Don't do a recessed light above the sink, you will get shadows. Don't do ONLY a recessed light above the sink. I also used pretty glass tile in the showers and it looks really nice when illuminated with 2 lights and dimmed just a bit. Ambiance lighting for when guests use the full bath downstairs! That sounds so nice! Two additional thoughts, not related to the above note: As you plan your lighting, consider your color scheme. If you're going with today's trendy lots-of-white, maybe-some-gray color scheme, light's going to bounce off those stark whites and could feel harsh. On the other hand, if you're using a softer, darker color scheme, those darker colors will "absorb" some of the light; so you'd need to ask whether you'd need more light fixtures. I like to read in the tub, so I definitely plan to have a light of some sort "behind me" for that purpose.

Here is one in chrome that extends 9 inches. http://www.destinationlighting.com/item/capital-lighting-capital-vanities-chrome-bathroom-light/P1452623 We went with this one in brushed nickel that extends 9.5" and have it with the lights down. http://www.destinationlighting.com/item/feiss-lighting-hamlet-satin-nickel-bathroom-light/P1523323 There are some out there and I am happy to help if you give me details on what you are looking for. I went through this search earlier this year and spent weeks looking. We have a surface mounted medicine cabinet by Bertch that sticks out only about 4 inches. There might be other medicine cabinets. I went through that search too.

caligirl - yeah, i hear ya on the toilet. Our house is over 100 years old, so pretty sure the standards for spacing wouldn't even be possible to accomplish in our tiny space. Lol! We are used to it, so it's really not a big deal for us. I'm not sure of exact measurements on either side of the toilet, but it's not too awful. It's not spacious, but it's not the worst. In comparison to many other homes in our little town, this is considered a large second bathroom! When we went house hunting 10 years ago, we really wanted to be close to the college my husband works at since it's a beautiful neighborhood, and that means older homes like ours. And about 90% of the ones we looked at had sub-optimal layouts for bathrooms or kitchen (and often both). As quirky and annoying as some of this is, it's actually a far step above some of the awful things we had as alternative options when we bought. There's basically 3 choices in our town - 100+ year old victorian with wonky renovations or bad layouts that need fixing, 1970s homes that are horribly dated and in less than desirable neighborhoods, or really overpriced brand new mcmansions. :-/ Or building new, I suppose. Here's a 2nd floor layout. I'm going to be straight to the point: we really don't want to take on a massive project that changes the footprint and walls of our second floor in order to perfect our bathroom. If it was just me? Sure. I'm up for anything. But I know my husband well enough to know he hates change and he would never go for it. I have a hard enough time convincing him to paint a room, I can't imagine he could visualize, let alone approve, that kind of change. Lol! Things that may be helpful to know about the rest of our house: we have a 3rd floor attic master bedroom with full bath (shower, jacuzzi tub, double sink, and walk in closet), and we have a first floor bath as well. Our main goal for THIS bathroom is wanting to update it and put in a stand up shower. The one thing that I definitely think could help us is changing the door swing to the bathroom! We could have it open out instead of in.

Can’t figure out how to put these pics in main post!