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I'm looking to upgrade a new home's guest bath with some updated hardware. It's just got the super cheapo builder-grade things right now. I like the slightly softer appearance of a shielded light so that each bulb doesn't shine in your eye with a single spot of brightness.
Here is example 1 and example 2 showing a couple quick finds from HD. My main problem is I'm a bit of a light snob and I HATE warm light. The yellow tones really irk me, so the whole house is outfitted with a more natural white 5000k. I feel like a natural white is even more important in a bathroom, I mean people are looking at their faces and grooming or putting on makeup etc. Shouldn't color accuracy in light be important?
I certainly think so but it seems like every single manufacturer uses integrated 3000k LEDs so they aren't easily replaceable. Due to this, I've begun looking for fluorescent fixtures and I'd just plug in 5000k LED T8 or T5 bulbs accordingly.
Has anyone else struggled with this and found a better solution? I feel like every apartment I have lived at had a standard bulb style above-mirror light unit that had an etched glass shield to diffuse the light. I can't seem to find these anywhere for the life of me.
Help?
Edit: Updating post to include some factual information. Natural sunlight is typically described as 3200k during sunrise/sunset (i.e. yellows/oranges/etc.) with a noon time sun to be approx 5500k and an overcast sky being 7500k. See Wikipedia here and a really nice page on color temp and color rendering from American Green Lights here
I don't have wonderful photos of the the actual property, but Here is a Photo of one of the rooms with the normal 2700k lights. This photo has already been a tad bit white-balanced. Compare that to This Photo where we were testing some accent colors. You can see the tile, laminate wood floor, and wall are much less yellow. At least to my eyes!
One person's "natural white 5000k" is another's "garish blue hospital lighting". If this is a guest bathroom I would just keep it simple. 3000K is a totally standard color temp for bathrooms.
Buy a fixture that uses light bulbs so you can put whatever color bulbs you want in.