lighting rehab – Lighting by Jeffrey

This post is a continuation of a series suggested by a friend, detailing the rationale and process of selecting lighting for my wife’s and my new rehabbed home. In this post, I’ll discuss the lighting of the bathrooms.

Prior to this home, we lived in a house that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, one of 81 French Norman style home built on the former Cleveland Heights / East Cleveland estate of John D Rockefeller, by his son John D Rockefeller, Jr. To remain as true to the original concepts, we made no change to the exterior and very few substantive changes to the interior. Consequently, the bathrooms featured all the original fixtures and tile. This was the bane of my wife’s interaction with the place. It became especially egregious when she broke her ankle. The bathroom was probably the single most significant reason we moved. The amount of steps could definitely arm-wrestle the bathrooms for that title, but that is not the point of this particular examination.

Aside from dealing with a tub, she was also dissatisfied with the lighting. One vanity strip over the mirror was all I could do in each of the four bathrooms. Of course, her face (and mine) fell into shadows. In addition, she was unable to easily shave her legs in the shower. Nighttime bathroom visits could be akin to sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. With a new house, I already had the list of problems that needed solving.

The original main bathroom, altered at some point in the 1980s.

Two Unusable Rooms

The main bathroom in the new house was remodeled at some point in the 1980s with a dark wood vanity. In the last decade a “walk-in” tub was installed. This was an easy decision. We planned to demolish the whole room, “borrow” 18” from the adjoining TV Room and turn it into an accessible bathroom. We moved the door, changed it to a 36” opening and planned for a “wet bath” with no curb, no shower enclosure, grab bars and a built-in bench with handheld shower wand option. If she or I became wheelchair bound, we could stay in the house and stay clean.

Shower cabinet in the original second bathroom (left) with original tile, sink and 70s era wallpaper. Countertop is also likely original.

The second bath was all original. It was a funky blue with a small, original multi-head shower cabinet. The tile was in surprisingly good condition. The sink was okay and the cabinets had seen better days, but we planned to keep it, fix it and revel in its 50s charm.

During the demo, the GC called. The new tub had apparently been leaking…for a long time. The water had rotted through the main joists that supported both bathrooms. It is likely that the original shower cabinet was also leaking. The lead pan under it was deteriorating. They could not save the second bathroom. New floor joists would need to be installed across the entire span, complicated by what the contractor said was a missing support pier. (We noticed sagging floors in the area and that was the reason.) Both back-to-back bathrooms would need to be demolished.

The lead pan under the original shower cabinet was in rough shape, allowing water to leak and destroy the support joinsts below.

We had already agreed to take space from the TV Room, so we now had the capacity for two well-sized rooms. We agreed that my wife would use the larger, accessible bathroom and I would take the (somewhat) smaller one. I sketched out a plan for the divided space, provided a vanity concept that would be used in both and the contractor got to work building his and her wet baths.

My original sketch on dividing the available two-bathroom space. 18″ was borrowed from the room to the left to make the two room more usable. “His” bathroom at top, “her” wheelchair accessable bathroom on the bottom.

Original sketch for “his” bathroom with floating vanity and pendant lighting. Very little was changed except depth of room and showerhead placement.

Lighting

Over the years, shower stalls have gotten larger and larger, but most still have a single recessed unit overhead. In an approximately 6’-0” wide space, I knew shadows would be a problem, so I specified two medium beam angle recessed cans in each. As in the rest of the house, I used the Nora Sapphire III product.

My wife wanted a blue bathroom. The GC/K&B specialist found a white porcelain with blue veining that she immediately approved. We matched the dense blue to a paint that was used on the vanity and the wall surfaces that were not porcelain. She also wanted chrome fittings.

“Her” lighting sketch with outlet box placement instruction for the electrician. I was onsite during box placement to confirm the c-c dimention as it related to the cabinet.

I explained that the lighting would be positioned on each side of the mirror to provide her with the right amount of light, unlike the old place. I’d also include a recessed can over the sink, to deliver light from three directions, thereby eliminating shadows. I had already sketched pendants at each side of the mirror in the bath concept. She told me she did not want pendants, so I gave her a curated list of long linear sconces from which to choose. A quick trip to the local lighting store and she affirmed one of the options, the Modern Forms Vogue 20” sconces.

“His” bathroom

I believe green will be the next popular accent color, replacing blue which has enjoyed a great run. I wanted the exact same porcelain as hers, but with green veins. “Sorry. Not available.” Interestingly, there is virtually no green vein or green accented porcelain or ceramic tile on the market. The GC called all of his sources and we visited almost every tile house in the county and found only three options. I found some online, but didn’t want to pick something so important without seeing it live. I finally agreed on a celadon tile with feather vein texture. Unfortunately, they did not make a version for floors, so it took the contractor another month to find a multi-color penny-tile that matched perfectly. To complement the feel of green, I went with brass fixtures and fittings. The lighting I wanted was in my original sketch. The Kuzco/Alora Bijou pendants. I selected the 5” (5 sphere) model because of the tight space to the left.

