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If ever there were a room in your house that needs good lighting, it's the bathroom! Bathroom lighting must cover the gamut of every lighting situation you can imagine--from soft lighting in the morning as you wake up, to bright lighting for doing makeup and shaving. Bathroom lighting should come from many sources and directions and provide shadow free illumination as a task light. Who wants to put on makeup or shave with conflicting shadows on your face from poorly designed bathroom light fixtures?

Every bathroom lighting design should include a general light, a frontal light and a good closet lighting.

General bathroom lighting

General Lighting for a bathroom can come from a chandelier, ceiling mount fixture or recessed lighting fixtures. Whichever way you go you must have a dimmer control to regulate the intensity. Chandeliers lend more of a decorative element to the space, where a surface mount ceiling light is more discreet and less of a statement. Recessed lights on the other hand, disappear into the ceiling and provide the cleanest look for creating good bathroom lighting. Some people like to mix fluorescent lights with incandescent lights for bathroom lighting because it helps ladies choose the right color makeup and clothes for the office. Face it, most offices use fluorescent lighting, so dressing in a similar environment is the best way overcome that challenge.

Frontal bathroom lighting.

Frontal lighting can be defined as any bathroom light source mounted on a mirror or adjacent to a vanity table at eye level that illuminates ones face for makeup or shaving. To be successful in lighting for bathrooms, you need one bathroom makeup light on each side for balance, so your face is evenly illuminated without harsh shadows. Wall sconces, vanity lights and small candlestick table lamps are good examples of bathroom lighting fixtures that provide good frontal lighting. Verify the correct mounting height of your wall fixtures because once the mirror man cuts the holes you will be forced to live with it. That can be a costly mistake to fix. Again, the use of dimmer controls is highly recommended so that light levels can be adjusted for the circumstances.

Bathroom Closet Lighting

What would a bathroom be without a good closet close by? Bathroom lighting and closet lighting have one characteristic in common; they must have enough light and produce the right color of light. How many times have you struggled with finding blue and black socks in your closet or bathroom? Bathroom lighting and closet lighting, when done well can solve these problems. Halogen bathroom lighting produces a pure white color which is good for deciphering colors. Ever forget to turn off your closet light? Motion detectors can replace wall switches and automate that process for you.

Remember that well designed bathroom lighting does not happen by chance. Room colors, ceiling heights, mirrors and daylight from windows all contribute to the design process. Light colored surfaces reflect light and make bathroom lighting more useful. Dark colored walls and surfaces on the other hand, absorb light and require higher wattage levels to compensate for lack of reflectivity. Just remember, that you can never have too much light in the bathroom.