Tips For Buying Mirror Lights
Despite the continued popularity of recessed lighting for bathrooms, they don’t give enough clarity around the mirror area, which, let’s face it, is probably the most important part of the room; add mirror lights, though, and you’ll have all the clarity you need.
Your bathroom is the place where you put on your public face and prepare to launch yourself onto the world. For women this generally means, at the very least, a hint of mascara and a smear of lipstick. Try applying that in a poorly lit room and you’ll realize how important effective lighting truly is.
Tallin 900 Mirror Light £159.83 +vat
Unless we’re being wined and dined, mostly we’re viewed under natural daylight, which logically means this is the best type of light under which to assess your look at the start of the day. The fact is, however, that natural daylight is not always in good supply in the average bathroom, which means we have to approximate it as closely as possible. Both halogen lights and LED lamps are reasonably close in temperature and tone to natural light and are preferable to old-style fluorescent lamps, which cast a ghoulish green glow on the skin.
When it comes to the position of mirror lights, you should aim to have them as close to the mirror as possible. The ideal placement is about 30″ apart, but that’s not always possible to achieve.
Remember, your aim is to eliminate shadows; lights either side of the mirror, with one above it if possible, will achieve this. Think in terms of theatrical dressing room mirrors and surrounding your face with light and you won’t go far wrong. Rows of bare bulbs or wall sconces, both will do just fine, it’s all a matter of taste.
If you are to face the day with poise and self-assurance, you want to see yourself looking good – and that won’t be the case if you look at your early-morning face under harsh, unshaded light. Your skin will always look better under warm, diffuse light, so choose mirror lights that have tinted or diffuse lenses. As a basic rule of thumb, the clearer the glass on the light, the worse you will look!
Last, but not least, we come to the overall look of the room, which can be enhanced tremendously by clever lighting. Because of the aforementioned functionality, the best bathroom lighting tends to be layered, so you’ll have the mirror lights plus general lighting and natural light from the windows.
A combination of recessed ceiling lights and mirror lights looks good but, if you are battling with limited space or limited budget, you can achieve a well-designed look just with wall sconces either side of the mirror plus a dimmer switch (which will need to be located outside the room).
There’s an old saying that you can never have too much light in a bathroom; we think that’s not strictly true. Instead, we would say, you can never have too much of the right type of light in your bathroom.
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