Nightlights were included in the hallway from bedroom to bathroom to create a pathway and insure visibility during nighttime visits.

To insure we could safely navigate to the toilets at night, I installed two step lights in each bathroom along with a 24” strip of low lumen output LED Tape under the vanity. In all the bathrooms, (the hall and bedroom, too) I used a full-face WAC step and wall light. The 140 lumens per foot, standard grade tape is from American Lighting.

Nightlighting in “her” bathroom

To give us the purest white for grooming, I decided to use 3000K color temperature in both rooms. While I was comfortable with the decision in her bathroom because of the white and blue colors, I was worried that the color would fight the celadon in my bathroom. Luckily, the tile has responded nicely to the 3000K light.

Controls

Each bathroom has four switches. One for the two shower recessed units, one for the mirror sconces plus the over-the-sink recessed and one for the night lighting. A fourth controls the ceiling exhaust fan. The night light switch is part of the Control-4 home automation system so I could configure an illuminated pathway “scene” from the bed, down the hall and into the bathroom.

Illuminance Measurements

My goal was to provide better lighting at the face, and in the shower, in addition to providing better functionality. Nighttime navigation needs only a limited level of light, but delivers a ton of safety. Because the main bathroom does not have a window, the nightlights also furnishes around the clock support.

While it doesn’t matter for her bathroom, I took these measurements at dusk. The sky was clear, the sun had just set, but it wasn’t yet dark, so there is a bit of light coming from the window. (See first line of data.) Because of the wide variety of lighting, I provided a range in the “All Lighting” measurement, rather than an average calculation.

Type of Light	Her Illuminance Measurement	His Illuminance Measurement
Dusk via Window	0.0 fc	0.1 fc
Nightlight Only – Middle of Room at Floor	1.5 fc	2.0 fc
Nightlight Only – Middle of Room at Eye Level	0.21 fc	0.13 fc
Shower Only – Standing at Showerhead at Eye Level	46.5 fc	36.6 fc
Shower Only – Seated at Eye Level	20.6 fc	49.8 fc
Mirror Lighting Only – Standing at the front of the vanity Measured at Face	216.0 fc	305.0 fc
Mirror Lighting at Center of Sink	190.2 fc	197.0 fc
All Lighting – General Areas of Room	35 fc to 193 fc	41 fc to 167 fc

While both rooms are almost the same size in area, her bathroom is a wider, full rectangle, accounting for some of the “lower” levels of light. (seated shower, general lighting) His bathroom is narrower, with a small passageway at the door that adds to square footage, but not usable space.

Her bathroom benefits from a bit more reflectance because of the white field on the tile. It also has a glossier finish. It does lose some of advantage with the deep blue around the mirror.

Her mirror sconces are flat against the wall with an initial output listed at 2139 lumens each. His mini-pendants are away from the wall slightly, thereby closer to the face, delivering about the same output at 2100 lumens, but a higher illuminance measurement at the face.

These numbers, in general, exceed recommendations, but more importantly, they provide us with the right amount of light, where we need it and when we need it.

“His” bathroom – shower area with two recessed downlights to eliminate glare

Final Thoughts

With the amount of time we spent preserving the original features in the Living Room, Foyer and TV Room, losing the original small bathroom was tough to swallow. We think we could have made the kitsch work and had a lot of fun with the space. When the inevitable arrived, we decided to lean in and create the most carefree bathrooms we could. With no glass enclosure and no shower curtain, a quick squeegee after a shower and the area is spotless. Ultimately, that was the goal of the house. Twenty-two years of living in a historic property skews judgement. As we age, I’m sure we will appreciate the decision more. After 40 plus years of living in older homes with older bathrooms, it is nice to have a fresh, clean, functional and easy to use bathrooms.

If you’ve read any of my recent blog posts, you’ll know, my wife and I just moved into a new, rehabbed mid-century ranch. The house was rat-infested, filled with mold, had holes in the roof and otherwise, only partially functional. My wife likes to say, “We built a whole new home inside an existing shell.” While that may be true, we were careful to maintain at least 90% of the original character. Walking into the front door, all of the living spaces are exactly as were envisioned in 1957. Sadly, an original bathroom could not be saved as water leakage compromised the supporting floor joists underneath. 1980s era remodeling of the main bathroom and kitchen were not worth the effort to save. We think the house is now a perfect blend of reverence to the past and functionality for today and tomorrow.

