Bathroom lighting ideas for a family bathroom that five kids share come down to more light than a magazine bathroom, a vanity fixture at 3000K with side sconces so a face is lit from the front, a dimmer with a 20 percent morning setting, a nightlight for 2 am, and a finish that hides toothpaste, and it's the room where "just brighter" turned out to be the right answer. The kids' bathroom is 6 by 9, has one window over the tub, and sees five kids brush teeth in a fifteen-minute window at 7 am and again at 7:30 pm; the builder left it a single four-bulb bar over the mirror that lit the ceiling and shadowed every face. This post is the lumens a family bathroom needs and why it's more, the vanity fixture and the sconces beside the mirror, the height and spacing, the dimmer and its three settings, the nightlight, the shower and tub light, the fan-light and why it stayed, the bulb color, the finish that survives toothpaste, the mirror and the two-kid rule, the timer for the 7 am window, the parents' bathroom which is different, mistakes, and the cost.
Why a family bathroom needs more light
A bathroom for one adult gets away with 50 lumens per square foot; a bathroom where a 7-year-old is looking for a splinter, a 12-year-old is doing her hair and a 4-year-old is being checked for a rash needs 75 to 80, so a 54-square-foot bathroom needs about 4,000 lumens at full: 2,000 at the vanity, 1,200 from the ceiling, 800 over the tub. The builder's bar was 1,600 total and half of it went up. The first thing I'd tell any parent about a kids' bathroom is that it's a work room, and the light has to be honest about that.
The vanity: a fixture above and sconces beside
A three-light bar above the mirror at 78 inches to center, 1,200 lumens, pointing down through frosted glass, plus a bathroom sconce on each side of the mirror at 64 inches, 450 lumens each, which light a face from the front at eye level and kill the shadows under the eyes and chin that a bar alone makes. The bar is for the room and the sconces are for the face, and a kid checking for spinach in her teeth needs the sconces. The vanity mirror lights that work are the ones that put light at face height, not above it.
Height and spacing
Sconces at 64 inches to center for a bathroom used by kids from 4 to 14 and two adults, which is 2 inches below the adult rule because the average face in that room is shorter; 36 to 40 inches apart, which on our 36-inch mirror puts them 2 inches off each edge. The bar at 78 to its center, above a 36-inch mirror whose top is at 74. If the mirror's a medicine cabinet, the sconces go beside it the same way and the bar goes above; if the mirror's wide, one sconce pair still does it up to 48 inches, and two pairs above that.
The dimmer and three settings
All three vanity fixtures on one dimmer, $22: full for the morning and for splinters, 50 for the evening teeth, and 20 percent for the 6 am shower when the rest of the house is asleep, which is the setting that made the bathroom's light stop waking the 4-year-old across the hall. The ceiling and tub lights on a separate switch, on for showers and off after. A bathroom without a dimmer is a bathroom at one brightness, and that brightness is wrong at 6 am and at 8 pm.
The nightlight
A plug-in LED nightlight at 2200K with a light sensor in the outlet beside the vanity, $9, behind a cover that exposes only the light, and it's the 2 am bathroom: a kid comes down the 20 percent hall from the hallway post and into a bathroom lit by a candle-colored glow, uses it, and goes back without a switch and without waking. The vanity switch has never been touched at 2 am in four years, and the nightlight's the reason.
The shower and tub light
A wet-rated recessed LED over the tub, 800 lumens, 3000K, on the ceiling switch, which the builder didn't include and which turned a dark tub into a place you can see a 4-year-old's hair being rinsed; $65 plus the electrician's hour. A tub with a window over it has daylight and no evening light, and evening is when the baths are. It's the fixture that made the 7:30 pm bath a job instead of a guess.
The fan-light
The builder's fan-light in the ceiling stayed, with a 3000K bulb and its own switch, because a bathroom that five kids shower in needs the fan on a timer switch more than it needs a prettier ceiling; the light in it is the "room" light at 1,200 lumens and the fan runs 20 minutes after every shower on a $28 timer switch. It's not a fixture I'd choose and it's the right fixture for the job, and the timer switch is the thing nobody mentions that stops the mildew.
The bulb color
3000K in every fixture in the kids' bathroom, because it's a room where skin is looked at, a rash checked, a face washed, and 2700K makes a face look fine when it isn't; 3000K at a CRI of 90 shows a red cheek as red. The nightlight is 2200K because it's for not waking up. The parents' bathroom is 2700K at the sconces and 3000K at the bar, because it's a room for adults and adults get warmer light in the evening.
The finish that survives toothpaste
Brushed nickel on every fixture, because five kids brushing teeth is toothpaste on the sconces daily and brushed nickel wipes without showing water spots or fingerprints; polished chrome shows every drop and matte black shows every white speck, and I have both in other rooms and neither in here. The fixtures are wiped Saturday with the mirror, and in four years they look new. Brushed nickel is boring and boring is what a family bathroom's fixtures should be.
