Wow this stuff is confusing. So online I see bathrooms listed as needing anywhere from 56 lumen per sq ft to 80 lumen per sq. ft. (if my sources are correct). The room is 52 sq ft which means 2912 - 4160 lumen for the room. Currently we have 2 standard GE BR30 flood lights in the room which have an output of ~700 lumen each or 1400 total. Maybe we just don't like bright light, but we think the 1400 lumen in there now is plenty. The LED recessed bulbs I am looking at are about 320 - 400 lumen. I am just worried that if we use the calculations above that will be way too much light. I don't want my contractor to install this many recessed lights only to find that we need sunglasses to enter our bathroom. Not looking for a sleek modern design but actually just the opposite (traditional bathroom with sconces). Was thinking of going with LED because we want to be ahead of the curve and not find ourselves 2 years down the road with outdated traditional bulbs when everything is LED and us needing to replace dimmer switches, etc. Can anyone recommend a 3" shower (wet rated) IC recessed light that we can use LED bulbs in? Not having much luck. The ones I found appear to be with an integrated bulb and I don't like the color of the bulb or they are not IC or wet rated. I may just need to switch to 4" if I can't find anything. Or for that fact give up on LED all together.

I thought I couldn't recess a cabinet above the sink, but it turns out I can. I thought a pipe was in the way. Anyway, if I get a cabinet that deep, it will not solve my lighting problems--needing to find a fixture that juts out beyond it. Besides that, most of those super-deep cabinets are probably out of my price range. I am, however, trying to figure how else I might plug in my H's razor and toothbrush since I am now going with a recessed Kohler cabinet that has a mirrored interior (so no outlet can be added--that was the whole point of my using the IKEa one, which I now realize is just too big for my space). I'm sort of considering just using it over the toilet instead... I wonder if the two mirrors, one over the toilet and one over the sink, would just be too much?? (They are next to each other, and they don't look alike--the Kohler is arched on the top and the bottom and is smaller and the IKEA one is really big and is square.)

JK, do you have a vaulted ceiling in this bathroom, so that your ceiling is right near the roof, like in Beth's photo? (Beth, I love your plant wall!) Or is yours more an 8 or 9 ft ceiling , with the roof several feet higher? If it is, there will be a well - a walled tunnel like in Jolene's comment from June 24 - and you won't be seeing much out of the skylight anyway. We added a skylight to our dark kitchen when we had it remodeled in 2010, and it was the best choice we made in the whole remodel. The well was made very big at the bottom so that the light spreads out into the room. I would guess that the skylight is 3 to 4 feet higher than the ceiling, in my case. In no way have I ever looked up at the sky to see the weather or for any other reason. There really is nothing you can see through the skylight.

LOL, YES, I am on overload for sure. I can see the finish line or maybe I am the horse that sees the barn! We have been remodeling since 2011. Yes, we have a heater,, vent, nightlight combo in all bathrooms. I am a big believer in them. We are changing the mirrors, cabinets, lights, and the tub will be changed to a shower. The marble floor will stay. The previous owners put that same marble in the kitchen. You can probably imagine what it looked like after 20 years on a kitchen floor. It was awful to remove, so we will keep the marble floor in the bathroom. We will probably go with white and/or and gray tile because of the black and white marble. We have already installed a white Toto toilet. The electrician asked what I am using for lights. I had no answer because I didn't know he was coming today until he texted last night. I will try to get into a bathroom showroom Thursday. Thank you!