Bathroom lighting has two important functions and this makes it one of the hardest rooms in the home to get right. You need higher than normal levels of illumination in the bathroom to make the daily job of making yourself pretty easy there is nothing worse than no being able to see yourself properly in the mirror in the morning. The other end of this is the end of the day when you just want to relax in a warm bath, ambient soft light is what you want not light that would be bright enough for a tennis court!
The majority of houses built in the last 30 years will have just the standard central ceiling light which is fine it serves a purpose but there is a huge array of other bathroom light fittings available that will create your own little boudoir, i will try to cover some of the bathroom lighting available in this article.
The bathroom ceiling light is probably the simplest and quickest of improvements you can make to your bathroom lighting scheme. Manufacturers have seen in recent times that the bathroom lighting market was somewhat lacking in style and have decided to fill the gap with a huge array of superb contemporary and traditional bathroom ceiling light designs.
So the easiest, the bathroom ceiling light is dealt with, lets take a look now at what other lighting is available for the bathroom and how best you can use these lights.
Downlights in the bathroom offer a different dimension on a bathroom lighting scheme, these lights look great giving your bathroom lighting a real contemporary warm feel. Bathroom downlights do have certain disadvantages in that they will require a fair amount of work cutting holes in the ceiling and getting the wiring to each individual light but believe me the end result is well worth the effort.
Bathroom wall lights are something that are used widely in other areas of the home but often not considered for the bathroom lighting scheme. Bathroom wall lights offer lighting for the bathroom tasks but also add some interest to the bathroom walls. Be warned though that to comply with electrical regulations you should only use wall lights that have been deemed suitable for use in a bathroom.
Bathroom mirrors are present in nearly all bathrooms and it is an area that does require sufficient lighting, standard bathroom lighting can often cause shadows around the mirror which isn't great when making yourself look pretty. Choices for bathroom mirror lighting includes lights on the wall around the mirror, shaver lights which also offer somewhere to charge a razor or toothbrush and mirror cabinets with integrated lighting. The only thing that can sometimes hold you back is your current electrical wiring situation and how much money you have available to spend.
When buying bathroom lighting it is important to adhere to the current legal regulations. All lighting in the bathroom must comply and be suitable for use in zones 1,2 & 3 of the bathroom. This law has been brought in to protect the consumer from potential serious injury so please make sure that the lights you buy comply.