Because the lighting and electric was barely viable, up to and including problematic Federal Pacific electric panels, a full rewire with all new lighting was required. This has allowed me to make some observations about the state of residential lighting, at least in this one small instance.

I have been involved in lighting for over fifty years, so I’ll add two provisos. First, I spent more time than the average homeowner thinking about the lighting I wanted and where I wanted it placed. Secondly, I probably used more lighting than most remodelers or designers would typically specify. That said, I believe I have created a nice lighting design for our home and I have solved the consistent lighting complaints we both lived with in our previous homes and their rehabilitation projects. In addition, while our vision is good right now, statically, more and better lighting will be needed as we age. It was easier to add the light at this juncture, rather than later, when we’re less suited to deal with it.

Some Stats

26 outlet box mounted luminaires (12 of which are utilitarian flat-panel flush mounted luminaires plus 2 monopoint spots.)
52 recessed units and recessed housings
223 feet of LED Tape (four different types)
32 lighting strips totaling 71’-0” illuminate the clothes closets
15 remote power supplies (for tape and lighting strips)
14 step lights
4 exterior spots
Scores of cables, connectors & clips, for the assorted lighting systems

Stat Calculations

28% of the fixtures purchased were outlet box mounted
72% of the lighting was a functional systems, placed in, above, below or behind architectural elements of the structure
29.6% of the budget was spent on outlet box mounted lighting
70.4 % of the budget was spent on functional lighting
- If we include the utilitarian, surface-mounted items as functional lighting, that number jumps to 76.7%

Project Stats

2600 square feet of livable space (includes a basement studio/office/entertainment space) 3105 square feet includes garage, which was also lit.
2902.18 watts are consumed if ALL luminaires are engaged
0.93 watts of lighting energy per square foot
7% – percentage of total budget was dedicated to lighting. If initial cost of the building is included, (this was a rehab) the number falls to 5.6%.

As I look at these numbers, they reflect what I have suspected and mentioned here over the years.

Functional lighting is heavily outweighing decorative lighting in quantity, dollars and impact to the room at a pretty substantive level.
As a percentage of new home or remodel budgets, lighting needs to be increased. I suspect my number, at 5-7% is higher than most. Many people believe 10% is a better number. The electricians on the job parroted that, indicating our house was the most involved they had ever done. While there was a room or two in their past, a whole-home of correct lighting hasn’t been normal. That means, there are a lot of poorly illuminated houses out there.
Despite my large number of lighting options, my watts/square foot umber fell below most averages of 1.0 to 2.5. Not where it needs to be if I wanted LEED, or some other energy saving certification, but pretty low. (More on this point in the next blog post.)

When I started work in this field, well over 90% of lighting used in a home was outlet box mounted decorative. A handful of recessed pieces were used in select spots and undercabinet lighting was, if used, fluorescent strips. 2’-0” x 4’-0” fluorescent boxes in the kitchen were soon replaced with a grid of 6” recessed cans. Bedroom bent glass was replaced with bowls, then ceiling fans. Hallway bowls were swapped for more recessed. Now, many bath strips are being supplanted with illuminated mirrors. Fluorescent undercabient was replaced with Halogen, then Xenon and now LED Tape. The ease of LED Tape, to say nothing of the reduced cost, has made accent lighting much more viable. All of these transitions are visible in my “real world” lighting installation. Are we, as professional lighting people dedicating the correct percentage of our efforts to the right categories? I’m not sure we are. We seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on decorative products and not enough on functional.

I also worry about our failure to push for better lighting. I often play a game when the new issue of Architectural Digest magazine arrives. I count the visible, decorative lighting fixtures in each article/issue. The number was shockingly low when I first started. As we moved toward the minimalistic 2010s, it got even smaller. Recently, the number is increasing because designers are doing exactly as I expected, they are featuring one or two key luminaires in a space. Lighting fixtures have moved from functional distributors of light to art that also provides some light. What hasn’t changed is the overall poor lighting found in almost every article in the magazine. If you’ve made it into Architectural Digest, there is no question, the design and implementation of the space is breathtaking. The furniture, wallcoverings and window dressings are flawless. You can’t help but be envious. Look a little deeper and the lack of usable light in the majority of the rooms is astonishing. Millions were spent on the redecoration, but only a couple of thousand dollars was spent on lighting that will allow you to see the space and live in the house.

The lighting design I provided for our new/old (last) home solved multiple problems, too little light, too much glare, poorly located lights and light oblivious to our security needs. Combined with a home automation system, the home lighting functions almost without our intervention. To achieve that, more systems-based functional lighting was needed than decorative outlet box mounted products. I’m not sure I’m an anomaly. As an industry, are we balancing this need correctly? All we need do is check out the statistics.