Last Post

To all our readers, thank you.

As of right now, I have halted work on the bathroom since we will be selling the house. Since I will be living in an apartment in the future, I have no immediate plans to continue writing this blog. If at some time, I ever decide to buy a house and work on it, the blog may resurface.

Please accept my deepest apologies and thank you for reading. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me.

-Dan

Master Bath Lighting Installation

In our humble opinion, planning is a large part, but the real meat and potatoes comes from the installation. Prior to beginning the installation of the lights, we removed the drywall from the ceiling. This exposed the beams and allowed us to use the “new installation” recessed lighting fixtures instead of retrofitting the recessed lights. The main reason we chose the new install option was that we had to redo all the electrical wiring in order to facilitate the new lighting locations. It is much easier without the drywall. Many people would disagree with this strategy simply because of the drywall work, but a tutorial on that is coming.

We started the install by accessing the current wiring that we previously had to the old fixtures. Since we were going to use more lights, but florescent fixtures, our wattage really didn’t change. This allowed us to run more lights without running them off a new breaker. We started by figuring out how many switches we wanted and which switch we wanted to control which light. The end design includes a dimmer for the “mood” lighting and a motion controller for the main lights (which included the recessed lights and the pendants over the vanities). From the switches we ran wire up the inside of the wall to the ceiling where the main lights were to reside. We placed boxes for the pendants and brought the wire to the first recessed light.

Wires were labeled as to what they controlled prior to taking out the existing switch

We hung the first recessed light (you simply nail the ends into the stud) and wired it up. To wire the recessed light, you simply take the cover off the electrical box attached to the recessed light, put the wire through a protector/clamp (like the one shown way below), strip the ends of the wire with a good wire stripper and push the ends into the plugs included inside the boxes of most new recessed fixtures. If there are not plugs on the ends of the wires in the boxes on the recessed lights, we would have used a wire nut.

With the power turned off, the wires were prepared for the new switch layout

Wires were run from the switches to the boxes for the pendant lights

The old light fixtures were removed after the new ones were put in place.

Boxes were hung on the wall for the mood lighting.

The switches were then installed and the lights were tested. The mood lighting is the far left switch, the main lights the middle switch and Erika's closet is controlled by the right switch.

Wire Clamp that was used to protect the wires in the wire boxes.

We ran wires from recessed light to recessed light until all the lights were wired up to the switch (the breaker was obviously switched off). We also ran the pendant lights on the same switch.

The mood lights were run on another switch and the wiring was done much the same.

Master Bathroom Lighting Plan

Sorry for all the delay in posting to the site. Erika and I have been busy vacationing and working on issues besides our house. But never fear, we are gearing up again to bring you the latest posts for the bathroom renovation. I am sure you are all eagerly awaiting the following posts.

All that aside, lighting is, in our opinion, very important to any room. Lighting for the bathroom was planned for 2 possibilities. Mood and everyday use. We designed the main lights to be florescent for low energy use. Since it is a bathroom and “quick” lighting is important, we utilized quick start florescent flood lights. The main lighting is recessed. The bathroom is about 120 square feet in the main area. We had 8 cans for this size. Typically I try to space them about 4 feet apart.

The recessed can lights created great everyday light, but Erika requested more light over the vanity. As such, hanging lights were added to help illuminate this area. This could have been done with recessed lights, but the “look” prevented us from doing this. The cans would have ended up too close to the wall.

Pendant Light

The pendants we picked were from Lowe’s. We chose a neutral color as opposed to an accent color as we have yet to decide what accent color we plan on using.

The light for the toilet was built into the fan. We felt this provided plenty of light for the small sized room.

Mood Lighting Sconce for Wall

The “mood” lighting we decided needed to be dimmable. The primary purpose was to create soft light for the bathtub. In order to use dimmable light, florescent wasn’t an option. They do sell florescent dimmable lights, but don’t let that fool you. It just isn’t the same. We chose 3 wall sconces we found at Home Depot on clearance that used halogen light bulbs. Two of the fixtures went over the tub on the wall and the third went on the wall to tie them together.

And remember, the key to any successful project is to work together and have fun. If you have any questions about designing lights for a room, feel free to drop me an e-mail at dan@afterdinnerdiy.com