Lighting for bathroom niche, LED strip or spotlights?

[Deep]

I'm having my bathrooms done up and will be having a load of wall niches, I'll need lighting for some of them and not sure whether to go for LED strips or LED spotlights
Example 1 Ensuite
Example 2 Long niche above bathroom

These are the two main examples I'd need lighting and personally I think using LED strips would be better but I'm not sure how bothersome the wiring will be. I'd want all ceiling lights and these niches to be lit with one switch.

What would you recommend? Part of me thinks getting small spotlights might actually be nicer than having strips.

 

[Kohaashi]

We are currently having our bathroom done with niches around the bath and shower similar to your examples and we opted for spot lights.

We have these on a separate switch to the main ceiling spot lights though, which we believe will work well if we want to relax in the bath or go to the toilet at night and not use the main light.

The ideal solution would be to have one switch that turns all lights on and another switch that just controls the niche lights. I may look into a smart switch solution for this.

 

[Deep]

We are currently having our bathroom done with niches around the bath and shower similar to your examples and we opted for spot lights.

We have these on a separate switch to the main ceiling spot lights though, which we believe will work well if we want to relax in the bath or go to the toilet at night and not use the main light.

I've considered that but not sure what layout I'd like.
One was to have the wall niches and only the spot above the shower turn on, so the rest will be unlit and the lit areas will be dim

 

[Kohaashi]

Explaining why we went with spot lights, we felt that light strips might feel too modern.

We are going for a modern bathroom suite but we have chosen stone looking tiles and wood effect floor tiles, trying to get the spa type look and feel, and we thought the spot lights would achieve this the best.

 

[-Ad-]

Little spotlights will likely look a bit crap unless you buy expensive ones.

Get decent IP65 Led strip and sink it into an Alu channel with frosted diffuser. It'll look great and can be replaced easily enough. Just make sure the LED driver/drivers are in an accessible location should they die.

 

[Deep]

It'll look great and can be replaced easily enough. Just make sure the LED driver/drivers are in an accessible location should they die.

I'll need to speak to the builder and see what he recommends with making the drivers in an accessible location. That is my biggest worry about the whole thing

 

[Kohaashi]

In the loft? If that’s above the bathroom.

 

[Buffman]

Part of me is tempted to say don't bother as it's a pain to fix if they break, but depends really where you're having them. i have some in my bathroom/shower and didn't bother.

Especially if it's going to be directly above shampoo bottles etc it will just cast shadows. The one in your 2nd photo of a long focal point niche makes more sense for lighting


Mine below was "stealing" room out of a stud wall rather than creating false walls though, so I was limited in space. You will see the lights are small focal lights above the shower.

Before /prep

Here's mine before finished (the grout marks etc have since been cleaned )

Semi Finished