Backlighting in the bathroom: installation features

Bathroom in the house - this is a very special room, which should satisfy all the whims of the owners. In the bathroom every day several times there are all members of the family, so it is very important to ensure everything possible for the comfortable and efficient use of this room. When building or repairing a bathroom, special attention should be given not only to the choice of sanitary ware, but also to lighting. On how well it will be installed, depends on the ease of use and aesthetics of the bathroom. Today we will talk about how to connect the backlight in the bathroom.

Need more light

What we used to see when entering the bathroom - bathtub, sink, shelves for the showeraccessories, towels, and all this is illuminated by a single bulb under the ceiling. It sounds sad, but it looks even sadder. If you want to leave such a "barbarous" way of lighting in the past and make your bathroom a place where you want to stay as long as possible, choose the right backlight.

If you make the lighting in the bathroom correctly, you can visually expand and give "airiness" to even the tiniest room, emphasize all the advantages of the interior and focus on functional areas. Light helps not only to highlight the dignity of the room, but also to hide flaws, to make the environment brisk, romantic or pacifying.

But first of all, lighting is necessary to maintain proper hygiene conditions. It is clear that most of the usual actions are performed by most people automatically, but you will agree, it is much more convenient to do this in good lighting. Plus, enough light will facilitate and speed up cleaning in the room, because everything will be as in the palm of your hand.

Some believe that a single ceiling light is enough for a small bathroom. But let's consider this point in more detail. In the most common bathroom besides plumbing there is a lot of things: cosmetics, sponges, towels, hairdryers, electric shavers, household chemicals, washing machine. .. The list goes on, but it becomes clear - in order to properly illuminate each item of one bulb is clearly not enough. It is especially difficult to organize bathroom lighting with own hands in Soviet-built houses, because the square is very modest and contains a lot of items.

The bathroom of 4 m² must have at least 2 lamps, ideally the lighting fixtures must be located in each functional area. For example, to apply make-up or comb your hair, you need a lot of light around the mirror;to find the right cream or take a razor, it does not hurt to put the shelf in the bathroom with a light. If you approach the issue in detail, you should install the lamp so that the light is evenly distributed over the top, bottom and center of the bath. Most of the light should be in the middle - 70 cm from the floor and up to the level of a person's face. But this parameter can vary depending on the average growth of the tenants, so it needs to be adjusted individually.

If the bathroom is very small, then, in fact, you can confine yourself to one good lamp. But it should be powerful enough and scatter light evenly over the entire area. But if it is a question of placing more than 5 m², the lamps should be installed on the mirror, and near the bath or shower, on the ceiling and even on the floor. For very large bathrooms, you can buy decorative lighting, which at the same time will be an additional source of light and will fill a spacious area.

For simultaneous lighting of the ceiling and walls, it is better to choose luminescent or halogen lamps. During installation, it is important to correctly direct the flow of light - it must go strictly down to illuminate the floor surface, the table and shelves. Sometimes lamps can give too bright light and blind eyes, then they can be turned slightly to the side.

Lighting areas

We have already mentioned several times about functional areas, and now we have got close to this topic. Even the smallest bathroom requires zoning. This means that the room should be visually divided into several sectors: a bath or shower, a washbasin and adjoining shelves with cosmetics and a mirror, a working area with soap, powders, a washing machine, an ironing board, etc. Depending on the quadrature, the scales of these sectors can vary, as well as their number. If the room has niches, you can make small separate zones with individual backlighting.

We should start, perhaps, with the most important thing - bathtubs. Old-style products do not differ elegance and technical perfection, but today you can find truly extraordinary baths with built-in lighting. This plumbing looks very impressive and meets all safety standards. But not everyone can afford to acquire a luminous bath, so we will consider how it is possible to illuminate an ordinary bath.

Variants of zoning the bath with light:

1. Install the lamp directly above the bathroom so that it receives a beam of directional light, immersing the rest of the space in a semi-darkness. Then in such a bath you can completely relax and let your eyes rest.
   
2. Hang the wall with a shade of colored glass, then the situation will become more calm and romantic mood.
3. If the bathroom has a low ceiling, but the quadrature is quite large, group several colored lights in one place on the ceiling. Then you can achieve the effect of color differentiation of the space - the shades will gently replace each other, creating an unusual atmosphere.
4. To beautifully illuminate the water, use a floor lamp at a height of about 2 m. Naturally, it is not possible to use lighting fixtures for a bathroom that are suitable for a living room or kitchen. They must meet certain standards. The most important rule for all light bulbs in the bathroom is not to let the water pass. Water-repellent characteristics should also have lampshades, coasters and other details.
5. Place the fixtures on each piece of sanitary equipment - sink, faucet, bathtub or shower. The main thing is that the lighting devices do not interfere with the functionality of the room. That's why many choose indoor or outdoor lighting. The latter refers more to the decorative type, but it can not be denied that in a bathroom with light bulbs in the floor is much lighter than without them. Now almost every sanitary ware shop can find mixers with built-in lighting. Very nice looks "colored water" - the bulb is aimed at the filter and gives the flowing water the right shade.
   

