BATHROOM LIGHTING DESIGN MADE EASY
BATHROOM GUIDE BY MINT LIGHTING DESIGN
Light the mirror first, then build the room around it - with the actual numbers to hand your electrician.
A$325 A$185
Launch Price
This Bathroom Lighting Guide will help you work out how to light your bathroom properly, starting with the mirror and building the rest of the room around it.
You’ll be guided zone by zone through your bathroom—from the mirror and vanity to the shower, bath, WC and powder room. With practical advice, placement rules and actual lighting numbers, this guide will help you make confident decisions before the walls are closed up and the tiles go on.
At the heart of the guide is the Mirror Matrix: a practical tool that matches your mirror and vanity setup with the lighting methods that will work best, while ruling out the options that won’t. You’ll also learn how to plan night lighting, switching, wet zone safety and the technical details that make a bathroom feel beautiful, comfortable and functional.
This resource is for homeowners, interior designers, electricians and builders who want clear, practical guidance for creating a well-lit bathroom.
What you can expect:
• A 22-page guide filled with expert advice, practical diagrams, placement rules, lighting outputs and real-world bathroom examples.
• The Mirror Matrix, helping you choose the right lighting approach for your exact mirror and vanity configuration.
• A zone-by-zone walkthrough covering the mirror, vanity, shower, bath, WC and powder room.
• Practical guidance on night lighting, switching, wet zone rules, IP ratings, high ceilings and choosing the right fittings.
• The actual dimensions and lighting numbers you need to brief your electrician before installation.
• A clear glossary explaining important lighting terms, so product specifications and technical information are easier to understand.
• The tools and confidence to avoid expensive mistakes that can be difficult to fix once your bathroom has been tiled.
Most bathrooms get a downlight in the middle of the ceiling and a lifetime of making do at the mirror. Yours doesn’t have to. Renovating or building new, you’re starting from scratch: bare walls, no cables in, every option still open, and this is the one moment where you can make real design decisions about your light.
The MINT Bathroom Guide gives you the same starting point our designers use on every bathroom we light: get the light right at the mirror, layer the rest of the room around it, and put your night light somewhere that won’t wake the whole house at 2am.
What Is the bathroom Guide?
A 22-page guide written by lighting expert Adele Locke that works through the bathroom zone by zone: mirror, vanity, shower, bath, WC and powder room, plus switching, night lighting, high ceilings and the wet zone safety rules that decide what you’re allowed to install and where.
At its heart is the Mirror Matrix. Define your mirror with the checklist (cabinet or flush, halo or plain, to the ceiling or not, single or double vanity), find your rows in the matrix, and read off which of the 10 mirror lighting methods will work in your bathroom, and which ones physics has already ruled out. No guessing, and no “it depends” without an answer attached.
You don’t need a design background or the lingo (there’s a glossary for the terms that matter). You just need this guide, your bathroom plan, and one honest question:
“What do I want to see in the mirror?”
COULD YOU PIECE THIS TOGETHER FOR FREE? PROBABLY.
Adele has helped thousands of people around the world get better light, some through MINT’s design work, most through what she gives away: years of blogs, social media and speaker stages spent explaining light in plain language. Watch and read all of it and you could assemble a fair chunk of this guide yourself.
But your bathroom has a deadline, and your electrician isn’t waiting while you binge a back catalogue. This is everything that matters about bathroom light in one place, in the right order, with the dimensions attached.
This Guide Is Perfect for you If:
You’re building or renovating and the bathroom decisions are arriving faster than the answers
1
You have no idea how to light your mirror, and you suspect “two downlights” isn’t a plan
2
You’ve fallen for a halo mirror, a floating vanity or a mirror to the ceiling, and want to know what that choice costs you in light before it’s tiled in
3
You want a bathroom that feels like a day spa but still works for makeup, shaving and bathing small children
4
You’re an interior designer who needs the offsets and outputs behind your concepts, so your lighting survives contact with the site
5
You’re an electrician who wants dimensions you can rough-in from, before the mirror is even on site
6
You’re designing to age in place and want light that will still work for 80-year-old you
7
What’s Inside the Guide?
Every page is practical: placements, outputs, red flags and the reasoning behind them, so you can make each decision once.
MIRROR LIGHTING, SOLVED
✓ The 10 ways to light your face at the mirror - each with placements, lumen outputs and the impediments nobody mentions until it’s too late
✓ The Mirror Matrix: a decision table that matches your exact mirror to the methods that will work, and rules out the ones that won’t
✓ The shortcut for the most common bathroom in Australia (if that’s you, your answer is on one page)
✓ The watch-outs: the gimbal trap, wide mirrors, why a halo mirror will never help you shave, and what changing your mirror mid-design does to your lighting
ZONE BY ZONE THROUGH THE ROOM
✓ Vanity: night lights, shadow busters, and when a glowing kicker is a mistake
✓ Shower: grazing light, the faux skylight effect, and niche lighting (plus what it will reveal about your shampoo hoard)
✓ Bath: the spa feel, done safely - the wet zone rules, IP ratings, and why pendants over baths aren’t a thing in Australia
✓ WC and powder rooms: soft, functional, and permission to show off
✓ High and raked ceilings: what changes when your ceiling stops cooperating
THE LAYERS THAT MAKE IT WORK
✓ The Night Layer: how much light a 2am visit needs (less than you think), and why amber beats white
✓ Switching: the MINT formula of two switches and one motion sensor, and which layer goes on the top switch
✓ Choosing Your Fittings: 7 checks to run on any light before you buy, from lumens and beam angle to CRI, glare and dimming
✓ A bathroom lighting glossary, so the spec sheets stop being a foreign language
Real-life Benefits
Stop second-guessing the mirror decision - the matrix answers it for your exact bathroom.
