Bath Sconces Should be Located on either side of the Sink.

Placement of Bath Sconces: A pair of fixtures flanking a mirror above the sink provide excellent cross-illumination – eliminating shadows on the face.  The fixtures should be mounted at eye-level.  As a general rule of thumb, I place the center of the bulb at 5 feet 6 inches from the floor.  The shades for these vanity sconces should be translucent glass or plastic so the light projects out toward your face.  I usually use 23 watt fluorescent bulb (100 watt equivalent incandescent) bulbs for each sconce.  They should be placed equi-distant from the center of the sink and 36” to 40” apart.  If the sink is in an alcove, you can locate the sconces on the adjacent walls, see below.

In an alcove, the sconces can be on the adjacent walls

General Lighting: Only for a very small room, you can rely on the sconces alone.  For most baths, you also want separate general lighting.  For the master bath, top, 4 identical sconces were used.  Two are placed on either side of the sink.  These sconces are mounted on top of the wall mirror – greatly expanding their illumination quality.  Two additional sconces help create a sense of a nook for the soaking tub.  A center ceiling fixture (not shown) provides general illumination.

Ceiling Washers Provide General Lighting in This Bath

In the master bath, above, again general illumination is created by ceiling washing sconces placed high on the wall.  These fluorescent fixtures – one is shown, there are 4 in the room – create a bright overall glow in the fully tiled room.

Fan/Light Combinations: I often use an exhaust fan/light combination for a bath.  In the bath above and below, I put the light/fan combination above the shower.  Since the show creates a lot of moist air, this combination provides both functional light for the show and efficiently exhausts the moist air to the outside.

Fan/Light Combinations Work Great Above a Shower

Remember that all light fixtures installed within tub and shower spaces should be marked “suitable for damp/wet locations.”

Hanging Fixtures: Generally, hanging fixtures aren’t used in a bath.  By code, hanging no part of a suspended fixture, tracking lighting or ceiling paddle fan is permitted within a zone of 3’ horizontally and 8’ vertically from the top of the bathtub rim or shower stall threshold.  Used near a vanity, they often get in the way of opening the door of the medicine cabinet.  Robern has solved that problem by offering an uplift cabinet, see below.  The door lifts up instead of out allowing for pendant lights such as the combination shown below.

Robern Uplift Cabinet Allows For Pendants By Vanity

Banks of Lighting Can Have Confusing Controls

The answer to these clients is lighting controls.  Lutron, Leviton and many other manufacturers support what’s often known as scene controls.  This controller is in the home of one of my friends who built a high-end new home.  You can select a single button and turn on a specific pre-selected set of fixtures to turn on and each at a selected dimming level.  So when I visit, I can turn on the lights I need to make coffee in the morning and then select a different set to turn on lights that only light my favorite reading chair.  I don’t need to turn on excess lights or experiment with what grouping will work.  My friends entertain frequently and have light groupings and levels set for different types of entertaining.  Equally nice is the ability to push a single button and turn-off every light on the entire floor at once when retiring for the night or leaving the house for the day.

Scene Lighting Controls

These systems are not cheap.  There are many additional wiring runs required and usually the assistance of skilled labor to program what’s required.  Such a system will add thousands of dollars to your remodeling budget – and is only really worth doing in my opinion if you’re bringing walls down to studs.  These systems are part of what’s known as structured wiring.  Structured wiring systems can also be more extensive including automation to raise and lower sets of blinds, turn-up and down your thermostat, and run your media, network and security systems.  While increasingly high-end homes include such systems, mid-range remodels seldom include them.

The time to consider the system is at the beginning of a remodel because costs are dramatically affected by advance planning.  Retro-fitting after a remodel is underway can add unnecessary costs to the project.

Fluorescent Ceiling & Undercab Lighting

Just like the previous 2 projects, daylighting provides the primary source of ambient light during daylight hours.  Substantial daylight was created with an open floor plan and opening the dining room and living room to the outdoors with French doors.  This kitchen receives daylight from 3 sides – creating a well-lit and inviting space.  A surface-mounted fluorescent ceiling fixture provides abundant, even ambient lighting during storms and at night.  Fluorescent undercabinet lights provide good task lighting.  Finally, a 3-lamp pendant light hanging over the dining room table provides both ambient and accent lighting – a dimmer allows for bright or mood lighting as desired.

