That Panny has three pairs of black/white wires, one pair for the nighty, one for the fan, and one for the light. The way I normally wire them up? The nightlight should be on its own switch, a switch separate from the EFI switch. Turn it on at night, off in the morning. Other times I've run the nighty off a light sensor located elsewhere in the bathroom. The bath goes dark, the nightlight automatically comes on. That bath is light, he nightlight turns off. The EFI would control the light and fan, with the light on the switch and the fan off the timer function. Turn that switch on, the light and timer come on, Turn that same switch off, the light turns off but the fan remains on for the specified amount of time. So we know that wires are up in the Panny...the three pairs. We know what switches are normally installed on the wall to control the Panny...a single switch for the nightlight and the separate EFI for the light/fan. What we don't know is what wires were run through the wall/ceiling from the switch junction box on the wall to the Panny junction box on the ceiling. I use 12 gauge wiring (most folks run 14), and unlike a ot of people, I also run neutrals to all switch locations. I would have run 12-2 with ground (bare copper, white neutral, power black) into the switch junction box to bring electricity to the box, and then I would have run 12-2 w gnd to the Pannys j-box for the nightlight and 12-3 with ground (same as 12-2 but with a red conductor) to the Panny's j-box for the light and fan. There are other ways to do this, but what was done in your cause is just plain silly. It could be anyone's fault as to why this happened. The electrician could have run wires based upon the wiring schematic that he had, and that drawing might not have shown the need for three things (nighty, light, fan) to be controlled in the fan. Or it could have been drawn correctly and the electrician just failed to run the proper sequence of conductors. Or the wiring runs and the schematic could be correct and the electrician just wired it incorrectly. Doubtful unless he's an egghead. Do you only have one switch (the EFI) in the box? Or is there the EFI plus another switch? So it's screwed up. If more conductors are needed, a competent electrician can fish another set of conductors from the switch box, through the wall and ceiling, to the panny, and get things going the way you want them to go. There are a couple of other ways this can be remedied, but without knowing how many switches we're playing with here (just the EFI or the EFI plus another) or how many conductors were actually run through the wall, it's pretty much a guessing game on my part. What it all comes down to is this: it can be fixed. It may be done courtesy of your contractor or electrician if they dropped the ball. Or you may have to pony up a few more dollars if they didn't know the type of fan being used or the degree of control over the fan/light/nighty that was desired. Best, Mongo

One idea is to simply use a dimmer switch. Then at night, set it to its lowest setting. If you use a LED bulb for your hall light, the electricity usage is very low. (I do this when my mother in law is visiting.)

Blue or gray isn't great for north light, but purple is very good. If you show a photo of the rug, that would help.

Is this a new build or existing space, what are you thinking about adding? The idea is that you need to see the stairs at night, so a dim led strip that runs the length of the stairs and just lights the stairs would be something I would consider if I had stairs. I also like the single lights under each stair that lights the step below, but I wouldn't want to have that wired after the stairs were in place. If your looking for an overhead lighting or wall sconces I would do like Patricia and just have a light. If it bothers you to have it too brightly lit you could put the lights on a dimmer.