Get the wet zone rules right while the walls are still open, not after the tiler leaves.
Brief your electrician with dimensions, not vague intentions.
Design a bathroom that flatters you at 7am and calms you at 10pm.
Avoid the mistakes that get tiled over and cost thousands to reverse.
MEET THE LIGHTING DESIGNER
Created by Adele Locke
Adele Locke founded MINT Lighting Design and has helped thousands of people around the world see and shape the light in their homes, some through MINT’s design work, most through the knowledge she shares freely on the MINT website, social media and speaker stages. More than two decades in lighting, membership of IESANZ and IALD, and a guide written the way she teaches: opinionated, practical, numbers included.
It reflects her belief that the bathroom is the hardest working room in the house, and lighting it well should not be a professional secret..
GAIN ACCESS
GET THE BATHROOM GUIDE NOW
Instant download (22-page PDF)
Yours to keep - every bathroom, every ensuite, every project to come
Stands alone, and works beautifully alongside the Design Guide and Light School Video
A$325 A$185
Launch Price
This Bathroom Lighting Guide will help you work out how to light your bathroom properly, starting with the mirror and building the rest of the room around it.
You’ll be guided zone by zone through your bathroom—from the mirror and vanity to the shower, bath, WC and powder room. With practical advice, placement rules and actual lighting numbers, this guide will help you make confident decisions before the walls are closed up and the tiles go on.
At the heart of the guide is the Mirror Matrix: a practical tool that matches your mirror and vanity setup with the lighting methods that will work best, while ruling out the options that won’t. You’ll also learn how to plan night lighting, switching, wet zone safety and the technical details that make a bathroom feel beautiful, comfortable and functional.
This resource is for homeowners, interior designers, electricians and builders who want clear, practical guidance for creating a well-lit bathroom.
What you can expect:
• A 22-page guide filled with expert advice, practical diagrams, placement rules, lighting outputs and real-world bathroom examples.
• The Mirror Matrix, helping you choose the right lighting approach for your exact mirror and vanity configuration.
• A zone-by-zone walkthrough covering the mirror, vanity, shower, bath, WC and powder room.
• Practical guidance on night lighting, switching, wet zone rules, IP ratings, high ceilings and choosing the right fittings.
• The actual dimensions and lighting numbers you need to brief your electrician before installation.
• A clear glossary explaining important lighting terms, so product specifications and technical information are easier to understand.
• The tools and confidence to avoid expensive mistakes that can be difficult to fix once your bathroom has been tiled.
OR… LIGHT THE WHOLE HOUSE
Get the Design Guide + Light School Bundle
The Bathroom Guide goes deep on one room. The Design Guide and Light School take the same thinking through your whole home to inspire a new approach to your lighting design.
✓ Learn the principles of light through the seminar, then apply them everywhere
✓ Ideal for homeowners planning a full build or renovation
✓ Bathroom Guide owners: your copy includes a discount code for this bundle
FAQs
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Your guide is delivered as an instant PDF download the moment your purchase is complete, with a backup link in your confirmation email.
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Yes. It’s a standard PDF that reads beautifully on phone, tablet and computer. The Mirror Matrix is best on a bigger screen or printed, it’s a table you’ll want to run your finger down.
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Yes. Print it, mark it up, take it to site. That’s what it’s for.
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Your purchase is for your own use and your own projects. Showing your electrician the page for your job is fine; passing the whole guide around is not (see the license note below). Educators, get in touch and we’ll sort permissions properly.
Please Note
The content in this document is owned by MINT Lighting Design and your purchase of this document does not give you the right to use/redistribute/re-make or in any other way use this content as your own, or for your business or for any other commercial or non commercial purpose. If you are an educator and want to use this document for your students, reach out to MINT Lighting Design directly to arrange the permissions needed.
MINT Lighting Design is not legally responsible if this resource doesn’t give you the results it’s given other people. This educational resource is a guide to assist you in thinking differently about light and lighting design. It does not constitute professional advice, nor does it guarantee that a lighting design created using this guide will be effective or compliant.
MINT Lighting Design is a professional team of designers who are very experienced and excellent at what they do. Our clients enjoy amazing results from working with our team. We are delighted to share what we know in this, and other educational content for you to enjoy however we trust that you understand that our many decades of experience can not be captured in one document, and that any educational content we provide is to help you gain a greater understanding of light and lighting design – and will not make you a qualified professional in this field, nor will it guarantee that you can create your own lighting design. The results you achieve from using this guide will depend on a combination of factors we have no control over such as your experience in construction and design, the effort you put in and the advice you take from other parties.
Your implementation of the suggestions set out in this resource does not create a professional relationship between you and MINT Lighting Design. If you want feedback or advice about your specific project, our professional team would be delighted to help – please reach out to discuss which of our design services will help you achieve your lighting goals.