Dimmable Dining Pendant Light

Lighting Helps Integrate Dining Room & Kitchen

Read about other Kitchen Lighting projects:

-    Kitchen Lighting – Project #1
-    Kitchen Lighting – Project #2

Part of the great news about the Green Building trend is the rapid expansion of attractive, functional fluorescent and LED fixtures.  If this project were being done today instead of 2 years ago, the availability of attractive ceiling mounted fluorescent fixtures would be greatly increased.  In a project I’m working on currently, less attractive fluorescent tubes are held close to the ceiling while a translucent screen of Lucite  – framed in steel – is hung below them acting as a giant diffuser.  The cost is just slightly above what you would pay for a ceiling mount fluorescent fixture while the look is quite high-end and the lighting quality is terrific!

A final note about fluorescent fixtures – I always spec fixtures with electronic ballasts for my clients.  These fixtures don’t have any of the flicker, noise or delay that we associate with older fluorescent fixtures.  I also usually get lamps with a color rendering of 2700 to 3000 which most closely approximate the color of the incandescent bulb that we’re used to.  It’s almost impossible to distinguish today’s fluorescent fixtures and lamps with these features from incandescent fixtures.  The only area where fluorescents still lag is in dimming.  If you purchase dimmable fluorescent bulbs, following these rules:

1.    Use a dimmer manufactured after 1995
2.    Use a dimmer with a maximum load of 600 watts
3.    Use mechanical dimmers rather than solid state electronic dimmers with digital fade, touch or remote capabilities
4.    Use the same type of bulb (manufacturer, wattage, etc on the same dimmer)
5.    Use a one hour “burn-in” time at full at full brightness before trying to dim the bulbs; Each subsequent time start on full brightness and wait 1-2 minutes before dimming.

With the speed of technology advance, I hope that these cautions will be antiquated within a short time.

All images courtesy of Braitman Design/Build.

Lighting for Kitchen Remodeling

The primary ambient lighting comes from daylight – windows, glass doors, and a special type of skylight known as a “Suntunnel”.  During daylight hours, no artificial lighting is needed.  Light from the suntunnels come through the 14” diameter lenses in the lowered orange ceiling to the right in the image, above and below.  In the kitchen, additional ambient lighting comes from recessed dimmable fluorescent lights – they are positioned to also provide task lighting over the countertops.

Task lighting comes from fluorescent strip lighting under the upper cabinets and from a single sconce that provides both down and uplighting to the right of the windows in the picture, below.  The candelabra lamps in the hood were replaced with LED lamps.  The mini-cans in the ceiling above the breakfast table are LED’s that provide concentrated task lighting for reading the paper at the table.

Lighting for Kitchen Remodeling

In the dining room, LED cove lighting provides both ambient and accent lighting.  The LEDs are on a dimmer so that the light level can be set for mood lighting or ambient lighting sufficient to read by.

Cove Lighting for Dining Room

All images courtesy of Braitman Design/Build.

3 Levels of Lighting for Kitchens - Ambient, Task & Accent

In this Washington, DC kitchen, above, there are 2 sources of ambient light – daylight and cans recessed into the ceiling with flood lamps.  Copious daylight streams in from windows and doors placed on 2 adjacent walls and indirectly through the entryway.  Few if any artificial lights are needed during the day.  When night comes, the recessed lights are operated by 4 different switches so that you can light only the areas in which you’re working.  All the recessed lights are also on dimmers so you can create mood lighting or limit the amount of light as needed.  Further, these recessed lights are dimmable fluorescents – savings lots of money and energy over incandescent when operated.

Task lighting is provided by undercabinet lights – mounted near the front of all wall cabinets.  We used xenon lights for the undercabinet lights which don’t burn as hot as halogen lights.  Since this kitchen was remodeled, you can also buy many different types of LED undercabinet lights which don’t burn hot and are very energy efficient.  The outer rows of recessed lights are positioned to provide task lighting as well as ambient lighting.   They are just outside the upper cabinets but inside the base cabinets so that they shine directly onto the countertops in front of anyone working at the counters.  If they were placed further into the room, they would create shadows on the countertop since they would be shining from behind individuals working at the counters.  The hood vent also has LED task lights that illuminate the cooktop.

