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Lighting Design Dilemma Bathrooms

Master bath lighting and mirror choices

Michelle Linden

last year

last modified: last year

Coming down to some last decisions and would love opinions.

Our master vanity will have two sink area, each 39.5" wide, with a 36" drop down vanity between (yes, I do sit to do my hair and makeup). The cabinets are a slate stain. My plan is to have our cabinet builder make framed mirrors for me using the same stain (26 in? 28 in?). The bathroom has two recessed lights and a vent light in the center of the room behind the vanity. I am planning on putting two sconces on each side of the center mirror. I am only doing two, as I think 4 looks too busy. I am torn between sconces with a shade, or the "light saber" style. I prefer the look of the shade type but worry about fabric shade in the bathroom as well as whether it will be enough light. Our lighting designer really keeps pushing for the "light saber" style. I know they are very popular, but they seem too modern for our more traditional style home. I attached a mockup of my setup with the three light choices. The cabinet color looks weird. I just filled the sketch with a n approximation of our cabinet color. Our faucets are brushed nickel.

Thoughts?

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Comments (8)

PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
I never doa drop counter for makeup IMO a very dated look and also makes the counter a lot less useable. Get an adjustable stool for makeup and have one contiuous counter as for the lighting the most important part is how well it lights your face .I do not love sconces but I do like good LED 4000K bath bars above mirror so one above each mirror
kandrewspa
last year
I think lights on the sides of mirrors in bathrooms are better lighting for grooming. I have a double vanity (84") with four sconces, so I don't see anything wrong with four. I was also concerned about having sconces with fabric shades in a bathroom, so although I like the same style you do, I installed something else. However, they aren't like the ones your designer recommended. I guess I would encourage you to keep looking to see if you can find something that suits your style better. If I were you I wouldn't want to spend money on four fixtures that you aren't really enthusiastic about.

Here's a picture with four just to give you an idea of what that looks like. IMO they're installed too high.

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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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I do love the look of a lighted mirror but I dislike how they cast light on the face. I also live with a stickler that wants to be able to change the bulbs if need be. Thank you though.
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Hi there! I would suggest two options: 1. You could have one large mirror with the lights actually on the mirrors like the picture below. If you don't need a makeup area, you could do a hamper pull out in the middle of the cabinets Advantage to this option would be one seamless mirror with no breaks. 2. To have the three mirrors, but use light bars hung vertically on each side of the mirrors like below: Personally, I think breaking the mirrors up is a little more modern and that would be the option I choose. Hope this helps!
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I would use a large mirror across the whole space, remove the medicine cabinet, and use two side sconces and lighting above the mirror. The space isn't really large enough for two mirrors. With a new vanity you may have better storage and not need the medicine cabinet. To me, the shower tile doesn't work well with the shower floor or the bathroom floors. I'd use a solid white tile for the shower walls, which would be brighter than your floors and look good with the small blue tiles.
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Michelle Linden
Original Author
last year
@kandrewspa What light fixtures did you go with? Do you have a photo to share?
Sue 430
last year
I agree not to drop the counter for makeup vanity. looks much cleaner all one level, plus the benefit of longer counter space. i just did mine all one level and am loving it had no problem finding a stool that works
Michelle Linden
Original Author
last year
The drop down is already decided. I prefer that look. I am just asking for lighting/mirror opinions.
stiley
last year
Out of the lights you posted, I like the one on the far right the best; it seems to walk the line between modern and traditional. You might think about making the frame on your mirrors slimmer. It could get busy looking with four sconces (which I think you should do) plus thick, dark frames.

Would it work to put two sconces on the back wall and two on each side wall? I couldn't find a picture with four sconces, but here's one with two to show what I mean.

I hadn't really thought about shades in a bathroom before but a lot of people seem to use them. One pro for shades is that you could swap them out to create a different look if you got tired of them. You could get custom ones made with the same pattern as your window treatments in there, as an example. Could be fun if you like that kind of thing!
Michelle Linden
Original Author
last year
@stiley Thank you for your suggestions! I like your pictures. I agree that perhaps thinner frames may be better.
PRO
RL Relocation LLC
last year
last modified: last year
Go with the third option. frosted glass will reduce glare and give a bit of a softer light, again, I say 3000-3500 would be the very whitest I would go.

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