1. Plan your Task & Mood Lighting
The first step when creating a cohesive and rounded lighting scheme for your bathroom, is to consider your layout and identify where your functional or task light is needed. Then, determine where you would like to experience mood lighting.
We recommend separating these two key areas on independent circuits. As this will give you flexibility to use the full range of lighting within the bathroom during busy periods; such as morning routines, a relaxing bath or shower in the evening or weekend, and low lighting for night-time visits to the bathroom.
2. Warm or Cool Lighting
There isn’t a right or wrong answer when it comes to Cool or Warm lighting. Cool lighting is often used in commercial spaces such as offices, as this imitates the natural morning light which send messages to our brains, informing us it is time to wake up and start the day. This effect is a good way to help the user feel energised and ready to face the day!
Whereas, warm colour tones in lighting resemble sunset colours, which subconsciously tells the brain to switch off and start winding down from a busy day; encouraging a good night’s sleep. Consider these effects when choosing your lighting. Not just in your bathrooms but throughout your entire home. You may be surprised how careful planning lifts and enhances your mood.
3. Use lighting to create a feature wall.
This is one of the oldest tricks in the book, yet often not fully appreciated on how easy it is to implement! You can simply choose any type of tile with various levels of texture. However, it’s good to remember, when using spot lights on the ceiling to accentuate textured tiles, the closer the lights are placed to the wall, the more it will enhance the texture. See the image below showing just how 2 simple spots on a ceiling elevates the textured wall to a whole new level of luxury.
4. Use recessed LED lighting in creative ways.
Once you have decided where you would like your mood lighting to be positioned, there are different ways to create the perfect lighting affect, that will enhance your bathroom.
Small recessed lights can be placed within shower recesses, recessed shelves above a WC, under a basin or even bath surrounds! The options are limitless when it comes to placing concealed lighting in your bathroom. See some of our examples below.
5. Ceiling & Wall Lights
Wall and ceiling Lights are a powerful yet straightforward way to design a bathroom with interesting lighting schemes; they serve both functional and decorative purposes and are often much easier to install thus saving time and money with your electrician.
There are many new models coming on to the market offering more bathroom lighting options, allowing new and amazing designs to be implemented. So bathrooms needn’t use the same old-fashioned lights that were often used in the past. See some examples below that show both functional and more decorative takes on Bathroom Wall Lights – including in mirror surrounds.
6. Layer the lighting features for a dynamic effect!
After exploring your options, it’s time to layer your lighting design! This is an intricate process, and you may benefit from a professional designer that has the knowledge and experience with lighting. This is so your design doesn’t end up laden down with unnecessary features. However, the concept is to use your light features to draw the eye across the room, in a way that creates accents in an understated and coherent journey which explores the space and marries all elements of the design together.
We hope this guide has opened another door into the wonderful, and surprisingly complex world of hidden decisions you need to be aware of, when creating the bathroom of your dreams.
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