The accent lighting comes from two custom chandeliers – one over the breakfast table and one over the dining table in the adjacent room.  These chandeliers are also outfitted with fluorescent lamps.

With the right mix of lighting you can work more efficiently, feel better, and also create different moods as appropriate to your activities.

Kitchen Accent Lighting

All images courtesy of Braitman Design/Build

Master Bedroom with Soffit & Cove Lighting

My client’s wish list for a remodeled master suite in the upper Northwest Washington, DC neighborhood of the Palisades included an enlarged bath and dressing area and bumping up the ceiling to create a tray ceiling.  Unlike many clients, they were not particularly looking for increased daylighting, however the wife definitely wanted to lighten up the heavy feel of the Spanish carved furniture and heavy drapes.  Another problem she wanted fixed was the tight and awkward entryway to the bedroom.

As is my practice, unless required, I prefer to work within the existing footprint — which was quite do-able in this home.  The 1950’s split-level had plain vanilla rooms with small baths.  In order to acquire the space for the enlarged master bath and dressing area, we appropriated closets near the existing small master bath and a 1970’s addition that had been used as a sewing room and closet for the husband.  With three daughters now grown and out of the house, a bedroom was re-purposed for the sewing room.

View Toward Hallway & Master Bath

Even though the husband was concerned that the room was small, we actually moved the bath wall 9” into the bedroom.  We also enlarged the doorway and moved it toward the right.  A niche right as you enter, see picture above, will eventually house a small floating valet cabinet and mirror.  We reduced the width of the doorway into the new dressing area and the windows in the dressing area and aligned both with the new entryway.  Rather than bump-up the ceiling into the attic – which would have cost $30,000 to $40,000 because of the extensive structural changes to the joist and rafters – we added a 6” high soffit around the entire room and opened up a tray ceiling in the soffit.  We left the soffit lowered to distinguish the passageway to the bath and dressing area from the bedroom proper.  In the “After” Floor Plan, the dotted lines represent the edges of soffit and the hatched walls indicate the walls that were added or changed.

These combination of changes – that actually reduced the size and volume of the room — created a feeling of greater size and openness.  We also used color to make the bedroom feel larger – the hallway is a dark color which gives a sense of compression in the hallway and expansion as you walk into the room.  The soffit is painted a darker color than either the bedroom walls or ceiling.  Again – a sense of compression and shadow leading to areas of expansion and light.  With the structural changes, the coordinated and deliberate palette helps the space feel larger.

The dressing area provides a quite generous 4 feet clear area between the cabinets.  We provided a mix of hanging and folding space – open cabinets and closed cabinets; shelves and drawers.  While not going overboard, we also provided some customized accessories.  The one that seems to be the biggest hit are the 2 pullout luggage shelves.  When pushed in the overnight bags are stored out of the way.  When pulled out, they are just the right height for packing with clothes conveniently nearby.  We also included valet rods and pull-out tie and belt racks that take up otherwise unused room within the cabinets.

Dressing Room

Custom Pull-Out Luggage Shelf

Custom Pull-out Luggage Shelf - In Use

We paid a lot of attention to lighting throughout the master suite.  We used LED cove lighting in the tray ceiling and low voltage recessed lighting in the soffit – first to highlight further the path to the bath and dressing areas, second for individual reading lights over the bed, and third to highlight artwork and as wall washers.

Row of Low-Voltage Recessed Lights Mark Way to Dressing Room

In the bath was used a combination of ceiling washers and task lighting (see “Enlarging a Master Bath”)

In the dressing area, we used “warm colored” fluorescent lighting at the top of the cabinets and, in a different finish, as sconces on either side of the mirror (see image of dressing room)

Finally, as part of the master suite remodel and additional work at the home, all the windows in the home were switched from double-hung windows to casements.  Casements are much easier to open and given better ventilation.  To get a better proportion but to limit costs, we used replacement windows but with a custom vertical divider so that they look like double casements.  These lines increase the modern feel that the homeowners desired.

Floor Plan "AFTER"

Floor Plan "BEFORE"

Bedroom BEFORE Remodeling

Dressing Room BEFORE Remodeling

All images courtesy of Braitman Design/Build