The illumination of the floor in the bathroom should be done with special luminaires capable of withstanding load, friction and direct contact with water. The structure must be completely sealed and shockproof. Ideal option will be lamps designed for installation in garden areas( highlighting tracks, stairs, etc.).These are small products with a diameter of 5 cm, which are set to the floor to a depth of 9 cm. Obviously, installing such a lighting for the bathroom requires a little to raise the level of the floor. The power of light bulbs in such luminaires usually does not exceed 5 watts.

Bath lighting

There are so many options for bath fixtures that it is sometimes very difficult to make a choice - I want to install as many different bulbs, LEDs and ribbons as possible. But the excess of forms, colors and degrees of brightness can play against you. To make harmonious and functional lighting, equip the most important functional areas first, and then see if you need to add lights, or all and so it turned out well.

Very beautiful looks LED lighting in the bathroom, which frames the bath or the floor around it. LEDs can put a chaotic composition, imitating the starry sky. Just imagine how magically resting, lying in warm water after a hard day and admiring the shimmering "constellations"!

LED lamps are ideal for the bathroom:

1. To operate it is sufficiently low voltage, so they can be safely installed in rooms with a high level of humidity.
2. They are completely safe from an environmental point of view.
3. You can reduce or increase the intensity of the glow of LED lamps.
4. LEDs save a lot of electricity compared to conventional "Ilyich bulbs" and even energy-saving lamps. The cost of electricity is reduced by 60-70%.

Light-emitting diodes allow to organize target illumination, having directed light in the necessary zone, for example, over a sink, at a mirror, in a shower room or on shelves. You can install a bathroom cabinet with a backlight, which works when the door is opened, as in a refrigerator.

Light from the ceiling

The ceiling lighting in the bathroom can be made with spotlights, long halogen lamps, LED strips and other electrical appliances. For a small room on the ceiling, one lamp is enough, and the rest of the lighting can be spread out over walls, plumbing and floors.

In large rooms, the fixtures in the ceiling must be located above the bathroom, washing machine and sink. It is not necessary to use powerful lamps, moreover, it is better to limit yourself to not very bright fixtures and solve the issue not by quality but by quantity. Low-power LEDs, for example, can be installed almost everywhere, including in the ceiling, and electricity on them will go just as little.

When organizing the lighting in the bathroom, it is recommended to pay attention to the products with conductive elements and tires, as they can significantly expand the range of possibilities. Halogen lamps are open and built-in. The latter is installed in a suspended ceiling type from waterproof plasterboard or plywood. Also on the market you can find halogen lamps, which cut directly into the concrete floor.

As a rule, such devices give a directional stream of light, which goes strictly to the floor. This solution is not always convenient, so you need to put additional spotlights to get diffuse light.

Halogen lamps are completely different, and they can be mounted on any surface. With their help, you can make a bright backlight in the wall in the bathroom, in the closet or under the sink. You can create original combinations with mobile light sources, which at any time can be deployed to the desired side or even removed.

Fixtures for mirrors

Specialists recommend to set the backlight not on the mirror, but on both sides of it, so that the face is illuminated evenly. If the light goes on top or only on one side, the shadow will be falling on the neozaryayuemuyu part of the face, which is very interfering with the application of make-up or during skin care procedures. You can hang the sconce, put point lights, but the most unusual and original effect is achieved through LED strips. You just need to attach them around the perimeter of the mirror, so that the light spreads evenly.

Rules for lighting organization for a mirror:

1. Choose bright enough lamps, but not to make them blind. The best option would be bright diffused light from matte lamps. Also a good "diffuser" is a lampshade made of white plastic or glass.
2. Do not install colored lampshades or lamps to avoid distorting the reflection.
3. Place the lamps on both sides of the mirror symmetrically so that you do not get the "black and white" transitions.
4. If there is a wide mirror in your bathroom, then to illuminate it completely, two light bulbs on the sides will be small. In this case, place the light sources at a height of approximately 2 m from the floor with an equal installation step.
5. For medium-sized mirrors, it is best to frame the LED strip around the perimeter.
6. The type of lamp can be any, but its spectrum should be as close as possible to the spectrum of natural light.

If you are not sure that you can independently install the light in the work area, it may be better to purchase a mirror with illumination in the bathroom.

Backlight in the bathroom photo

There are so many options for highlighting the bathroom that it can be very difficult to choose. We have prepared a small photo collection of the most practical and original ideas. We hope that you will get inspiration after viewing and create your own unique interior.