed lighting? And they knew you were using two triple lights?? seriously? never heard of that. Have never even seen it. your two vanity lights have 3 lights each. that's probably 360 watts of light when using 60w bulbs. (is there a window in the room?) while at the vanity, 360 watts is a lot. you could do 75w bulbs for even more lighting. If you need a light overhead, why not do one flush mount, or semi flush light, dead center? you could do a 2 or 3 bulb, like pictured below. that's another 200-300 watts of light. make the one in the shower a 6", LED waterproof, at 100w. so this bathroom may be larger than yours, but it has everything I've mentionedthe recessed is in the back over the toilet, and over the shower. there are no vanity lights, just the sconces. If you're doing makeup in here, sconces are usually a better choice. no recessed light, just a center light and four sconces. both of these rooms are wider than 5'. this room is a 5' or so. All they have is the two triple vanity lights. So to sum it up, your bathroom is only 5 ft wide. You don't see recessed lights in narrow bath when there are already vanity lights over the mirror. In fact, I looked at over 200 pics. Would you believe this is the only one I saw w/recessed lights, with over the mirror vanity lighting in your size bathroom? I saw many more with sconces, but none of the triple light over-the-mirror- vanity lights had recessed lighting. Your vanity lights will put off plenty of light. If your bathroom was 10 feet wide, then you could do the recessed. But putting them at the 2' 1/2' middle mark would make them too close to you at the vanity. It's redundant. So no. The only recessed light I would use is over the shower. If you feel you need more light, do a small flush mount in the middle of the room. If you have a fan vent like this pic, then you can't. For over the shower, you could do a large one or two 4" recessed lights. Forget the ones down the middle. my .02. hope it helps.

Nine seems excessive for a 7X9 space. Yes, two 40 watt equivalent lights is a bit low for vanity lighting. If it was me, I would look at sconces that still sit relatively close to the wall but also take standard bulbs. This may limit choices though. I'd say 6 can style lights would be adequate for the space, but it really is impossible to say without actually seeing the layout of the space and knowing how open the shower is relative to the entire space. I am not a fan of integrated led, although I admit I do use the flat disks that simulate can lights in various places as they can be gotten relatively cheap and install easy on a standard shallow junction box. The shallow j-boxes tend to be quicker and easier to install than cans and are less trouble if its attic space overhead. Overall, I do find it better to get fixtures that you can change a bulb in. Premature LED death is common so when that occurs, its a lot easier to change the bulb than change a fixture. Further, you can work to ensure that you get the color you like for the bulbs. If you get something that is too blue, it's not a big deal to get a different color bulb and fix it. You can also buy a more powerful bulb to throw more light if you find you need it.

@3onthetree The revised lighting with (3) 4" cans in the shower is too much - 1 can is sufficient. Still no exhaust fan. Agree - shower is about 5'x5' - I could see maybe 2 lights - one over the bench and one in center - but not 3. The revised lighting replaced the ceiling mount central room fixture with 2 recessed cans. Too much - the basic ambient lighting of the small room will be covered by the two vanity recessed, the bathtub light, and the Linen recessed which are all switched together. - Don't think they will all be switched together - I think vanity sconces and maybe the recessed over the vanity (based on cpartist comments) will be switched separately The revised lighting replaced the 2 recessed over the bathtub with a single ceiling mount fixture (probably chandelier). This would have very specific code requirements - what you typically see in Pinterest photos is against code. Correct - according to electrician they do this all the time and just change it after inspection or something like that? Electrician suggested the chandelier/(or something flush likely because 8' ceilings) over the tub and DH and I thought that sounded nice. Yes - re: steam shower - and there is a fan already in place in the main bathroom - it's just not noted on this plan. My designers aren't updating all of the plans exactly on their end, so they didn't note it on here. But it's already roughed in.