Two fittings, placed well: a ceiling light for the general layer and proper light at the mirror — ideally either side of it, not above. Make at least one wall bright (a washed wall reads as space), keep everything 3000K, and add a third fitting only if the shower sits in shadow. The zone rules still apply: IP44 near the water, IP65 over it.
The typical UK bathroom is around two metres by two, lit by a single close-mounted ceiling fitting that makes it feel like the inside of a fridge. Small bathrooms punish bad lighting harder than any room — there is nowhere for a shadow to hide — but they also reward good lighting faster, because two well-placed fittings can transform the entire volume.
The trick: brightness on the walls, not the floor
A small room feels the size of its brightest surfaces. When the only light points at the floor, the walls fall into half-shadow and the room contracts. Reverse it: choose fittings that throw light sideways or aim adjustable heads at the walls, and the same room appears to inflate. Gloss tiles, a big mirror and pale walls all multiply the effect — which is why the same fitting can look mean in one bathroom and generous in the next.
Lucca Triple Spot · IP44
Three individually-aimable heads on one ceiling point — wash a wall, hit the mirror, cover the shower, all from the existing ceiling rose. The small-bathroom multiplier.
The mirror deserves half the budget
You use the mirror more than the bath. Light from either side at face height is the flattering arrangement — it fills shadows evenly instead of carving them downward the way a single overhead light does. A small bathroom's basin wall is zone 2 at most, so a pair of compact IP44 wall lights is fully permitted; the Visby's caged opal globe was made for exactly this width of wall. No room for two? One good wall light on the window side beats a bar above the mirror.
The shower corner
If the shower reads as a dark cubicle, one IP65 fitting directly over it — our Valo is rated for the jets and the steam — finishes the room. That is the whole scheme: ceiling, mirror, shower. Resist adding more; in a small room every extra source adds glare faster than it adds light.
Keep it one temperature, and honest
Small rooms expose mixed whites ruthlessly — a 4000K stray over the shower against 3000K at the mirror looks like a fault. Everything at 3000K, with decent colour accuracy at the mirror (CRI 90+), and the room will flatter you at 7am, which is the entire job.
