Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. The reason I am hesitant to go the permanent route was it is so permanent. And if we don't like how it turned out, that's an expensive mistake. The reason I am hesitant on film is because I'm not sure how it holds up from a quality perspective. Oaktown: Wow, that's cool film. I wonder if it works? Very interesting. Virgil: We have tried pinging the architect on it. He hasn't responded to our emails. I wouldn't mind him being more engaged on the issue, but maybe he thinks it is too small an issue to get involved? I imagine if he did weigh in, he would say to just leave it all plain glass (no obscure). I will try to give him a call and ask about it. I get the impression that he thinks we over-think things.

Try this link: http://www.pilkington.com/north-america/usa/english/products/bp/bybenefit/specialapplications/mirropane/default.htm You will note that for the glass to work, the background or in your case the bathroom will have to be darkened. The electronic glazing is really not feasible in your case.

Whew! Okay, one less boob light in the world, like sailorgirl said! lol Fidoprincess, we do have one of the newer squarish boxes. The ground wire is a mystery, though, as it only came out of the old light fixture itself and was not inside the ceiling box-- I'm looking into making sure we're okay with the way we have the light "grounded" to the ground screw, so I'll be posting this on the Lighting forum too! The old light had a ground wire that ran from the ground screw to a metal part of the old light. I thought the ground wire was supposed to come out of the ceiling box. Anyone know? Meanwhile, we're keeping it off until I find out if we did the ground wire correctly. The new semi flush light sure looks pretty and gives off plenty of light!

I truly appreciate everyone's comments. I want to be clear that while I would never do something like that in a bathroom, I understand if someone wanted to do so. My wife and I were just flabbergasted at the sight. And sultry_jasmine_nights, I can imagine how beautiful that would have looked. I guess from a personal point of view, I am coming as someone who once lived in an apartment that had two windows--one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom. Neither was more than about a 2 x 2 size and the bedroom window was about five feet from the next building. When I moved my apartment was so bright I had to put quilts over the curtain because I couldn't sleep. Even with that background, I couldn't see doing this.