Sconce lighting is IDEAL as long as it is at face level. You want the light to reflect evenly on your face if at all possible. So, lights on either side of the mirror, or, mounted directly over the mirror are ideal as long as they are at eye level. Bathroom bar lighting is unflattering and doesn't provide an accurate lighting for your face. Hope that makes sense. I'm not in anyway promoting RH sconces, this is just meant to give you an idea of the ideal type of sconce for the bathroom. You can also check out the National Kitchen and Bath association recommendations for lighting in a bathroom. A web search of "National Kitchen and Bath Association" will bring up their site. Here is a link that might be useful: Sconce

Hmmm I wonder if it would be too hot if only 14â away from head or starting at 14â back from countertop. Or, if standing at cabinet center the light would be (roughly) 22â off face to side back. I have bought the mirrors already and the sconces after reading that others who were in the alcove lighting position did so to diffuse harsh overhead lighting. I didnâÂÂt read anything about it being too hot. Now I wonder!!! I guess if it was too hot and I went to 45w each it would still diffuse and spread light. We donâÂÂt really spend that much time in the mirror to ignite as I can put my makeup on in less than seven minutes and that includes plucking. Hmmm, what to do⦠This post was edited by jterrilynn on Tue, Aug 26, 14 at 19:04

We currently have a 60" vanity with overhead lights. Our bathroom is 5' x 10', and I read that I need 300 watts of light for that size bathroom. I'm sold on sconces for our remodel because of our aging eyesight. We'll have two sconces with one sink. I've looked at all kinds of mirror configurations, but what makes the most sense is to set the sconces into a large mirror so that the light is bounced around the room. Did you say in another post that your ceiling is only 7 1/2' tall? I'm not sure a chandelier would look so good. I think they're better in powder rooms and in spacious bathrooms. Instead, I would use an exhaust fan/light combination to put light and ventilation over the toilet and shower area. I wouldn't count on the vanity lights, door, and a decorative chandy to supply enough light for the other side of the room. You need light for cleaning the toilet and shower and if anyone reads while on the can.

@sheloveslayouts If you just use a lumens/sf calculation for general ambient lighting and stop there, the shortcomings become evident in a kitchen. Let's say you have a common 15'x20' kitchen, where 8'x15' of that is carved out for a Breakfast table. We'll use 30fc (footcandles) that IES calls for kitchen sink and stove. 300sf x 30fc = 9000 lumens If you choose a 6" recessed can @1200 lumens = 8 cans. In order to achieve the sustained 30fc of your calculation, the lights have to be evenly spread in a grid. So in a 15'x20' space that means 2 rows with 5' between fixtures one way, 4' the other. But that places the fixtures in the aisles, where you shadow counters when tasking, doesn't line up with appropriate task centers (e.g. sink, ref, center of 36" wide upper cabinet, etc), and does not center over the breakfast table on one side of the room. Also, IEC wants 50fc for kitchen prep counters, 20fc for Dining, and 5fc for floors. The straight calculation of 30fc didn't account for those varied numbers. So to alleviate those discrepancies, you move those cans closer to the counters and center one over the table. But now you've created hot spots on cabinets and uneven lighting across the space from such a high-lumen fixture. Fine, so you move down to a 600 lumen fixture, which calculates to 15 total cans. Even more hot spots with overlapping throws and then lighting up the open floor. It just seems like the tail is wagging the dog. And we're not even getting into reflectivity (light loss factor), or that the mass of cabinets take up part of the sf in the equation, but still need some light between the massing (the counters). The biggest fail though, is lumens/sf alone doesn't address the most prominent feature in good residential lighting - mood and drama. When you think about lighting in a house, it is first task-oriented to a specific spot: light the vanity counter and your face; light the shower; light the book you are reading on the couch or bed, light the kitchen counter and island. Then accent things: the fireplace; a window seat; an art wall. You are not as concerned with lighting the floor in front of the couch; or the spot you stand in front of a vanity; or the between-cabinet aisles in a kitchen; or the footboard of a bed. And since there are many doorways, windows, furnishings, and wall or ceiling jogs that affect those tasks, lighting can be influenced by the aesthetics of placement and the fixture style. This slight push/pull between function and aesthetics should not affect overall lighting, especially when lighting is layered - overhead, table set, wall mount, cabinet mount (above and below). However, you don't need to ditch lumens/sf for ambient lighting. In the old days, we did it in a non-scientific way: if a closet ceiling light wasn't bright enough to tell black from navy, you would switch the 60W 'bulb' to a 75W. Or if the bedroom central ceiling light seemed too harsh late at night, from 100W down to 60W. So the benefits of using lumen/sf is best illustrated in an example of a classroom or office building. If you have a 600sf room flexible for multiple desk arrangements, or 3000sf of general cubicles, then you can calculate total lumens on 40fc and get close to the number of fixtures and zero in on whether the spec of the fixture you chose is sufficient. But, you still have to verify the task lighting is acceptable by performing a photometric for footcandles at 30" desk height. And yet even after all that, at the end you adjust fixture locations based on hotspots from walls or coordinating with HVAC diffusers, footcandles be damned. So, even here when you appropriately start with a simple equation, task lighting still comes first, and aesthetics play a huge part. One thing to take away from the class/office example is those are large, open, flexible spaces with diffused lighting levels. But as the IEC footcandle guide notes, a residential Kitchen is varied in it's tasks. The island may serve both prep and dining. You may need 80fc as opposed to 30fc as you age. And, you are not worried about diffusing the light across open space, because I can say with certainty there's not going to be any space that is not taken up by cabinets, tables, something that has a function with a task lighting need. Bring in other attributes of a Kitchen, like the drama a hanging light provides lighting up a flower arrangement in the center of a table, and sticking to lumens/sf hinders your thinking. So what I find in residential lighting is it falls more on the creativity spectrum than engineering calcs (hence they are named lighting designers, you want a lighting engineer for precise stage lighting) - focus on the tasks - and ambient kind of falls into place. But you can back check with lumens/sf or use it to help in fixture selection. Sure, curveballs with high ceilings, soffits, vaults, galley layouts, and high-end cabinets, but for the most part residential lighting is a simple monster.