Vanity lighting is a crucial finishing touch for your bathroom. Serving both practical and decorative purposes, these fixtures create beautiful light that functions well from morning into night. Use these ideas to illuminate your own bathroom in style.
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Bathroom Vanity Lighting Tips
Positioned around the mirror and sink area of your bathroom, vanity lighting provides illumination for important grooming tasks, from applying makeup to shaving. For task lighting that's both functional and flattering, these fixtures should be positioned so they light your face evenly without casting shadows. To create a bright, balanced effect, vanity lights are often combined with other sources of ambient light, such as recessed or ceiling-mounted fixtures, or natural light from a window.
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Modern Vanity Lighting
Bathroom vanity lights come in a wide variety of styles and sizes. For a modern look, trade traditional sconces for ceiling-mounted pendants. Here, minimalist vanity lights hang down to about eye level on both sides of the mirror, providing optimal illumination and sleek style. Before mounting any fixture in a bathroom, check that it's rated for use in damp areas.
Your vanity lighting should reflect the overall style of your bathroom. In farmhouse-style bathrooms, for example, look for fixtures with rustic or industrial details. This vanity light features a wire cage design that matches the brass finish on the faucet and ties in with other farmhouse elements, including shiplap walls and a weathered barn door.
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Double Vanity Lighting Ideas
Double vanities typically require more than one fixture for adequate lighting. Space out wall sconces or pendants along the length of the cabinet, ensuring that each sink has at least one light above it. In this spacious bathroom, globe-shaped sconces line up along the top of the mirror to provide light for two sinks and the makeup vanity between.
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Small Bathroom Vanity Lighting Ideas
In small bathrooms, scale down your vanity lighting to match the size of the space. For example, a large, statement-making pendant would look out of place above a petite powder-room vanity. In proportion with the narrow cabinet and mirror, a small wall sconce illuminates this vanity from above. Natural light from the window brightens the rest of the room, so only minimal vanity lighting is needed.
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Stylish Vanity Lighting
Vanity lighting offers a prime opportunity to show off your style. In this cheerful bathroom, antique-style brass sconces highlight whimsical patterned walls and an intricately framed vintage mirror. Monogrammed shades trimmed with red ribbon add a personal touch.
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Bathroom Vanity Lighting Placement
Large mirrors provide lots of primping space and make small bathrooms appear larger, but they don't leave much room for lighting. If your bathroom mirror takes up most of the wall space above the cabinet, look to side walls for mounting sconces. Lighting your vanity from the side is a smart use of space that can also prevent side shadows while you're getting ready.
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Single Vanity Light Ideas
For extra brilliance, single vanities can benefit from multiple sources of light. Because this cabinet is built into a niche, the sink area would have been too dark and shadowy without sufficient lights. Two curved-arm sconces extend out from the wall for bright, balanced task lighting.
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Bathroom Vanity Sconces
To achieve a cohesive look, repeat the metal finishes used throughout the bathroom in the vanity lighting. Here, polished nickel sconces tie in with the shiny mirror frames, faucets, and hardware. The reflective finishes combine with the vanity's watery blue paint color for a crisp, energizing look.
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Unique Bathroom Vanity Lighting Ideas
Basic wall-mounted fixtures aren't your only option for vanity lighting. For an unexpected twist, mount a chandelier directly over the vanity. In this remodeled bathroom, a brass-and-glass chandelier hangs just above the mirror for a striking contemporary statement and plenty of task lighting.
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Multi-Light Fixtures for Vanities
Increase the brightness of your bathroom with a vanity light with multiple bulbs. For a balanced look, keep the full span of the fixture no wider than the vanity cabinet. Otherwise, your setup can have a top-heavy look.
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Vanity Light Bar
Light bars give off even brightness without visual interruption. This idea works well in contemporary spaces to achieve a sleek, simple look. In this minimalist bathroom, a tube fixture melds well with a frameless mirror and floating vanity.
Vertical lights, or sconces, that are mounted on either side of the mirror are great when you're looking for even lighting. Taskers say this lighting is best if you want to avoid casting shadows over your face during your morning routine.
Chose bulbs or LED fixtures that emit bright white light with a high CRI (around 90-100) for the most accurate colors. Bulbs in the 'soft white' range of 2700K – 3000K are recommended for general bathroom use, and makeup application in particular.
For double-sink vanities or those with wider countertops, a multi-light vanity fixture above mirror can be a good solution—choose a configuration of two, three or four lights—and ensure the light is about three-quarters the width of the mirror or no wider than the cabinet, regardless of how the mirrors are installed.
If you have a long bathroom vanity, you might need more than one light to properly illuminate it. For instance, if you have two sinks, it's best to have lighting for each sink. Sconces on both sides of your mirror will light up your face evenly, and prevent any shadows.
Some vanity lights are even more versatile, because they can be mounted with glass or diffuser up or down. With the exposed light bulb facing down there will be a bit more light, but glare will increase. With diffuser/glassware facing up, some light may be blocked, but the glare can be reduced.
Since your average bathroom vanity is 36 inches tall, you should center your lights over the sink above the mirror about 40 inches above your vanity top, or 76 inches above the floor.
If you need or want to use a bath bar over your bathroom mirror, measure how wide your mirror is in inches. That number is your limit for the width of a light to go over it, though many people choose a light that is about 75% of that number.
The ideal height for installing fixtures above the mirror is 78 inches. Look for fixtures that hold higher-wattage bulbs so available light has the best chance to fall evenly over the sinks.
You need to consider the layout of your bathroom, and a general rule is that the lights should start two feet from the edge of the ceiling, and be spaced out evenly, every two feet across the ceiling.
For a single-lamp fixture, choose a light approximately one-third of the width of your mirror. Multi-light fixtures look balanced when they are shorter, as long as or wider than the mirror. Just make sure it's not bigger than the vanity.
A warm white light (3000K) for bathing and going to the toilet is ideal for providing a comfortable and at ease atmosphere. However, for light fixtures that would illuminate your mirror where you would do the shaving, plucking, or skin care, cool white light (4000K) is the ideal temperature.
“The same impact paint can have on your walls, it can have on your bathroom counters too,” she says. “This is a super cost-effective upgrade to spruce up your vanity and take years off a dated look.”
A 4 light fixture is simply a step up from the 3 light fixture. Typically, a four-light vanity fixture will be installed over a vanity sink that ranges from 48 to 72 inches.
How do I choose the right color light for my vanity mirror? Choosing the right color light depends on your preferences. Warm white light creates a cozy atmosphere, while cool white or daylight bulbs offer accurate color representation. Adjustable color temperature mirrors give you the freedom to switch between options.
While you might think white's the most flattering color because it reflects light and does not cast any kind of hue onto your skin, a pale pink actually might be more universally flattering. In fact, pink has been used in bathrooms for decades, but not every shade is created equally.
The new “day” light bulbs have the blue tint to them, which, in general, is not so flattering to our skin. Instead, keeping the temperature around 2700K can help create a warmer, more skin loving glow. Try and avoid fluorescent bulbs like CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps) at all costs.
Butterfly lighting (sometimes called “paramount lighting” which is a way less fun thing to call it) is one of the most flattering lighting setups for most faces, so don't even think about lighting me any other way. Your goal is to create a butterfly shape in the shadow under the nose.
In general, warm light is more flattering to skin tones and can make people look more relaxed and comfortable. Cool light, however, can make skin tones appear paler and washed out. The temperature of a light source can also affect how people perceive the size and shape of a room.
Introduction: My name is Nicola Considine CPA, I am a determined, witty, powerful, brainy, open, smiling, proud person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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