Bathroom Vanity Lights Worth Hanging

The light over the bathroom mirror is the one you stand in front of every morning, and it is often the only decorative thing on that wall. It is worth choosing the way you’d choose a lamp for the living room, for its shape and its glow as much as its brightness.

Clear glass shows the bulb and sparkles, so it suits a bathroom with some glamour. Frosted and opal glass hides the bulb and gives a softer look. Black fixtures draw a line on a pale wall, while brass warms up white tile. The finish does not have to match the taps exactly, but the two should look as if they’ve met.

Then decide between one fixture above the mirror and a pair at the sides. A bar across the top is the simpler choice for a wide mirror, and sconces at the sides put a light beside each cheek.

ExBrite 2 Light Gold Crystal Vanity Light

This is the nearest thing to a chandelier you can hang over a sink. Two faceted crystal shades with gold caps hang from black swan neck arms, and with the bulbs on, the cut glass sparkles. It belongs in a powder room that is meant to impress, the kind with dark paint or patterned wallpaper, a gilt mirror, and a single stem in a bud vase. Guests will see it in the mirror before they see themselves.

Tribesigns 3 Light Matte Black Vanity Light, Ripple Glass

The shades look like drops of water caught mid-fall, clear glass with a dimpled, hand-blown look hanging from a thin black bar. Because the glass is clear, the bulbs are part of the design, so choose ones you like looking at, with a visible filament. The pointed black finials give the fixture a slightly retro air.

It would be a good match for a bathroom with white tile, black taps, and a wooden vanity, where a little wobble in the glass is a relief from all the straight lines.

Rowabi Pearl Globe Sconce

A single milky globe hanging from a brass ring, the Pearl has the look of a pearl earring. It is a piece for a bathroom you want to feel like a room, with a framed print, a painted vanity, and brass taps. The opal glass hides the bulb, so what you see is one soft glowing ball. Hang a pair either side of the mirror and the two globes become jewelry for the wall.

ExBrite Globe LED Vanity Light

The look is playful and mid-century, somewhere between a row of lollipops and a 1950s hotel. Three frosted white globes glow like small moons along a black bar, each on a little gold cone. Terrazzo or colored tile and a round mirror would suit it, and it’s a friendly choice for a family bathroom, where it looks cheerful at seven in the morning.

Tribesigns Slim 3 Light LED Bathroom Vanity Light

All gold and all straight lines, the Tribesigns bar has a hotel bathroom polish. Three clear glass cylinders hang from a flat brushed gold plate, each with a glowing core, and the effect is closer to a row of candles in hurricane glasses than a strip light. Marble or marble-look tile and a rectangular mirror in a thin frame are its natural setting. Gold taps would tie it in.

Rowabi Celeste Dual Tube Sconce

Two slim glass tubes, one pointing up and one down from a ribbed brass center, give this sconce the look of something from a 1930s ocean liner. It is tall and narrow, a shape made for the strip of wall beside a mirror, and a pair of them lights a face from both sides.

Brushed brass and milky glass go with almost anything, but they look especially good against deep color, a dark green or navy wall, where the white glass stands out.

ExBrite Farmhouse LED Vanity Light

The black caps on these shades are borrowed from old barn lights, and they give the fixture its farmhouse character. Under each cap is a white glass shade, and behind them a strip of brass that warms the whole thing up. It is the light for a bathroom with shiplap or beadboard, a wooden vanity, and a framed mirror, and it would look just as right over a utility sink in a mudroom.

Tribesigns 3 Light Vanity Light, Smoky Gray Ripple Glass

Smoky grey glass with a rippled, icy texture sits in three squared shades on a black plate, each crossed by a vertical bar of brass. With the bulbs on, the texture throws a watery pattern, and with them off the glass looks like blocks of dark ice. Put it with charcoal tile and matte black taps, or use it to give a plain white bathroom some edge.

Rowabi Wren Bar Sconce

One long column of frosted glass with a brass band at the waist, the Wren is about as simple as a light can be, and that is its strength. It gives a tall, soft bar of light, more like a candle than a lamp. Use a pair beside a mirror in a bathroom where the tile or the wallpaper is the main attraction, and the lights will sit back and let it be.

ExBrite 4 Light Gold Vanity Light

Four crystal shades in a row turn a vanity wall into something closer to a dressing room. Cut glass with gold caps hangs from swan neck arms along a dark bar, and it wants a bathroom with a little glamour to match, a marble-topped vanity, a mirrored tray, perfume bottles left out on purpose. Over a plain builder’s mirror it does a lot of the decorating by itself.

Tribesigns Black and Gold Vanity Light

Three black bell shades hang from a gold bar on little gold yokes, like a row of pendants in a bistro. The shades are solid, so the light goes down onto the sink and the counter, and the fixture becomes a dark silhouette against a pale wall. It is a handsome match for a black and white bathroom, with checkerboard floor tile or a black towel rail, and the gold keeps it from looking severe.

Rowabi Rosie Dual Globe Sconce

A brass arm bends down from a round plate like a pair of shoulders, with a glowing globe tucked under a frosted dome at each end. It has the look of a mid-century Italian fixture, and it is meant to be noticed. In a small bathroom, hung over a round mirror, it would be the thing people remember. Brass taps and a deep wall color, plum or olive, would suit it.

ExBrite 5 Light Vanity Light

Five crystal shades along a black bar is a lot of sparkle, and over a double vanity that is the idea. It runs the length of a wide mirror and gives both sinks their share, with gold caps and rose gold accents warming the black. Treat it as the bathroom’s chandelier and keep everything near it calm, a plain mirror, simple taps, white towels.

Tribesigns 2 Pack Ribbed Glass Wall Sconces

These come as a pair, and they are meant to be used as one, either side of a mirror. Each has a clear ribbed glass shade, round and slightly squat like a little pumpkin, on a black gooseneck arm, and the ribs catch the light even when the bulb is off.

They have an old-fashioned, general store charm that suits a bathroom with a pedestal sink, subway tile, and a wooden-framed mirror, and they would work just as well flanking a hallway mirror.

Choosing Bulbs and a Spot

Fixtures with built in LEDs set the color temperature for you, and fixtures with sockets let you choose bulbs. Cooler light suits makeup and shaving, and warmer light suits an evening bath, which is why color temperature settings are worth a look.

A fixture near a shower or tub needs a rating for damp or wet locations, so check the rating on the fixture or its packaging before installing.