Bathrooms are the singularly most difficult room within a home to light. This is true for a number of reasons. Here are those reasons along with advice, information and inspiration as to the many and diverse ways of lighting the bathrooms within your home, safely and stylishly.
Safety before Style
To begin with, lighting a bathroom involves using electrical fittings that are to be placed in a room which is likely to experience high levels of moisture. Further, the voltages used in domestic homes here in the UK are higher than those used in many other countries. This is why we use three pin plugs that feature an earthed pin, in contrast to many countries which use two pin plugs as standard. This is also why light fittings sold and used here within the UK are affixed with an IP rating.
An IP (a.k.a Ingress Protection) rating is established by assessing the amount of moisture a given light fitting or fixture permits to enter it. When fitting a bathroom with lighting here in the UK, only fittings and fixtures of specific IP ratings are legally used. This is because fittings which permit high levels of water or moisture to penetrate them can very realistically result in catastrophic consequences and at worst human fatalities.
Then, to learn more about IP ratings and the specific ratings you should ensure any fitting to be used in your bathroom should bear, continue your research via the Enclosure Company website. Meanwhile, for more style related advice, read on.
Ceiling Lighting
Many UK bathrooms feature only a single ceiling light. Many of those bathrooms also feature a flush light fitting as these types are often the safest, easiest to clean and least aesthetically intrusive for use within a small space or room. That needn’t mean though that flush light shades need be boring. In fact, and recognising the desire these days for a stylish interior and finishing touches within the home, designers have gone out of their way to design and create some truly illuminating (pun intended) flush ceiling lights which can be used within bathrooms and provide a real wow factor.
To see for yourself a wealth of different and dazzling designs currently out there, head over to the Houzz Interior Design website, which features a gallery of over 800 different bathroom appropriate flush light fittings.
Wall Lighting
In recent years supplementing bathroom ceiling lighting with wall lights has become increasingly popular. This is not only a growing fashion must-have, but one which fulfils a function too.
Because most bathrooms feature frosted glass windows (which can reduce the natural light permitted to enter the room) and some bathrooms do not feature windows at all, filling a bathroom wth adequate light can be problematic. This is an especially common reality in en suites.
Whilst in many bathrooms this does not cause too much of a practical issue as a ceiling fitting and bulb provides an adequate level of light, as we are using our bathrooms more and more these days to apply makeup, preen and perform at home beauty procedures once only ever really carried out by beauticians in commercial and so purpose designed studios, the need for task lighting and brighter light is ever growing. Then, wall lighting is a fantastic way to gain more control over the amount of light within a bathroom, and you can view a huge range of such lighting head over to the Oberoi Brothers designer lighting website.
Just remember though, adding wall lighting into a bathroom is best done when designing or as part of a whole bathroom overhaul as wiring will need to be addressed (and done so by a professional). This is not a DIY job and often involves working tiling and appliances as well as in some cases plumbing carefully to ensure the result is as safe as it is stylish.