The mirror and the two-kid rule
A 36-inch mirror over a 36-inch vanity, and two kids at it at once, which is the morning; the sconces light both faces because they're at the edges and the bar lights the middle. A wider vanity would be better and the room's 6 feet wide, so the rule is two at a time and a step stool for the 4-year-old, who goes first. A mirror that's lit from the sides serves two faces; a mirror lit from above serves one and shadows both.
The 7 am timer
The vanity dimmer is a smart one, and it brings the bathroom from 20 percent to full at 6:55 and back to 50 at 7:45, because the fifteen-minute window when five kids brush is the window when the light needs to be at full, and a kid doesn't touch a dimmer. It's the same schedule trick as the hallway, and it means the bathroom's at the right brightness for whoever walks in without anyone deciding. At 7:30 pm it drops to 50 for the evening and to 20 at 8:30.
The parents' bathroom, which is different
Ours off the bedroom has the same sconce-beside-mirror rule at 66 inches, a bar at 2700K, a dimmer with a 20 percent morning setting so the bedroom doesn't wake, and no nightlight because we don't need one; the bedroom post is why the 6 am setting matters there. It's a warmer, dimmer room because it's for two adults and no rashes, and it's the one bathroom in the house with a 2700K sconce.
Cleaning fixtures in a kids' bathroom
Saturday, with the mirror: the sconce shades wiped, the bar's glass wiped, the nightlight's lens wiped because a kid's fingerprint on a nightlight dims it by half. The recessed tub light needs nothing. Five minutes, on the chore chart as the 12-year-old's, and fixtures that get toothpaste daily and stay clear. Frosted glass hides more than clear, which is why every shade in the room is frosted.
The window over the tub, and the daytime
The one window is over the tub and it lights the room until 4 pm, which means the vanity's on a schedule that's off from 8 am to 4, and the sconces are the first thing on at dusk. A frosted film on the lower half of the glass for privacy, $12, instead of a blind that a wet kid would pull, and the top half clear for the light. A family bathroom with a window is lit for free half the day and it's the reason the fixtures' schedule has a gap in it; a bathroom without one runs the vanity at 30 percent all day.
Storage and the light on it
A medicine cabinet's shelf gets the sconce's light from the side and the bar's from above, and it's the difference between a kid finding her own toothbrush and a kid shouting for it. Five kids' things in a 36-inch cabinet is a cup per kid, labeled with a color, on the shelf at each kid's height: the 4-year-old's on the bottom, the 14-year-old's on top. The shared room post uses the same color system, and the bathroom's the room where it's tested twice a day.
The guest bathroom, which gets the same rule cheaper
The half bath by the mudroom has one sconce beside the mirror at 64 inches and a 3000K bulb in the builder's ceiling fixture, on one dimmer, and no nightlight because nobody's in there at 2 am; it's the family bathroom's rule at a third of the cost, and it's the bathroom guests use, which is why it got the sconce. A single sconce lights one face from one side, which is enough for a hand wash and a guest's check in the mirror, and it's $64 and an hour.
Teaching the kids the settings
The dimmer's schedule does most of it, and the rule for the kids is two words: don't touch. A kid who needs more light for a splinter asks, and the dimmer goes to full and back; a kid showering at 6 am gets the 20 percent that's already there. The nightlight is the one they understand without being told, because it's the only light on at 2 am and it's enough. Five kids and one bathroom's light, and the settings run themselves, which is the only way a rule survives in a room used ten times before 8 am.
Mistakes
Two years of the builder's bar and five shadowed faces. Polished chrome in the first house's kids' bath, wiped twice a day. No tub light for a year of dark baths. A 2700K bulb in the vanity that hid a rash for a day. And no dimmer, which meant full brightness at 6 am for the one kid showering and four kids awake.
In one paragraph
Four thousand lumens for a 54-square-foot family bathroom: a frosted bar at 78 inches and two sconces at 64 beside the mirror, on a smart dimmer with 20, 50 and full and a 7 am schedule; a wet-rated light over the tub; the fan-light kept on a 20-minute timer; a 2200K nightlight behind a cover; 3000K everywhere; brushed nickel. Two kids at the mirror at a time, the little one first. Just brighter, and lit from the front.
What it cost
The bar, $95. Two sconces, $128. The tub light, $65. The smart dimmer, $45, and the fan timer switch, $28. The nightlight and cover, $15. The electrician for the sconce boxes and the tub light, $380. About $760 for a bathroom that five kids use twice a day, and the two sconces at face height are the $128 that ended the shadows.
Shop this post: bathroom sconces and vanity mirror lights in brushed nickel
