Lighting the Home: The Bathroom 1

27-05-2011

The Bathroom: 1 - the washbasin

There's no reason to flood (pardon me!) a bathroom with loads of light, unless that's what you want to do, of course - and unless you NEED loads of light (lighting designers - like everyone else - often forget that other people occasionally have other needs). So concentrate the light where you need to use it, and that - without fail - is the washbasin. Its the one place in the bathroom where you really care about what you're looking at.

The light ought to be soft (none of those harsh downlights casting shadows where shadows shouldn't be permitted) and preferably coming from either side of the face, not from directly above the head.

Light colour is important, especially for applying make-up. Its a new idea, but I'm hearing more about having wash-basin lighting that provides daylight colour for daytime make-up, with a much warmer light when making-up for the evening. It may sound a bit precious, but there's no denying the fact of it's effectiveness. Its the kind of effect that the new-fangled LED lighting is capable of providing for us.

But given that most of us won't bother with such delicacies, I would ALWAYS propose a warm white light rather than the coolness of the daylight colour, and I am constantly annoyed by those companies who sell illuminated mirrors fitted with cold white lamps. Brrrr.