Tips on Choosing the Ideal Bathroom Lighting
The bathroom is a busy place with all members of your family visiting it on and off throughout the day. Besides adding ambiance, bathroom lighting is essential for safety and function. And the placement and type of fixtures installed in your bathroom can have a major impact on how relaxing and usable the room is.
Forces of Nature
Water and humidity are two important factors to consider when choosing lighting for this room. A small bathroom consisting of only a toilet and a sink will likely experience less humidity than a larger room with a shower or bath in it, but the risk of exposure to water is the same level no matter how big the room is.
For that reason wood and fabric should be avoided in the design of bathroom lighting. These materials will be easily damaged by water and condensation, which has the potential to lead to an electrical short or damage to the plaster behind the fixture.
Glare and Glass
Inevitably there are polished surfaces in the bathroom. For that reason it is important to avoid bright lighting that will create uncomfortable glare. Whether on the mirror over the vanity or off the shiny bathroom tile, a bright light bulb behind a clear glass shade is not the best choice for your bathroom.
Choose lightly shadowed or diffused glass shades instead, to soften the brightness of bulbs and avoid glare. An opal-coloured shade is a popular choice, providing the diffusing effect as well as a romantic styling. These shades also help to spread the light around the room, an effect that is often amplified by the light colours and shiny surfaces in the bath.
Indirect lighting is often used in the bathroom to avoid glare. Ceiling fixtures point up and vanity lighting strips use shades that direct the brightness away from the mirror and vanity. This allows for enough light to apply makeup and shave, an important factor, while still avoiding the uncomfortable glare.
What Is An IP Rating?
Lighting fixtures for use in the bathroom are often given an IP rating. This figure, which represents the Ingress Protection and indicates the level of resistance the lighting has to water. This same rating system is used for outdoor lighting with the numbers 0, 1 or 2 seen in the bathroom. Be sure to install a lighting fixture that matches the relevant IP zone in your bathroom.
Be sure to choose bathroom lighting that will not only be safe and resistant to water damage, but will also avoid glare and provide beautiful soft lighting in this room. Every member of your family will appreciate it.
Bathroom lights come in a wide range of styles and designs, go online to find the best deals on home lighting and the widest range of fixtures and options for a unique bathroom in your home.
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