Contemporary bath vanities have the power to arrest our visual interest. Regardless of how beautiful a vanity looks though, it would be useless without proper lighting. More often not, vanity lights in the bathroom are overlooked since they require electrical installations that many of us are not fond of working with. It should be remembered that artificial lights serves as the primary light source of the bathroom when there are no natural lights available, and without proper vanity lights it would be extremely difficult to execute various bathroom activities especially the ones that concerns grooming.

Speaking of contemporary bath vanity lighting, this simply refers to the light or lights installed above, around, or on the sides of vanity mirrors. These lights could be in the form of bulbs, ceiling lights or sconces, depending on the choice of the homeowner. Lights around or above vanities are crucial to balance the illumination reflected in the mirror so as to prevent awkward shadow formation and properly carry out grooming tasks such as make-up application and shaving. Everyone would like to appear fresh whenever we face other people and when we are about to sleep, and precise vanity lighting is necessary in order to achieve these objectives.

When placing lights on contemporary bath vanities, there are certain things that you have to consider. The first thing that you have to look at is the purpose of the light that you would be using. If you want the lights of your vanity to function as the main light source inside the bathroom, then you would have to pick lighting pieces that have higher wattage, but if you want something that would function as decorative features or mood setters then you could opt for pieces that are dimmer in feature. Once you are able to identify the main purpose of your vanity light, then you could easily look for lights that would suit your well-thought purpose.

There are actually various modern vanity lights you could use in order to illumine your vanity as well as the bath area as a whole. Ambient lighting is perhaps the most common vanity lighting fixture that serves the purpose of general lighting that could illumine not only the vanity but also the whole bath area and help you see safely inside the bathroom; it could be in the form of chandeliers, bright wall sconces, recessed fixture or surface mounted that require dimmers to control the brightness of light they emit. Task lighting is a direct light beam that is installed at a specific place on the vanity to help with specific tasks such as applying make-up or shaving; it can be in the form of wall sconces placed at the side of the vanity. Meanwhile, accent and decorative lighting are added on vanities just to accentuate the furnishing as well as to set specific moods; they are commonly in the form of track lights, low voltage pendant fixtures or even tradition or electric candles.

Once you have chosen the kind of light you would be using for your modern vanity the next thing that you would have to think about is the position of the lights. As vanities are often used for grooming it is important to eliminate shadows under the eyes, cheeks and chin in order to avoid uneven make-up application. To do this, it is advisable to place the lights around the sides of the vanity and make sure that you leave 36 to 40 inches in between each bulb, or you could also make use of glass diffusers for track lights in order to evenly scatter the light inside the bath space. When these glass diffusers are reflected directly towards the mirror, they will produce a crisp and uniformed lighting effect that would make the bathroom highly visible.

Of course, safety is another matter that you have to be aware of. The aesthetics of your modern vanity lighting should not undermine the value of safety; since electricity and water are lethal combination, you should always make sure that these elements are nowhere near each other to avoid accidents like electrocution and fire. If possible do not install the vanity lights all by yourself rather contact a certified electrician to do the job for you. In doing so, not only would you be able to prevent accidents from occurring, you are also ensuring that your vanity lights are properly installed, thereby maintaining the pristine appeal of your bathroom furnishing.