Upstairs Bathroom Remodel | Lighting

Lighting is more exciting than plumbing, the last post about the remodeled upstairs bathroom. Remodeling the upstairs bathroom in our post and beam house was a good time to update the lighting to provide more light for the section of the bathroom with the new shower. There have been several previous posts about the renovation of the bathroom since so much work was done. This post is all about lighting in the bathroom. 

 

Once we decided the leaking bathtub faucet, leaking floor drain, and crumbling grout in the tiles surrounding the bathtub needed work, we decided to do a complete job of replacing everything that needed work instead of doing patch jobs. The bathroom was over thirty-five years old, original to when the house was built. The lighting in the bathtub and toilet section never provided enough light. 

The new triple light fixture mounted to the beam above the outside of the new shower provides great light to the room and to the inside of the shower. The photo was taken before all the work was finished. There are bits of blue painter's tape on the left wall where the paint needed touch ups and the tile floor still needed its final cleaning.  

Upstairs Bathroom Remodel 

Lighting

Three kinds of lighting are in the bathroom. 

• Natural light 
• Room lighting 
• Task lighting

Natural Light

The bathroom has two sections separated by an eight foot wall with a vaulted ceiling above both sections. Two skylights provide natural light into the two sections. Original to the house design, we just painted the wood. Nothing else needed doing for the skylights 

The photo was taken before the majority of the work was started. In the remodel, the wallpaper was removed, the door between the sections removed, and the opening enlarged to 36" for easier access to the shower. 

Room Lighting 

We kept a chandelier that hangs higher than the eight foot wall which allows light to shine into both sections of the bathroom.

This is photo taken during the work. The finished walls have blue paint instead of wallpaper. The enlarged opening was later finished out with wood trim painted white.

Task Lighting 

Light from the new triple lights on the beam floods into the shower and through the opening into the adjacent section of the bathroom. The lights hang low enough for light to flow in 360° directions, into the shower, up into the top of the room, and through the opening into the adjacent section of the bathroom. The clear glass shades do not block any of the light.  

Previously, track lights hung from the bottom of the wood beam. The canisters only provided a narrow restricted beam of light which did not flood the area with needed light. 

The light switch for the track lights was inside the old doorway of the shower section.When we removed the door and enlarged the doorway, the light switch had to be relocated to operate the triple lights that replaced the track lights. 

Fortunately, the original light switch had been on another wall which we disconnected. It is in the exact spot we needed a new light switch. 

We uncovered the plate and installed a light switch and an adjacent wall plug. 

 

The other area that needs task lighting is the vanity that holds the sink in the other section of the bathroom.  We left the canister light in the fur-down because it provides light where we need it. 

This photo is a BEFORE renovation view of the vanity area. 

Here is AFTER renovation of the sink vanity area. Walls painted blue instead of wallpaper, new cultured marble countertop, new faucet, and new towel bar. 

Same mirror, canister light, and wooden vanity base. The photo shows before a new wall plug cover was installed. In the mirror is a reflection of the new enlarged opening before the wood trim was painted white. 

The new triple lights over the shower made the biggest difference in the lighting in the remodeled upstairs bathroom. We joke we now need to wear sunglasses to take a shower.