3 Tips For Choosing The Perfect Lighting For Your Bathroom

Choosing the perfect lighting for your bathroom is more important than you may think. Good lighting increases illumination and opens up the space, making it feel more inviting. Lighting your bathroom correctly also improves its overall look, and can even add value to your home, according to Bath Planet. As an added bonus, if you choose energy-efficient light bulbs, or install dimmers in your bathroom, you can also minimize your electric bill. 

There are several ways to ensure your bathroom lighting is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, and it isn't just reliant on choosing the right type of fixtures — although that is important. Good lighting incorporates various factors, such as color and intensity, positioning, and variety. These simple and effective ways will take your bathroom from drab to fab, and make it one of the most alluring rooms in the house. Here are the best tips for choosing the perfect lighting for your bathroom.

If you're blessed with a bathroom with large, open windows, you're already one step ahead of those who don't. Rooms lit with natural light have an entirely different atmosphere than those lit with artificial light. Natural light can make a room feel bigger, whereas bathrooms with dim lighting can feel smaller and less appealing. Moreover, when you look at yourself in the mirror, natural lighting gives you the most accurate portrayal of yourself. Mirrors lit by natural lighting, show how you really look, not how you appear under dim or fluorescent light.

Additionally, natural lighting is cheaper than lighting your bathroom artificially, Modo Bath says. The average American pays roughly $117 a month for electricity, according to IProperty Management. When you're able to fully light your bathroom by just drawing the blinds or opening the curtains, you are saving yourself a good chunk of change.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and thought to yourself, What is going on with this lighting? Do I really look like this? The chances are that the dressing room was lit with fluorescent lighting, which often highlights features you aren't the most secure about. According to Speeli, yellow fluorescent light bulbs bring your imperfections to the forefront, often making you look older, whereas, white fluorescent lighting can make you appear sickly because it removes the pink undertones from your complexion.

Who wants to look in a bathroom mirror that makes you look worse? Instead of using fluorescent light bulbs in your bathroom, opt for 5000K LED bulbs, which closely mimic the color and intensity of natural lighting, GT-Lite explains. If you don't have access to real natural light, these light bulbs are the next best option to give your bathroom the best lighting possible.

Your light fixture placement can make or break the lighting in your bathroom. Steer clear of placing your light directly above your bathroom sink, or in the middle of the bathroom ceiling. The New York Times suggests staying away from overhead lights altogether, as it creates shadows across your face and highlights dark circles and wrinkles. The correct light fixture placement does the opposite, portraying how you actually look during the day. To get the perfect lighting in your bathroom Shades of Light suggests placing your light fixture above the mirror. Alternatively, if you have enough room, place a sconce on either side of the mirror to provide equal lighting on each side. 

Riverbend Home suggests another formula for spacing your light fixtures correctly, which is simply dividing the ceiling height in half. For example, if you have a ceiling that is 8 feet tall, you should place the fixtures 4 feet from each other. Combined with the correct 5000K light bulbs, your bathroom will offer the best lighting.