Waterproof mood lighting for bathroom?

October 21, 2024 12:24 PM

I want to cheaply do mood lighting in a bathroom and am thinking of something like a waterproof portable lantern. It would put out between 30-50 lumens and/or have adjustable brightness and the ability to change colors, along with being powered by batteries or usb or both. What specific product would you suggest for this?
posted by Brandon Blatcher to Technology (9 answers total)

A lot of aromatherapy diffusers have a color-changing light component, and it's often a component you can turn on independent of the aroma part. (The one i have definitely is independent; I'll look that up when I get home from work.) Many of these are fairly inexpensive as well.

And presumably since these mostly use water and mist that speaks well to the waterproof part.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:57 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

I've got a few no-brand (Philips Hue knockoff) smart bulbs and they're great. You can stick them in any standard light socket (and if you have a non standard socket? well they sell bulbs for that, too). If I wanted to pursue this myself (small bathroom, no extra space or extra outlets) I'd swap out a regular bathroom lightbulb with the smart bulb, keep it normal most of the time, and set the mood lighting as needed.
posted by phunniemee at 1:01 PM on October 21

Best answer: Cheapest option might be to get battery operated colour changing outdoor fairy lights (random Amazon link, I'd probably get them cheaper off AliExpress if speed isn't a priority). They're waterproof (just wrap up the battery pack or hide it away from soaking water), come with a remote, and you can change the form factor by chucking them inside any shape of container.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 1:16 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If you have a shower curtain, I have a lot of success with the “curtain” style fairy lights. I strung them between the clear plastic curtain that goes inside the shower and the fabric decorative curtain that goes outside so they aren’t visible when turned off. The ones I have work off of battery or being plugged in. I prefer plugging them in as I was bad about turning them off and they would burn out too often. It’s a GFCI plug so I don’t worry about it. Been successfully doing it for a couple years now
posted by raccoon409 at 1:22 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I keep a portable lantern on my bathroom counter for mood lighting. Mine is a fancy DWR lantern that’s been good with the ambient humidity for 3 years, but I’m sure you can find knockoffs that are “outdoor” compatible and will survive the bathroom outside of the shower.
posted by A Blue Moon at 4:57 PM on October 21

Best answer: I love my IlluminAid lantern which fits the bill precisely! Inflatable too. And solar charged! Ive never had to charge mine. It gets juiced up thru residual sunlight. This question got me looking into it and Im going to order the multicolor version now since I got the white version back when that was the only option!
posted by octaviabutlerfan at 5:28 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Apartment Therapy was hardcore advertising this lamp to me on Instagram last month. It's waterproof and dimmable, seems to fit the bill.
posted by stripesandplaid at 7:26 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

Best answer: As promised, here's the diffuser I have. It has a color light display that you can either set to a single color or set to let it cycle through all of them as you prefer. The light display is independent of the scent diffuser as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:42 AM on October 22 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all, I'm going to try the multicolor IlluminAid suggested by octaviabutlerfan (what a great name). I like that it has solar charging along with USB, as the recent 4 days without power due to hurricane Helene painfully pointed out my lack of solar powered lights.

Thank you all for taking the time to respond, lots of other good suggestions!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:13 AM on October 22 [1 favorite]