When lighting your bathroom you have the ideal opportunity to really go for it with your lighting! Do not be constrained by what your electrician might tell you (that you can only have one light in the centre of the ceiling because of safety standards). Your bathroom is the place to really be uninhibited and use your lighting to create a mood. Imagine yourself lying in the bath reading a book surrounded by soft lighting that flickers beautifully on the ripples of water. What a lovely way to end your day and so much nicer than the bright light we oh so often use in our bathrooms.

It is advisable to have layers of light in your bathroom which operate off different dimmer switches. This gives you so much more scope than just having everything working from the one switch. Consider all the places you can have light in your bathroom. Firstly there is the ceiling where recessed lighting is the most suitable. (Be careful not to use a recessed light only directly above a mirror as this causes shadows and is extremely unflattering).

Your recessed lighting does not need to be in any uniform pattern, it works better if you use them where they are most beneficial. For example you could use a recessed downlight in the shower, not only does it give you light in an area you need it, it also reflects off the water and the tiles. It does have to be a downlight which is suitable for that area (watertight). Bathroom lighting is given what is called an IP rating which indicates what area of the bathroom it is suitable for.

You might like the idea of using a glamorous ceiling pendant in your bathroom but unless your fitting is more than 2.25 metres from the bath it is not acceptable. However if you are lucky enough to have gorgeous high ceilings then a chandelier in a bathroom is the absolute height of luxury. For the rest of us we can still make our bathrooms luxurious but we have to be a bit cleverer with our lighting! If you have any alcove areas it is a really good look to use downlights inside the alcove as it gives a lovely effect. You can use lights inset into the plinth under your bath or sink unit. It is possible to be very adventurous in these areas and use colour changing lights if that appeals to you.

Going back to the point made earlier about not using one direct light above your mirror the ideal scenario is to light your mirror from either side to eliminate shadows. You can buy bathroom mirrors that have an inbuilt light system which is ideal for a clean line look. Alternatively there are super wall lights available that will give the same result if used either side of your mirror. It is possible to have a de- mister heater attached to the back of your mirror which can be very useful.

On a final note it is always worth consulting a lighting design specialist to help you consider your options and maybe looking at interiors magazines might give you some idea of the possibilities that are available in bathroom lighting.