Bathroom ceiling lighting ideas: the best lights, layouts and how many you need
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Mike's quick answer
Recessed IP65 downlights suit most bathrooms, and a flush light suits a low or shallow ceiling. Allow about 300 lumens per square metre: two or three downlights in an ensuite, four to six in an average bathroom. Space them about 1 to 1.2 m apart and 50 to 60 cm from the walls, with one over the shower or bath.
The ceiling light does most of the work in a bathroom. It’s what you clean by, bath the children by and find your way to the loo by at night, so it needs to light the whole room evenly, cope with steam and suit the zone it sits in.
For most bathrooms the answer is recessed downlights, spread towards the walls. A low or shallow ceiling, a sloping loft ceiling or a period room can point you towards a flush light, spots or hidden cove lighting instead. What decides it is how much space there is above the ceiling, how big the room is and the look you’re after.
Which ceiling light suits your bathroom?
| Downlights | Flush light | Surface spots | Cove lighting | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Most bathrooms | Low ceilings, rentals | Sloping ceilings, features | Evening mood |
| Space above ceiling | Usually 60–120 mm | None | None | Built into a cove or gap |
| Light spread | Even, if spaced well | Good from the centre | Aimed | Soft, indirect |
| Rating to look for | IP65, fire-rated | IP44 | IP44 or IP65 | IP65 strip |
| Rough cost | £8–£25 each | £20–£60 | £25–£60 each | £40–£120 a room |
Downlights give the most even light and keep a small ceiling uncluttered. A flush light is the simplest swap where there’s no room above the ceiling or you can’t cut holes. Spots and cove lighting rarely work as the only light; they add to downlights rather than replace them.
Recessed downlights
Downlights sit flush with the ceiling, so you notice the light rather than the fitting. Spread around the room, they wash light down the walls, which makes tiles glow and a small bathroom feel bigger.
In a bathroom I’d only fit downlights that are IP65 and fire-rated. IP65 means you can put them anywhere, including over the shower, without working out where one zone ends and the next begins. Fire-rated matters if there’s a room above, which I’ll come to. Choose dimmable fittings with a beam of about 40 to 60 degrees, CRI 90 or above, and 3000K for most bathrooms.
Integrated LED downlights are brighter per fitting and dim more smoothly; GU10 fittings let you change the bulb, including for a smart one. The GU10 vs integrated downlights guide compares them properly. Check how much depth each fitting needs above the plasterboard (often 60 to 120 mm) and the size of hole it needs (usually 65 to 85 mm) before you buy.
How many downlights do you need in a bathroom?
Work it out from lumens, not a fixed number. For the ceiling light in a bathroom, I allow about 300 lumens per square metre of floor, which gives roughly the 150 to 200 lux a bathroom needs once the light lost to walls is allowed for.
| Floor area | Lumens from the ceiling | Downlights at 400–600 lm | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ensuite, 1.5 × 2 m | 3 m² | About 900 | 2 to 3 |
| Small bathroom, 2 × 2 m | 4 m² | About 1,200 | 3 to 4 |
| Average bathroom, 2.5 × 3 m | 7.5 m² | About 2,250 | 4 to 6 |
| Large bathroom, 3 × 4 m | 12 m² | About 3,600 | 6 to 9 |
Adjust for the room. Dark tiles or a dark ceiling soak up light, so go up by one or two fittings. White tiles and a white ceiling bounce it around, so the lower figure is usually enough. If the downlights are on a dimmer, err on the bright side and turn them down; you can’t turn up light that isn’t there.
Count the downlights’ lumens, not their watts or the number on the ceiling. A cheap 5 W fitting might give 350 lumens and a good one 500 or more. And the mirror needs its own light on top of all this; a downlight overhead won’t light your face well however many you fit. For any room size, the downlight spacing calculator works out the number and spacing for you. If you’re planning other rooms as well, here’s how many downlights each room needs and where they go.
Where to put them
Spread the downlights towards the walls rather than grouping them in the middle. On a standard 2.4 m ceiling, space them about 1 to 1.2 m apart and 50 to 60 cm out from the walls. That’s a little closer than I’d space them in a kitchen, because a bathroom’s walls are close and any patchiness shows on the tiles.
Place them around what you use, not in a perfect grid. One goes centred over the shower tray and one over the bath; these are the spots that get forgotten and end up gloomy. One or two light the basin area and the walkway. If the result looks slightly asymmetric from the doorway, that’s fine; the light will be in the right places.
Two placements to avoid. A single downlight in the middle of the ceiling shadows your face at the mirror and leaves the corners dark. And a downlight directly over where you stand at the basin lights the top of your head and puts shadows under your eyes.
Flush ceiling lights
Not every bathroom can take downlights. Many Victorian terraces, 1930s semis and loft conversions have shallow ceiling voids, a bathroom under a flat roof may have no void at all, and in a rental you may not be allowed to cut holes. A flush light fixes to the ceiling surface and needs only a single lighting point.
