Backlighting in The Bathroom

Fancy light?

Just a hint of light?

FreshHome

Where is the light?

So many people retreat to the bathroom for a spa experience or at least to get pampered just a bit. It's one thing to choose the wrong color in the bathroom, that's an easy fix, but what do you do if the lighting is completely off target? Here's what I'm tailing about. Come look!

As an Interior Designer, I know one of the most challenging design elements to perfect in the bathroom, or really any room in the house, is lighting. When you're planning out the room design, you really have to put yourself IN the room and virtually walk around it to see if it's really a functioning design.

Designs look great on paper but are they functional? Here's one of the biggest design dilemmas I come across, I know because this is MY bathroom delemma - BACKLIGHTING.

What is backlighting? It's exactly what is states, “being lit from the back” or having the light source coming from behind, creating a silhouette.

Here is a partial layout of my bathroom. Here you see the tub, with a window then on the other side you have the sink area with vanity lighting (not shown). Here's the problem.

The window by the tub is a 40" x 40" glass block window. I have a dark brown cellular shade on the window now for privacy, light and heat control. However, since we have many sunny days here in Charlotte I often love to have the window treatment up to let in the light and to warm up the room durning our cooler months. Plus my cat loves to soak up the sun in his basket on the edge of the tub.

Jimmy, Platinum Burmese
Wall color: Clair de Lune, Behr

Back to the bathroom layout …

Now the problem starts when I have the window treatment up and full sunlight comes in from the window behind me. When I stand by the sink and look into the mirror, I can hardly see my face. How does one apply make up in this lighting? Answer: you don't. Why? Since the light source is coming from behind me, the front of me is dark and the back of me is where the light is hitting - backlit.

So at this point, I now have to pull the cellular shade down and turn the vanity lighting on - it the daytime! Waste of electricity and frustrating to say the least.

There's nothing I can do about my bathroom design at this point but if only the designer thought how he or she would function in this bathroom, perhaps this fiasco could have been avoided.

ONYX in the Bathroom

Last week during the KBTribechat, of course the subject of lighting came up and I mentioned Onyx and how beautiful it looks when backlit. I first saw this effect when I went to go visit the Charlotte showroom of Charles Luck Stone.

Onyx by itself  is beautiful …

But look how beautiful it looks when it's backlit. Now even though the light source is coming from behind, it's a soft light that really shouldn't project a silhouette, plus, there's ample spot lighting from above. 

So however you envision your dream bathroom, keep in mind how you want your lighting to function. Lighting is so very important so take your time and design well. Need help you with color choices? Contact me, Donna Frasca, Color Expert in Charlotte.