Renovating Your Bathroom? Don’t Forget The Lighting!

As one of the most used rooms in your house, a quality and beautiful bathroom design is vital to creating a relaxing, peaceful, and functioning retreat for you and your family. So, when it comes to bathroom renovations in Perth, Navigate Bathrooms understands the need for a quality design with an attention to detail that are often missed and forgotten.

Time and again, when we start thinking about doing a bathroom renovations the first thing we start thinking about are the colour tiles we want, the fixtures, or the big new bathtub. And whilst all those things are exciting and important, the thing that can make a good bathroom renovation great, is the lighting.

Read on to learn why lighting is so important to your bathroom renovation, how you can achieve great lighting with the use of different types and styles of lighting which will take your bathroom renovation from good to great.

Why is good bathroom lighting so important?

Bathroom lighting can make a huge difference to your bathroom renovation. Quality bathroom lighting and expert positioning of the lighting can be the difference between a functional and neat space and a moody and luxurious retreat.

Quality and expert lighting designs are one of the most important features of a bathroom, as it can make or break the functionality of the room. Good bathroom lighting must have the power to accommodate all activities which the user might need, such as applying makeup at the vanity without shadows, ensuring the shower area is lit up enough to distinguish between the shampoo and conditioner and give the ability for the lights to be dimmed down when called for. And it must be able to do all these tasks, day, or night.

The wrong type of lighting or placement will produce shadows, glare, and an unrelaxing atmosphere which is not what you envision when designing your bathroom renovation.

More often than not, bathroom lighting will need to be symmetrically positioned along the walls and ceiling rather than a single fixture overhead. This is because you do not want to create shadows and because even lighting is more aesthetically pleasing. The layout of your bathroom will dictate how to best place your lighting to achieve your desired effect —for example, having one downlight directly above your vanity mirror will mean that your face will be cast in shadow. Details like this are often missed by less qualified bathroom renovators but are crucial to the quality of your bathroom renovation.

A good bathroom lighting design could include:

• Soft overhead lighting from numerous fixtures.
• Task lighting around the mirror -think Hollywood mirror style.
• Additional task lights around the bath and shower areas.
• Accent lights designed to bring attention to decorative elements.
• Feature lighting is designed to be a decorative element onto itself.

To guarantee your new bathroom renovation is as functional as possible, ensure it has been designed with a layer of lighting. This will mean that as each member of the house alternates their tasks, they are able to adjust the lighting with the flick of a switch, to best suit their activity.

What are the different types of lighting in a bathroom?

There are 3 main types of lighting you must consider when planning your bathroom renovation: general lighting, task lighting, and mood lighting. Each type of lighting is designed to perform different tasks at different times. Switching between these types of lighting should be as easy as a flick of the switch.

General Lighting

General lighting in a bathroom is used to provide an overall light that enables the household members to see where they are going when moving around the room. Downlight and wall lights are the most conventional type of general bathroom lights.

Task Lighting

Task lighting is as it sounds, it’s lighting that enables the household member to do a particular task with ease. Task lights are intended to light up smaller areas of your bathroom, such as the vanity or shower. Task lights are often mounted to the wall or ceiling and aimed in a specific area. Often task lighting is adjustable so that it can be more targeted to the area in use at certain times.

Mood Lighting

Mood lighting creates an atmosphere or ambience within your bathroom space. When thinking about what moods you want to create in your bathroom think about what you already have in the space, do you have a spa bath where you’d like a dimmer on your ceiling lights to help you relax? Do you want some soft wall sconce lighting for those midnight bathroom runs? Mood lighting can completely change the feel of your newly renovated bathroom instantly and should never be forgotten in the designing process.

What are the different types of globes?

There are three main types of globe options for your bathroom: Incandescent lightbulbs, compact fluorescent bulbs and LEDs.

Each category of the globe features different brightness levels and colours to suit your personal preference. The main two colours globes offer are cool white, which replicates daylight and warm white, which casts a yellow hue over the room.

When using an LED globe, go for ones in the 4000K to 6500K colour range. These globes will brighten the bathroom without producing unnatural hues. The use of compact fluorescent lighting in bathrooms, however, has become a thing of the past. For the most part, they are typically unflattering in the mirror and additionally produce a very dated aesthetic.

What are the different styles?

Pendant Lights:

Pendant lights are fixed to the ceiling and usually hang down with a cord, rod or chain finishing with a globe encased in decorative glass or metal. Pendant lighting is generally used in a decorative manner, as they tend to create shadows but can be used for general lighting when the pendant is not overly restrictive. Pendant lights can also be used as a great feature in your bathroom or used to highlight a feature you want to draw attention to.

Wall Sconces:

A wall sconce is a lighting fixture which is attached at the wall. These lights do not receive support from any other source and solely sit against the wall. Wall sconces come in a variety of designs and are often used on either side of a vanity mirror in a decorative manner.

Recessed Ceiling Lights:

Recessed lighting is fixed within a hollow space in a ceiling. Recessed lighting is good at making a bathroom design seem bigger and there is no obvious globes within eye line to be distracted from. This lighting can be used as a spotlight to highlight a design element or as a general light to illuminate the entire bathroom space.

Vanity Lighting:

Vanity lighting is most commonly used as task lighting for illuminating a person in front of a mirror. The most recognisable vanity lighting would be a Hollywood style mirror with bulbs featured around the mirror.

Track Lighting:

Track lighting is a fixture which is installed into the ceiling or wall and features multiple light fixtures within a continuous line. These can be fixed vertically or horizontally according to personal preference. Often, track lighting is adjustable, meaning the individual lights are able to move along the track and be focused on different areas when required.

Chandelier:

Like a pendant light, chandeliers are suspended from the ceiling and hang. Typically, chandeliers have a hanging base which is then surrounded by numerous crystal prisms which reflects light in many directions. Chandeliers are an ornamental light fixtures usually featured in luxury bathroom spaces.

LED Strip Lighting:

LED strip lighting is a new but very versatile type of lighting. Strip lighting can be placed along the edges of showers and baths, along a recessed wall shelf as a decorative low light feature. Most strip lightings feature many different colours allowing you to change the ambience of the room with just a click.

Ready to transform your bathroom?

Good lighting will transform the way you feel about your home. Helping you to relax and enjoy your home for years to come. When you’re ready to create a beautiful new space in your Perth home, call us at Navigate Bathrooms on (08) 6615 7789.

Using only top quality reliable products, our expert designer team are here for all your Perth bathroom design and renovation needs.