Recessed lighting placement in bathroom
Comments (7)
cairnsma30
6 years agocairnsma30
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Vanity Light, Recessed light in the shower and bathroom fan
Comments (7)The only way I know of to have both the fan and light to come on together would be to wire them together to one switch or timer. I find it very easy with the stacked switch to hit both buttons when I enter the bathroom; I turn off the light when I'm done in the shower, and the fan turns itself off after an hour (or whatever time you set it to). If you wired them together to a single switch, then you wouldn't run the fan after the shower, which is good for drawing moisture out of the room. If you wired them together to a single timer, then they'd both be on for an hour until the timer shuts them off, wasting power on the light for an hour every day. (Depending who's using the bathroom, you might also have someone turn off the light, not realizing it's also turning off the fan.) I'm sure someone with an electronics background could build a box you could stash where the wires run in the attic with a relay that turns the light on when the fan goes on (or visa versa), but doesn't turn both off when the switch goes off for either one. But I'm not aware of a readily-available commercial switch that does this. -- Eric...See MoreNeed recessed lighting advice for bathroom
Comments (3)I would plan for the lighting to be complementary, not for the recessed lighting to be all coverage: Plan for the recessed lighting to provide good general lighting for the bathroom as a whole, but don't expect it to be in the correct position to light the vanity and the mirror in the way it should be lit. In other words light the bath from the ceiling like you would light a kitchen from the ceiling, enough to illuminate the whole room as general lighting, but don't expect it to be the task lighting as well. Plan the vanity lighting for optimal vanity lighting. This is essentially the task lighting. It should be switched separately. Light the shower separately. Sometimes I like to take a shower in the relative dark, compared to the rest of the bathroom. Sometimes I like the shower light to serve as a night light or for guests to at least navigate in the bathroom. Overlight it all slightly and put it all on dimmers. I recommended switching the fans separately and no lights on the fan. The light they provide is generally pure glare. I am doing a bathroom that is the size of some showers (28 square feet total) and it is still going to have 3-4 lighting circuits and a separate fan circuit....See Morewhere do I put recessed lighting in bathroom?
Comments (1)Are those upper cabinets in the drawer or lower?...See MoreNeed help in basement design-placement of LED lights, bathroom design
Comments (5)You may have already thought about this, but dimmer switches will make whatever lighting scheme you decide on more flexible. Also, think about where furniture will be before placing the recessed lighting. 18 months ago we moved into a 25 year old house that had a finished basement (also with some windows, like yours). While they at least had dimmers on the recessed lighting, the placement of some of the cans was puzzling, even considering where they had their furniture when we saw the house before purchasing (the previous owners did the basement fit-out). I like the one room that has cans in the four corners and a central fixture which is a semi-flush 3-light (the cans are placed about two feet from the walls). The result is that the room is lit very evenly without the use of any table or floor lamps. I use the room for an office so I have a desk lamp for task lighting. Even if you don't use the other part of your basement, if you finish it so it could be used for a family room it will be good for your resale value. The next owners may want to put their teenagers down there with a big television. :-) I love the idea of the full bathroom. That is something I don't have in mine....See Morecairnsma30
6 years agoBest I can do for now. We had 8 bids and all recommended 2 recessed lights and one large or 2 small in the shower as well as task/decorative lighting for vanity. I'm looking for opinion on placement of the 2 recessed lights in the bathroom to get the best lighting when looking in the mirror. If anyone has an opinion on accent lighting in the shower, I'd love to hear it too. A picture of our current bathroom will not provide much help as the vanity area is currently part of the bedroom and we are removing and adding walls to enclose it.
PROBeth H. :
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agothank 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 mentioned
the 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.
Kitch4me
5 years ago
cairnsma30Original Author