Modern bathroom lighting

Have you remodeled your bathroom and don’t know how to light it up?

Or have you bought a new house and need to decide how to best illuminate the bathroom?

In this article I’m going to show you all the secrets that interior designers and architects use when choosing lights for a modern bathroom, I’ll show you some lighting ideas for your bathroom depending on whether it’s small, large or blind (without windows).

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What to consider when lighting a bathroom?

The bathroom light in general

Setting up the lighting for a modern bathroom is easy if you use at least two different light sources: ambient and task lighting.

Ambient lighting allows you to provide general and diffused light to the entire room. If the height of the ceiling allows it, the best choice always falls on a modern chandelier for the bathroom, which will guarantee a strong visual impact in addition to brightness, winking at the most beautiful interior decorations.

If you have a lower ceiling you can instead use one or two ceiling lights or bathroom spotlights at regular intervals, yes it will lose something from a scenic point of view but they will still be functional and efficient.

The task lighting is essential in the mirror area of the bathroom: make-up, skin care or shaving in fact require a higher, uniform light intensity that eliminates shadows so as to allow these delicate activities to be performed precisely and safely.

For this type of lighting, the choice with the greatest visual impact corresponds to the use of two sconces on the sides of the mirror, or two suspensions if you prefer the idea of having luminous pendants, or even the backlit mirror.

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Create the right mood

The bathroom is the place dedicated to the care of personal hygiene, but not only that, in fact it often becomes the place in the house where you can relax the most (almost on a par with the sofa!) perhaps with a nice hot bath by candlelight…

To create the right atmosphere in a modern bathroom you must certainly start from the furniture, which must reflect your personality and needs, supported however by pleasant, but not dazzling lighting, as it could be annoying early in the morning or late in the evening, therefore take care to choose and position the lamps for the bathroom in the best possible way.

For this reason I will now give you some data…

Assuming you have a standard modern bathroom of 10 square meters, as ambient lighting you will need to have a range between 1500 and 2500 lumens, while as task lighting you will need a higher intensity of between 3000 and 4000 lumens.

The sconces for the bathroom will be installed at a distance of about one meter from each other on both sides of the mirror, if you have a smaller space you can bring them a little closer, but without ever going below 70 cm. Then position them so that the light source is about 168cm from the floor, which is eye level for most people.

When hanging a modern chandelier for the bathroom, be careful if you have a bathtub under it, in which case hang it so that it is at least 2.50 meters from the floor, otherwise it can reach up to 2.13 meters from the floor, but without going any further.

For bathrooms with low ceilings, however, a modern bathroom ceiling light is always appreciated.

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How to light up the mirror

As I’ve already told you, having light fixtures that provide even lighting and eliminate shadows for your modern bathroom is incredibly important, especially to allow for makeup or shaving, which is why I always recommend having sconces or hanging pendants for light up the bathroom mirror, in addition to the chandelier.

However, there is a third option that has become increasingly popular in recent years: backlit mirrors.

Important will be to make sure you buy a high quality mirror with sufficient lumens. Some of the inexpensive options may provide only what I would call mood lighting, rather than true task lighting, so be aware that the lumens will vary, and you will need to buy accordingly.

If you like a clean, minimalist aesthetic, backlit mirrors are often an excellent choice. If, on the other hand, you prefer a more chic and mid-century style, sconces or suspensions are certainly the best choice.

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Lighting ideas for a large bathroom

If you have a very large bathroom, you will be able to indulge yourself with various types of lighting, keeping to the advice I have given you.

Since you don’t have space problems, I would definitely opt for a beautiful crystal chandelier, which will guarantee you a strong visual impact and a shining light through the luminous reflections of the crystal.

The chandelier can be assisted by recessed spotlights, especially in the corners of the bathroom and perhaps with a separate switch from the chandelier, so as to obtain perfect ambient lighting.

Then you can focus on the lighting of the mirror by following the above, you can also take a look at how to decorate with a Venetian mirror.

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Lighting ideas for a small bathroom

For the lighting of a small bathroom, an original and at the same time functional idea could be to set up LED lighting of the false ceiling, which covers almost the entire surface of the ceiling itself, embellished by a chandelier for a small bathroom, a three lights will surely be enough.

If it’s the second bathroom, that’s enough, having the main bathroom where you can do your morning beauty routine in the mirror.

Otherwise I would also add one or two appliques, depending on the space available, to the sides of the mirror.

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Lighting ideas for a blind bathroom

Finally, I want to give you some advice on how to illuminate a blind bathroom (therefore without window openings).

First, consider the option of using mainly white or light colors to make the bathroom appear brighter and more spacious.

I really like, if you have the opportunity, to put some LED strips in the bathtub area and in the shelves, which will guarantee you to have modern lighting while safeguarding the space and enhancing the interior.

It can be combined with a pendant lamp for the bathroom that falls near the mirror, in order to have punctual lighting for morning or evening skin care activities.

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With this I’m done, I hope I have exhausted all your doubts on how to light up a modern bathroom…

For any other information or to study your specific case, Cristalleria Murano ® makes its team of lighting designers available free of charge, with the aim of offering you customized lighting according to your tastes in the utmost simplicity.