master bathroom lighting

I’m realizing more and more how important lighting is to my re-designs of these rooms. Pondering the master bathroom yesterday, and then sleeping on it, I decided to take some time and search Google Images for bathrooms with sconces and chandeliers.

I’ve always liked sconces on the sides of mirrors over the vanity instead of overhead lighting that is either canned lights (what we have now) or your typical flush mounted bar, centered above. The chandelier idea can be a bit foo-foo for my taste; it probably depends on the chandelier if I can make it work for me.

	This design (2nd image down) is my favorite. I love the linen shade on the sconces. I also like the cabinet color and glaze with the mirrors and wallpaper.
	Love the chandelier (with a bit of green) with the sconces on this design. My only thing I really don’t like is the stool vanity combination. Impractical. Women sitting down to do makeup seems to 1950’s to me. Having counters of different heights increases clean up time.
	Lovely design in white and green. Major sparkley chandelier. The vanity lights seem a bit weak but the room has canned lighting too.
	This design is a bit on the cold side for me because of the very high walls in stone. I think it needs a little warmth, but I do love the sconce and chandelier combination.The lighting overall is fantastic. It does scream SPA!!! which is extremely hot in design right now (and I think will remain in people’s mind for some time due to our need for comfort during these troubled times).

Lighting is something your builder will skimp on. For example our entire lighting budget for this home (2-story, 2 living, 2 dining, four bedrooms) was $600! That was to include all the hall lights, ceiling fans, switches and outlets! The upshot is adding more light fixtures will cost money, but it will also send a message to the home buyer, consciously or unconsciously that the home is ‘luxe looking.

Since we were talking about remodeling the walls (Venetian Plaster) anyway, I think we will do a bit of hole busting in plaster and put in more lighting and move lighting about. I doubt there is any type of attic access but we’ll check that this weekend.

~ Put a sconce in the toilet area, removing the light/vent combo and just have it be a vent. Wire this into the current sconces? OR put in a mini-chandelier?

~ Sconces on either side of mirrors over vanity OR mini-chandeliers over each vanity sink? The mini-chandeliers would probably fit better because there isn’t much room to put 3 across (1 mirror 1 mirror 1).

~ If no chandelier over the vanity, a central chandelier in the room, replacing the vent/light with just a vent.

~ putting in a new outlet on the wall between the toilet door and closet #2 door. This would allow plug in for something like a towel warmer!

~ solatube over the bathtub area.

An interesting note – when we wanted to put sconces over the bathtub area we were told by the builder that was NOT TO CODE… yet here I see many chandeliers over tubs. I wonder if these people really got code approval before putting that in? Whatever… check with your city government before installing lighting near wet areas such as sinks, tubs and showers.