The wattage required depends on how translucent the fixture lenses are, how far away the fixtures are, how old your eyes are and what you are trying to accomplish in the mirror. It is not uncommon to have hundreds of watts of lighting surrounding a "makeup" vanity mirror area. Remember the 60 watt globe lamps surrounding the mirror on three sides as seen on TV in movie stars' dressing rooms? It's best to test if you are unfamiliar with a particular fixture for both placement and wattage.

We just bought a home that is not finished and there is one electrical boxes on each side of a where a five foot wide mirror would go. The boxes are about 5 feet from floor. What sort of sconce light would light up the mirror adequately for routine makeup, shaving for husband?

This is a duplicate post. See

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lighting/msg1211021831998.html

Here is a link that might be useful: New thread