Bright ideas for bathroom lighting
The bathroom is one of the most used rooms in the home. It’s where you get ready in the morning and where you can unwind after a long day. With that in mind, it’s essential to choose the right lighting for it. With some help from B&Q, you can create a bathroom lighting scheme that helps with everyday tasks andsets a mood for relaxation and indulgence.
Meet our new range of lighting that means yoursanctuary will always feel like a zen place, whether you’regetting ready,winding down or lathering up. From flush ceiling lights to sculptural LED designs and mirror-framing wall styles, find lights thatset the mood for everypart of your day-to-night routine.
- Things to consider
- Types of bathroom lighting
- Spotlights
- Mirror lighting
- Cabinet lighting
- Ceiling lights
- Wall lights
- Zones and IP ratings
- Indulgent extras
Things to consider before you buy
Take time to consider a few key questions before making your decision. Are you looking for a quick and easy bathroom refresh, or a complete room refit?
The effort and cost involved varies a lot based on the scale of your project. Are you looking to simply replace your existing bathroom lighting and re-use the same fitting? Or is the entire room being re-fitted with lighting as part of a bigger bathroom re-design? In either case, taking measurements will help to give you an idea of your options.
If you are tackling a bathroom re-fit, we recommend selecting your lighting before work begins. That way you'll know if there's any electrical and fitting work that needs to be considered.
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Consider your bathroom style and size
Often bathrooms are the smallest room in the house, but this doesn’t have to limit your options. Different types of lighting can be layered together to create harmonious lighting schemes in even thesmallest of bathrooms.
Remember, if you don’t have any natural light, your lighting scheme will be solely responsible for illuminating the room room, so be sure that it works for all uses.
Types of bathroom lighting
There are twoways to light up your bathroom and it's important that they work together. We'll shed some light below on the different types of lighting and how you can co-ordinate them together.
1. Bathroom tasklighting. Task lighting will help you to complete your everyday routine, like shaving or applying makeup. Options include recessed downlights, spotlights, cabinet lights and mirror lights.
2.Ambient bathroom lighting. Ambient or mood lighting will help you create the right atmosphere, from get up and go to relaxation. Options include ceiling lights and wall lights.
Recessed downlights
Recessed downlightsare built into the ceiling and lie flush against it.They're modern, sleek, and can easily blend into any decor. To dial up the wow-factor, install in any nooks, recesses or alcoves. Downlightsare a great choice for a smaller bathroom, they don't take up munch room but can really illuminate the space.
Cabinet lighting
Light up the space around your bathroom cabinet with our range ofbathroom cabinet lights.Install inside the unit to use as task lighting - making it easier to rummage for toiletries or medicines. Alternatively,fit underneath, or even on the side of the cabinet, to create more ambient lighting.
Ceiling lights
Bathroom ceiling lightscome inflush and semi-flush options. With ceiling lights, there'svery little spacebetween the light fixing and the ceiling so the full height of the room is used. This makes them a great option for small bathrooms. Look for eye-catching, crystal-cut glass designs to achieve a vintage aesthetic in your bathroom.
The amount of steam and moisture in bathrooms means that any light fittings in your bathroom have to be appropriately water-resistant. There are two ways in which we rank the suitability of lights for bathrooms – hazard zones and IP ratings.
Bathroom zones and IP ratings
The IET wiring regulations (the UK’s national standard for safe electrical installation and wiring) divide a bathroom into hazard zones. These zones represent the distance from water sources, and as such determine what lighting is safe to use where. So for example, a light that is over a shower meets with more moisture than one away much further away from it, and so requires lighting with greater resistance to water.
This is how the zones look:
| Zone | Bathroom location |
|---|---|
| Inside the bath or shower | |
| 1 | Above the bath or shower to a height of 2.25metre (m) from the floor |
| 2 | The area stretching 0.6m outside the perimeter of the bath and to a height of 2.25m from the floor. The distance of 0.6m also applies to the basin. |
| Outside zones | The area anywhere outside of the above zones |
Bathroom lights can be listed with just their suitable bathroom zone, the corresponding IP rating or both. The IP (Ingress Protection) rating, also known as the IP code or International Protection Marking, ranks how effectively an electrical item is sealed against solid and liquid objects.
The ratings are given as the initials IP and then two digits. It’s the second digit that’s key for bathroom lighting and the higher it is, the greater the resistance to water.
Here’s a breakdown of the scale for each of the second digit ratings.
| Level | Protected against... |
|---|---|
| No protection | |
| 1 | Dripping water |
| 2 | Dripping water when tilted at 15 degrees |
| 3 | Spraying water |
| 4 | Splashing water |
| 5 | Water jets |
| 6 | Powerful water jets |
| 7 | Immersion, up to a depth of 1m |
| 8 | Immersion, beyond 1m |
When listed together, this is how bathroom zones and IP ratings correspond:
| Zone | Minimum IP rating |
|---|---|
| IP67 | |
| 1 | IP44 or IP45 if exposed to water jets. IP65 recommended. |
| 2 | IP44 |
| Outside zones | IP20. IP44 recommended. |
Check the listed zones and/or IP ratings to make sure your bathroom lights are safe to use in the desired spots before buying.
For the ultimate in bathroom indulgence, consider a spa bath with LED lighting. Create your own by combining one of our baths with awhirlpool or wellness systemthat features colour-changing chromotherapy lighting. Perfect for relaxing at the end of a busy day or energising first thing in the morning, these lights combine with the powerful jets to create a truly special bathing experience.
Safety first
Considering recessed downlights? If there is loft insulation above the recessed downlight instead of inhabitants, you might need to install heat diffusers or insulation guards around the lights. These are essential with old-style halogen bulbs as they generate a lot of heat, though we also recommend for LED lights as using without could reduce the life expectancy of your lights.
