The Best Bathroom Lighting For Ceilings And Shower Zones

The Lepro is built for the wettest part of a bathroom ceiling, where steam gathers and the shower head can reach. Its IP54 rating means it's sealed against dust and against water splashed from any direction.

The 24 watt version gives 2,500 lumens, plenty for a family bathroom with no window, while the 15 watt model's 1,250 lumens suits a smaller room. Inside are 240 LEDs with a wide 120 degree beam angle.

Everything needed to fit it comes in the box along with instructions, and Lepro backs it with a three year warranty. The styling is plain, a simple white disc, but it looks tidy on a white ceiling. Lepro also sells a smart version that works through its app, Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

At only 2.5cm deep, the Artbrite sits almost flat to the ceiling, and that thin profile gives a bathroom a cleaner, more modern feel than a chunky dome light. It's the one to look at if the Lepro's plain shape doesn't appeal.

Artbrite quotes 2,200 lumens from an 18 watt LED made up of 92 individual chips, so it's a touch dimmer than the 24 watt Lepro but brighter than its 15 watt model. The brand also gives a lifespan of up to 30,000 hours.

The rating is IP44, which protects against splashing water but sits below the Lepro's IP54. That's fine for most bathroom ceilings away from the shower spray. Fitting is a three step job according to Artbrite, using the bracket and hardware supplied.

This is a round ceiling plate with three adjustable spotlight heads, rated IP44 for bathroom use. Each head rotates through 320 degrees and tilts up to 90 degrees, so you can point one at the basin mirror, one at the bath and one at the door.

The body is electroplated stainless steel in polished chrome, which Ding Lighting says resists oxidisation. That counts in a bathroom, where cheaper chrome fittings pit and discolour in the steam over time. GU10 bulbs with a 3,000K warm white light come supplied, and because GU10 is a standard twist-in fitting, you can swap them for brighter or cooler bulbs later.

Three heads won't light every corner of a larger bathroom, so it works best in a small to medium room. There's a two year warranty.

MiniSun's square plate carries four adjustable spotlight heads, one more than the Ding Lighting fitting, which helps in a bigger bathroom where a single point has more ground to cover. It's made for bathroom use and rated IP44.

The heads take GU10 bulbs, and MiniSun sells it with either warm white or ice-cool white bulbs, or as a bare fitting if you'd rather choose your own. Cool white suits a bright, clinical look around a mirror, while warm white feels more relaxed for evening baths.

The square mount is straightforward to fix to the ceiling, and the polished chrome finish matches most modern taps and towel rails. It's the most expensive light in our roundup.

Recessed spotlights give a bathroom a neat, modern ceiling, and the BK Licht set comes as a pack of three in a brushed nickel finish. Each gives a warm 3,000K light from a built-in 5 watt LED module producing 400 lumens, and the IP44 rating covers splashes.

For fitting, you need a 60mm hole and 30mm of depth above the ceiling, which suits most plasterboard ceilings. There's no transformer, which leaves fewer parts to squeeze into the void and fewer things to go wrong. Our guide on installing ceiling spotlights walks through cutting the holes and wiring them in.

BK Licht quotes a lifespan of up to 20,000 hours. As the LED is built in, you can't swap a bulb when it eventually fails, so the whole fitting gets replaced. They cost more than the Tomshine spotlights.

The Tomshine set gives you six spotlights in one pack, which goes a long way across a large bathroom or en suite ceiling. They use GU10 bulbs rated at 500 lumens with a 3,000K warm white tone, and the bulbs can be swapped out easily when they fail.

The beam angle is adjustable with a 110 degree spread, and each light comes with a wire connection box. Like the BK Licht spotlights, there's no transformer to find space for.

The big compromise is the IP rating. It's much lower than every other light in this roundup, so these belong in the parts of the bathroom outside the zones, well away from the bath and shower. Check the rating on the listing against where you plan to fit them before you buy.