Lighting a Small Bathroom

Everyone is downsizing. From small urban apartments to eco-friendly tiny houses, little is the new big. But just because a bathroom is small (under 50 sq. ft.) doesn’t mean it can’t have a beautiful, impressive lighting design. In fact, there are plenty of DIY decorating ideas for bathrooms of all sizes. Let’s go over everything you need to know to light your small bathroom.

Space-Saving Fixtures

With space at a premium, it can be hard to find the right lighting for you. Every extra square inch is precious, so it’s important to find fixtures that use as little space as possible.

Recessed Downlights

Recessed downlighting is a great choice for tiny bathrooms, since the fixture is sunk into the ceiling. Recessed lights are especially helpful for vaulted ceilings where typical ceiling lights aren’t as practical. For more information about how to place recessed lights in your bathroom, check out our bathroom lighting sizing guide.

LED Strip Lighting & Under Cabinet Lights

Long-lasting, energy-efficient, and supremely small, LEDs are a perfect choice to add the perfect accent to your bathroom. Tiny light bars are able to bring bright light without taking up extra space. Install LED strips under cabinets and countertops, or anywhere else it would be difficult to install another kind of fixture to add a soft glow to your bathroom.

Lighted Mirror

No matter the size of your bathroom, a lighted mirror is an excellent choice. With a light source housed in the frame of a mirror, a lighted mirror focuses brightness where it’s most needed in the bathroom: on your face, in front of the mirror. Additionally, it takes up no more space than a similarly-sized mirror.

Ceiling Lights

For a small bathroom, a flush-mounted light is likely the only practical choice. That said, ceiling-mounted lights take up little space, and they can serve to fill the entire room with light if the bathroom is small enough. Although not very decorative, a ceiling light with an exhaust fan is still an effective way to add general lighting in a small bathroom.

Pendant Lights

Pendant lighting is a great choice in a bathroom that is too small to support a larger fixture like a chandelier. Pendants can be small and versatile, and are especially welcomed in small bathrooms with limited floor space but high ceilings. You don’t want pendants that hang lower than 78” above the floor, to keep anyone from hitting their head. If pendants are hung over a bathtub, they should be no closer than 72” to the high water level.

Pull-out Mirrors

Some bathrooms are too small to even support a full-size mirror. For these, you’re going to want a pull-out mirror, which can be a blessing in disguise. Pull-out mirrors have an articulated arm, so you can easily adjust it to whatever angle you need. Plus, they are often double-sided, with a magnifying mirror on one side to make grooming easier.

Light Bars

Light bars are great as they can provide ample light with a small footprint. Commonly lit with LEDs, they’re energy-efficient too. As the name implies, light bars are narrow and can be placed above a lighted mirror, providing the layers of light you need when you don’t have space for sconces on either side of the mirror or can’t use a ceiling fixture. We hope that with this guide you feel empowered to light your tiny bathroom–it doesn’t have to be an insurmountable challenge.

If you’ve got more questions, call us at 1-877-215-2677 or visit our Los Angeles showroom for hands-on advice from our lighting experts.