Choose one with an opal or frosted diffuser so you’re not looking at a bright bare source, and check it’s IP44 at least. Size it to the room: in a bathroom of 4 to 6 square metres, a light of about 30 to 40 cm across looks right and should give 1,200 to 2,000 lumens. Saxby, Endon, Astro and Nordlux all make IP44 bathroom flush lights.
A single central flush light lights the room well but your face less well, so it pairs best with good mirror lighting.
Adjustable spots for features
If you’ve spent money on a feature tile wall, a textured stone panel or a freestanding bath, an adjustable spot can pick it out. Tilted towards a wall, it grazes light across the surface and shows off the texture in a way a straight-down downlight can’t.
Use a narrow beam, 24 to 36 degrees, for a focused pool of light, and keep it to one or two. More than that and the bathroom starts to look like a shop. Fixed downlights do the general lighting; the spots add the detail. Check the rating: many adjustable spots are only IP20, which limits them to outside the zones, so look for one rated IP44 or IP65 if it’s anywhere near the bath or shower.
Cove and perimeter lighting
Cove lighting hides LED strip in a plaster coving, a shadow gap where the wall meets the ceiling, or around the edge of a dropped ceiling panel. You see the glow on the ceiling and walls, not the source, which is what gives hotel bathrooms their calm, even feel.
It’s mood lighting, not your main light. Put it on its own dimmer or switch with downlights for when you need to see properly. Go warm, around 2700K, use IP65 strip in a steamy room, and keep the driver outside zones 0, 1 and 2 where you can get at it later. The bathroom LED strip guide covers strips, profiles and drivers.
Pendants and chandeliers
A pendant can work in a bathroom with a high ceiling, usually a period room, but it has to suit the zone. Outside the zones, any fitting is allowed. Over a bath, if any part of it hangs below 2.25 m from the floor, it’s in zone 1 and must be rated IPX4 and approved by its maker for zone 1. On a standard 2.4 m ceiling there’s rarely room for a pendant over the bath, and most decorative chandeliers aren’t rated for it anyway.
IP ratings, fire rating and safety
Over the bath or shower is zone 1, and within 60 cm of it is zone 2. Both need IPX4 at least; I’d specify IP65 over a shower, where spray and steam hit the ceiling every day. The rest of the ceiling is outside the zones and has no IP requirement, but steam gets everywhere, so I’d still use IP44 or IP65. The bathroom zones guide has the full rules and a checker.
If there’s a room above, the downlights must be fire-rated so that cutting holes in the ceiling doesn’t reduce its fire resistance, as Approved Document B requires. If loft insulation will sit over the fittings, choose ones rated to be covered by it. A good extractor fan matters too: steam that hangs around shortens the life of any LED driver.
Every bathroom circuit needs 30 mA RCD protection. New lighting circuits, or new wiring within the zones, are notifiable under Part P in England, so use a registered electrician who can certify the work.
Layouts for different bathrooms
Ensuite. Two or three downlights: one over the shower, one or two over the basin side. Add a backlit or LED mirror and you’re done.
Small bathroom. Three or four downlights towards the corners, plus mirror lighting. Avoid anything hanging. The small bathroom lighting guide has more ideas for tight rooms.
Family bathroom. Four to six downlights with the bath and shower each covered, on a dimmer. A cove strip or a strip under the vanity on a separate switch gives a softer light for evening baths.
Wet room. IP65 downlights over the whole showering area, which counts as zone 1 out to 1.2 m from where the shower is fixed. Tiled wet rooms are bright, so the lower lumen figure is usually enough.
Loft bathroom. Put downlights on the flat parts of the ceiling and use surface spots or a flush light on the slope, where there’s often no depth for recessed fittings. Wall lights and mirror lighting matter more when the ceiling is awkward.
For how the ceiling fits with the mirror and accent lights, see bathroom lighting ideas.
What I'd buy
Affiliate linksFAQs
How many downlights do I need in a bathroom?
Allow about 300 lumens per square metre. That’s two or three downlights in an ensuite, three or four in a 2 × 2 m bathroom, four to six in an average bathroom and six to nine in a large one, at 400 to 600 lumens each.
How far apart should bathroom downlights be?
About 1 to 1.2 m apart on a standard 2.4 m ceiling, and 50 to 60 cm out from the walls. Put one over the shower and one over the bath.
What IP rating do bathroom ceiling lights need?
At least IPX4 over the bath or shower and within 60 cm of it. I recommend IP65 there, and IP44 or IP65 for the rest of the ceiling.
Do bathroom downlights need to be fire-rated?
Yes, if there’s a room above, so the ceiling keeps its fire resistance. With only a loft above, fire-rated fittings are still good practice.
What is the best ceiling light for a small bathroom?
Three or four IP65 downlights spread towards the corners, or an IP44 flush light with an opal diffuser if the ceiling is too shallow for downlights. Add mirror lighting either way.
Can I use a normal ceiling light in a bathroom?
Only outside the zones, on an RCD-protected circuit. Even there, a bathroom-rated IP44 fitting lasts better in the steam.
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