Bright Ideas for Lighting Bathrooms

Bathrooms are getting brighter.

Planning a bathroom makeover? Light your bathroom well for luxury looks to be proud of.

As bathrooms are generally expensive rooms to renovate you’ll want to avoid mistakes and look for inspiring ways to make the most of what is one of the smallest rooms in the home. If you’ve dreamed of a perfect space to refresh, relax and unwind, here are a few tips that will help you make a splash.

If you’re truthful, you’ll want it all! A room that needs to be both practical for cleanliness yet styled to impress. Making the space practical, well lit and function in itself can be impressive. Choosing the right sanitary-ware and complimentary wall and flooring seems to dominate most people thoughts when designing a bathroom. Yet, bathroom lighting – the cheaper investment – is often neglected. This is a real shame as it’s this element that elevates the modest humble family bathroom far beyond the ordinary.

Create a 5 star hotel bathroom in your own home by designing a lighting plan that works practically, this will make the space a joy to use! It’s fairly simple and needn’t cost more than you’d pay for a one night stay in an average hotel. If you’ve ever stayed in a fancy hotel and glanced around the bathroom thinking that the styling is not dissimilar, but the room seems to have a quality feel – that’s good lighting.

Even the most basic bathrooms can be greatly improved with a little know how.

Five considerations for lighting a bathroom

Think about safety first, in the UK you’ll need to consider if the light is rated for bathroom use. Generally you’ll be looking for zone 2 lighting.
Ensure the bathroom lights can be switched correctly, there are rules about the types of switches required in wet rooms, bathroom and shower rooms. Usually pull cord light switches are used to avoid wet hands getting near electrics.
Brighten Bathroom Ceilings with Ceiling Lights. Ensure that the lights are bright but diffused, you don’t want to be relaxing in the tub with a spotlight shining in your eyes.
Light the mirrors, they need to give a good amount of illumination for shaving or applying makeup.
Add mood lighting

Safety First: lighting especially designed to be safe in a bathroom, needs to be splash proof if its to be mounted safely next to water. It can be seen as confusing when you first look into bathroom safe light fittings. It’s not as complex as it first appears. Bathrooms are zoned:

Zone 3 is the least risky area in a bathroom and any lights can be used in this area as it far away from the risk of being splashed.

Zone 2 there are risks of lights getting wet accidentally splashed and there’s risks of them being touched with wet hands.

Zone 1 has the same risks as zone 2 so additional onus is on the electric contractor to fit RCD protection to the circuit.

Zone 0 is the most dangerous where lights may be in a shower cubical or bath tub.

Bathrooms can be dangerous areas if electricity and water come into contact. Those areas are rated in regard to risks; a light fitting inside a bathtub is a no-no! This is where zero lights should be used as anything else is far too dangerous. We’ll call this Zone Zero (Zone 0) Yet we have seen lights submerged in pools and ponds so there must be lights suitable. Yes, there are, but they must be suitable for zone 0.

Zone 0 lights need to be labelled IP65 and have a low wattage and must also be fitted by an expert to the current electrical standards. Great care must be taken as the risk is high. As you’d expect the law protects consumers by regulating electrical contractors and manufacturers of light fittings. It’s complicated to shop for lights without knowing a little about splash zones.

Next, you need to select lights that are protected against moisture ingress. You’ll often see zone 1 lights rated as IP44 which means they are not only enclosed electrical components but they have additional seals to stop moisture from reaching the light bulb.

IP in the above stands for Ingress Protection, The first number relates to solid particles, dust, flies and all the nasty stuff, but the last number is the important one. The higher the number the greater the protection 0 is no protection and the higher the number the better the protection. Outside lights would be rated IP44 and this means they are suitable for the British weather, so you can see why this rating is also used for all zone one bathroom lights. Some manufacturers will say the lights are IP44 suitable for zone 1 and others will say suitable for Zone 2 this causes a lot of confusion for consumers.

IP44 is safe for zones 1,2 and 3 providing your bathroom is wired to current electrical standards and there is a separate RCD protection in the fuse board. Most modern homes have this as it’s been a requirement Most consumers don’t need to know how to wire lights but understanding the types of lights to select for each area in the bathroom makes shopping for lights easier. We have a basic guide to help you select the correct lights.

Lighting above a wash hand basin.

The correct lights to mount above a wash basin? You’d need a wall light suitable for zone 2 if it’s mounted 60cm above the taps, if it’s below 60cm then you’d have to select zone 1.

Bathroom Ceiling Lights you’ll need zone 2 IP44 for all area’s of the ceiling and greater protection if you are inside the shower or directly above a bath.

Can you have sockets and switches in a bathroom?

You would not be allowed nor is it safe to have sockets in a bathroom. You should never have any plug in appliances in a bathroom so don’t be tempted to plug in an extension lead to play music. You can have a shaver sockets.

Switches are pull cords as you are only touching the cord and not the electrical parts of the switch these are safe. You may have noticed that all wall lights that have switches also have pull cords so that wet hands don’t need to touch the light fitment. Whilst on that subject if you are options for wall lights in your bath room you’ll need to consider how this is switched.

If you are replacing a light on the wall establish if it needs to have an inbuilt switch or if it will be switched with the rest of the lights. Your electrician may be able to assist you with this. We’d suggest replacing like for like. If it has a switch on the lamp choose a light that also has a switch.

If you are having the bathroom rewired you may wish to have ceiling and wall lights switched separately.

Is it better to have lights above or either side of the mirror. Or even a lit mirror? There is always a lot of debate about this one. As a rule of thumb as long as the light, illuminates your face either way works. Having said that if the mirror has a deep frame simply ensure the light sticks out further than the frame.

Styles of mirror lights.

There’s probably more choice available to you than ever before from art deco through Victorian to modern, to LED bathroom lights there’s a style to suit any decor. One of the newest emerging trends for bathrooms is industrial lights. Perhaps because the retro industrial trend has been prevalent in interior design it’s a natural progression that the bathroom has similar styling to the rest of the home or possibly because the brass bathroom lights work well when sat next to brass ware such as taps and mixer showers. Gold is definitely back! Bathrooms are getting a luxury look. There have been rumblings that coloured bathroom suites will be back too! Can you face avocado it was all the rage in the 80’s? Maybe not that green again but dramatic darks are being predicted.

For longevity you can’t really go wrong with a pure white suite. It works with chrome or gold taps, it works with traditional or modern lighting, you can match any colour floor and walls and it works with chandeliers or basic spot lights.

Top styles for well dressed bathrooms and the bathroom lighting styles to suit. We also explore box fresh new looks for bathrooms you may never have heard of. Fresh new looks that are sure to make a splash!

Opal white lighting, cool classic, simply styled white and chrome these looks epitomises hotel style. Quality pieces co-ordinated perfectly in matching sets.