A bathroom mirror is a must for any grooming area. When devising your lighting plan to light your bathroom vanity mirror, you must make sure that your grooming area is properly lighted. A general rule of thumb is that it must be shadowless, glare-free and well illuminated. This can best be achieved by the placement and combination of ambient, accent lighting and task lighting which offers greater control to direct the light where it is most needed.

Ambient light is the overhead light that creates a dispersed uniform general lighting affect in your bathroom and can come from multiple sources. Also it’s usually best to have more than one overhead lighting source if your washroom is more than thirty-five square feet so that light reaches all corners of your lavatory. Another good idea when installing lights over your vanity is purchase bulbs that generate light in the daylight spectrum range. Try to avoid light bulbs that are too yellow or too white because they won’t produce a true representation of what you look like outside in natural light.

Lighting your bathroom mirror is probably one of the most important areas to illuminate because it is usually the primary clean up and grooming area and you need to see what you are doing. Make sure it is evenly lighted and does not cast any unflattering shadows. The most effective way to achieve this is to evenly distribute the light sources from above, both sides of your mirror and even from below if this can be achieve within your bathroom layout. As most women would attest to, this multiple lighting technique avoids shadows that may interfere with judging the true affects when applying makeup since the vanity is primarily used as a cosmetic mirror.

The ideal set up would be installing one or more lighting fixtures above your mirror to illuminate the facade of the counter top and front of the sink. Next place two side lights at eye level on either side of your bathroom vanity mirror to make sure your face gets ample light (can use wall scones). And to enhance the whole lighting effect and take advantage of the luminosity reflecting off your countertop, it would be a good idea to purchase a light coloured countertop. Mirrors help to reflect and distribute light throughout your bathroom so your choice of frame, shape and size of your vanity mirror will have a profound effect on the décor tone and perceived size of your bathroom, so choose carefully to make the most of lighting your bathroom mirror to your advantage.

Here is another article on Lighted Bathroom Mirrors that you may find interesting.

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