Bathroom Vanity Lighting: The 3-Foot Rule, Damp vs. Wet Ratings, and Where Sconces Actually Go

Almost every bathroom remodel we walk into arrives with the same two pictures attached: a little pendant hanging over the freestanding tub, and one light bar centered over the mirror. The first is usually illegal where the client wants it. The second is perfectly legal and makes people look tired. Both get decided at the same moment — the day the boxes go in the wall, before tile — and after that, changing your mind is demolition. Here's the code half and the design half in one place.

The 3-foot zone around the tub and shower

Section 410.10(D) of the National Electrical Code — the 2020 edition is what New York City now works from — draws an invisible box around your tub and shower. Measured from the top of the bathtub rim or the shower stall threshold, that zone runs 3 feet (900 mm) horizontally and 8 feet (2.5 m) vertically, and it is all-encompassing: it includes the space directly over the tub or shower stall. No part of any of the following may sit inside it:

• a cord-connected luminaire
• a chain-, cable-, or cord-suspended luminaire
• lighting track
• a pendant
• a ceiling-suspended (paddle) fan

(A later edition of the NEC narrows that last item to paddle fans carrying a light kit. The city is working from the 2020 text.)

Two details do most of the damage to the magazine photo. First, "no part of" — a pendant whose canopy clears the line but whose shade hangs into the zone is still in the zone. Second, the 8 feet is measured up from the tub rim, not from the floor. A tub rim sits well over a foot off the floor, so in an ordinary 8- or 9-foot bathroom the zone runs straight past the ceiling and there is simply no legal height for a pendant over the tub. Even under a 10-foot ceiling, where the top of the zone lands below the plaster, anything that hangs down puts itself back inside. A recessed or surface-mounted fixture is the way to light over a tub. Which raises the label question.

Damp vs. wet: what the label has to say

Same section: a luminaire located within the actual outside dimension of the tub or shower, up to 8 feet above the rim or threshold, must be marked suitable for damp locations — and marked suitable for wet locations where it's subject to shower spray.

The distinction comes from the code's own definitions. A damp location is protected from weather and not subject to saturation, but sees moderate moisture. A wet location is one subject to saturation with water.

Practically: inside a shower enclosure where the fixture can take spray, buy wet-rated. Over a tub outside the spray path, damp is the minimum. And the rating lives on the fixture label and carton — if it doesn't say it, it isn't rated, no matter how the product page described it.

Where sconces actually go

A single bar above the mirror lights the top of your face. Brow, nose, and chin then cast shadows straight down, which is why people say their bathroom "ages" them. Flanking sconces at face height fill from the sides instead. None of this is code — it's the geometry lighting designers work from, and it's worth borrowing:

• Height: center of the light source around 60–66 in above the finished floor, roughly eye level. Lower, and the light catches the chin from underneath. Higher, and you're back to shadows pointing down.
• Spacing: 36–40 in apart — about 18–20 in to each side of the sink centerline. In a tight bathroom, 28–30 in still works.
• Clearance: leave a couple of inches between the mirror edge and the inside edge of each sconce, adjusted for vanity and fixture width.
• Shaded fixtures: set the bottom of the shades slightly below eye level so the shade isn't glaring straight at you.

Those are rough-in dimensions, not shopping notes. Pick the mirror and the fixtures before the electrician sets boxes.

"90 CRI" can still make you look grey

Color rendering matters more in a bathroom than almost anywhere else in the house, and the number on the box leaves something out. Standard CRI — Ra — is an average of eight test color samples, R1 through R8. R9, deep saturated red, is not in that average at all. Skin tone leans heavily on red content, so a lamp can advertise 90 CRI and still leave faces looking flat.

So ask for the R9 figure specifically. Serious manufacturers publish it; if a spec sheet won't show it, that tells you something. We won't hang a lamp with an R9 near zero over a vanity.

The NYC layer: prewar walls and the DOB filing

The 2025 NYC Electrical Code took effect December 21, 2025, adopting the 2020 NEC with extensive city amendments under Local Law 128 of 2024. A new vanity circuit — or simply relocating a fixture outlet, which is what moving a sconce box 14 inches is — is a modification to the electrical system, and that means a permit. Per the Department of Buildings, only a Licensed Master Electrician or Special Electrician can file one; there is no homeowner self-filing for electrical work in New York City.

In prewar Brooklyn and Manhattan bathrooms the physical work is the harder part. Many have exactly one fixture outlet above the mirror and nothing else, so flanking sconces mean new cable through plaster-and-lath or masonry party walls. If the existing branch circuit is old, ungrounded, or cloth-insulated, extending it isn't the right move — that's a rewiring conversation, not a fixture swap. In a co-op or condo, the alteration agreement and board approval come before anyone opens a wall.

Before the tile goes up

The cheapest version of this job is the one where the boxes land in the right place the first time. If you're planning a bathroom, have a licensed electrician look at the layout while the walls are still open. Chazon Electric is licensed and insured, works across all five boroughs, and handles the DOB filing. Call (718) 924-8062 or see our lighting installation services.