Bathrooms are one of the best rooms in the house to use a skylight. Improved by additional natural light, bathrooms become more comfortable during daylight hours. Even when the sun has gone down, the provision of a skylight in bathroom has a positive effect.

Flooded With Light.

If you want a bathroom that is flooded with natural light go for a large a skylight as you can get away with, given any structural considerations. Larger bathrooms, that already have big windows, or even glazed doors, can still have a noticeable improvement by the addition of skylights.

Unbroken glazed panels, which extend from one wall to another, are particularly effective. Remember to allow the light to continue to bounce around the room.

Use internal glazed partitions where possible, but install frosted ones in places where you need to consider personal privacy. If you cannot decide how to orientate a large skylight in your bathroom, a good approach is to opt for one that lines up with the bath tub directly beneath it.

Double Windows.

Not all bathrooms will allow for a large skylight that dominates the room. Make sure that each can be opened independently so that you can get good ventilation in the bathroom. If your bathroom has a pitched roof, a classic design idea is to go for double skylights that meet in the middle at the apex of the room.

Textures.

More light coming into a room means that you can achieve more with the textures of your surfaces. More subtle approaches to texture can be drawn out if you simply have enough light to see what is going on.

A combination of painted brickwork, white ceramic tiling, wood and glass might not work in all bathrooms, for instance, but under the good light conditions of a skylight, they will do. The light itself can make a new texture in bathroom, if you opt for a diffuser beneath the skylight, or one made from frosted glass.

Windowless Bathrooms.

Many homes have en-suite bathrooms which cannot fit a conventional window in. The solution is a skylight mounted in the eaves of the room. Keep the rest of your bathroom’s décor white so that the natural light is reflected around. If your skylight can only fit at one end of the room, not in the middle, choose this location for your shower enclosure or bath tub.

Lantern Roofs.

Lantern roofs are popular in kitchens and family rooms, but they also work well in bathrooms. Unlike conventional skylights, lanterns really open up the roof space to the sky above, so should only be really used where you are not overlooked. Lantern roofs should be supported by subtle recessed LED lighting so that the lantern always appears to be the main source of light.

Smaller Skylights.

Skylights don’t have to be grand to have a great visual impact. A shower enclosure with a feature round window will be perfectly coordinated with a smaller skylight on an adjacent wall. If you cannot install a skylight that sits over the full length of the bath tub, go for one which covers one half, instead. Remember that even the smallest of shower rooms, with not much space to work in, will be vastly improved by the addition of even a modest skylight.

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