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Lighting Design Dilemma Bathrooms

Master bath mirror & lighting help please!

5 years ago

We're building our house & am not sure what to do with the master bath mirror(s) and lighting. I'm including the drawings of the bath &, as you can see, it's not that big. We can only fit a 60" vanity. We're doing the RH Kempton vanity (attached). The faucets we chose are actually very similar to the ones in the picture. We're wondering if we should do individual mirrors over each sink (like the picture) or one sheet mirror to visually maximize the space. Whichever way we go, we're trying to decide on whether we do 2 sconces or 3. And should we mount the sconces through the mirror or put them on the outside of the mirror? Or should we design it similar to the RH picture with 2 separate mirrors with 3 sconces? Any advice is appreciated!

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Comments (3)

srri
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
If you were to do 2 separate mirrors, will you have enough space between the wall and the mirror for a sconce without making the mirror too skinny?

The RH photo has plenty of wall space on both sides to mount the sconces so they could afford to have a nice width to the mirrors, width of the mirrors is almost the width of the sink bases. Note how the sconces are mounted outside of the vanity space whereas your drawing has a wall with not much space to the sink. The wall mounting plate is at least 3-4 inches that would cut into the width of the mirror on that side and to make the mirror symmetrical, you will need to trim the mirror on the other side too to have the mirror kind of center on the sink base. The mirror might end up pretty skinny and won't have the look in this RH photo like this mock up below. These mirrors are centered on the sink base but are really skinny.

I have the same dilemma. My vanity is 72 inches with similar configuration as that RH photo, 2 sinks and drawers in the middle. don't have space between the wall and the sink so I did these mockups to see how the mirrors would look if I were to trim only one side of the mirror to retain as much width as I can. You can see that the mirrors are not centered to the sinks at all.

I wanted to maximize my small space also so I explored the option of hanging pendants with one large mirror, like this below. I have another thread asking for advice but haven't gotten a response. I'll be watching your thread to see what others think. Let me know what you think.

Edited to add: If you are ok with sconces mounted through the mirror then one large mirror is a good option to maximize your space. I think you might have space between the wall and the sink on one side and there's plenty of space on the other side where the toilet is if you were to do one mirror. Good luck!
jmw thanked srri
jmw
Original Author
5 years ago
@srri, thank you so much for your detailed response! You make an excellent point that I don't believe that we have enough space to put a sconce between a mirror & the wall. Your drawings are great. I can see what you mean about the mirrors being too skinny in the first drawing and then being offset in the second drawing. Perhaps drawing #3 is the way to go for you. We already have canned lights going in our bathroom but we needed something else on the wall to give some more direct lighting when we're looking in the mirror. Considering your reply, I believe we may have to go with a sheet mirror & mount the lights through the mirror. In fact, I think that could be pretty cool. Thanks again & best of luck to you & in your project too!
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You can never have too much light. I agree having a pair of sconces will be excellent for make-up/shaving, but I'd also add a pair of recessed LED spots in the ceiling centred over the sink, about 12" apart. Get the kind with a deeper housing so the light source is only visible when you are directly underneath it. The typical LED ceiling fixtures these days have the light source flush with the ceiling and would look too intrusive in an elegant room like this. Here's an example of a beautiful one. I've shown the photo below but the link shows the specifications. It comes in 3.5" and 4" sizes. Likewise in your shower (I assume there's a separate shower?) I would install two LED recessed lights to cut down on shadows. These can be the typical ones with the light at the surface.
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Thank you for that link! According to that the requirement of a bathroom: 70–80 lumens per square foot. Our bath total square footage is 90sqft. To get a true picture I need to know all the lights in the bathroom - but I don't!!! So, If none of the other lights in the bathroom are switched on then the vanity area which is 15sq.ft (5'x3') will give out 164 Lumens with Miseno (2460/15) and 70 Lumens with Elegant (1056/15 ) So I see now how Miseno will be super white and a lot of light for that area (although when I read the comments in the link I posted - some have said it's not enough light!!!!) Hmmm! Thanks for educating me! Have to decide now.....aaargh!
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Yes, my original thought was a nearly continuous mirror but the glass folks actually said, “we sell glass for a living but in your case more mirror isn’t necessarily what is called for”. Lol. They were very nice about it. So that got me thinking a bit more about the function of the space. We need more storage and lighting.
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pattyl11
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I like drawing #3, but since you have canned lights overhead, have you considered LED Mirrors, no need for additional lighting.
jmw thanked pattyl11

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