Creating a spa-like bath that uniquely reflects you and your tastes may mean thinking outside of the box – or rather, outside the typical bathroom design thinking. Most people have a fairly utilitarian approach to designing or decorating their bathrooms – but with a little creativity and drawing inspiration from other living areas in your home, you can breathe new life to this functional room.
Try new wall treatments. Paint is a typical treatment for most bathrooms because it’s cheap. After all – a $10 can of paint can make a budget stretch if you have bigger issues or concerns to deal with. Tiles can be affordable – especially if you resurface/refinish existing tiles, incorporating new colors or textures where you choose.
Tiles can be affordable – especially if you resurface/refinish existing tiles, incorporating new colors or textures where you choose.
Check out this bathroom as an example: an exposed brick wall allows the homeowner to splurge in other areas. Also note the other hot trends in the bath area: open shelving allows you to not only store supplies but display personal items that show off your own style and character. The homeowner has also used larger, functional furniture full of charm and character instead of using the usual boxy sink cabinetry. Not only does this bring personality and zing to the room, but it also has the added benefits of additional functionality/storage thanks to all those drawers.
Accessorize! One way to bring the “softness” into your bath is to draw inspiration from other rooms: area rugs can bring color and a sense of “hominess” to a bath area that’s stereotypically so “neutrals,” and “hard surface” oriented (think about all the tile and ceramic/porcelain fixtures.)
Check out this bathroom as an example: As an example, check out this bath. While there’s the usual neutral backdrop of neutral/bone colored cabinetry and white tub, the room is far from “boring” thanks to the cute poof and area rug, coupled with the mix of colors used — the black and white hand towels or tan and orange towels. Take a page from fashion: remember, things don’t have to be “matchy-matchy,” rather, they should “go” together… something this room does wonderfully.
Multipurpose your soft furnishings. If you’re lucky enough to have a large bath area (like this one) create the sense of “spaciousness” by using this design trick: by creating a niche area in a room that’s “unrelated” to the main purpose of the room (ie: a micro-office in a bedroom; a reading nook in a spa-like bath), you give the impression of the room being “bigger” than it really is.
As in this bath area example: Here a gorgeous chair/foot stool combo has been moved in from a living area. That, coupled with a cute side table, creates a wonderfully relaxing corner for mom to curl up and read or journal.
Team this up with a refinished/resurfaced clawfoot, free standing tub, and you have an instant air of old world elegance. And using large mirrors (like shown in this picture) bring the benefit of functionality, but also bouncing natural light from the window and helping the room to feel more spacious all at the same time.
Pull in elements from other rooms. The bath shouldn’t feel like it’s a foreign land in comparison to the rest of your house. Look to colors, flooring, textures — even plants — that can be repeated in the bath area.
For example, some homeowners will use the same hardwood flooring throughout the entire home — to include the bath area — thus creating a level of continuity throughout the house.
That may – or may not – be something you’re comfortable with. If wood in the bath area isn’t in your comfort zone, try the latest in modern tiles that look identical to wood, but with all the water resilience of tile. There’s other ways, too, to include a mixed-media approach… think wooden pallet matts, rustic wood furniture (as shown in the pictures above) or even wall decorations.
The example bathroom here provides a great illustration of some ways to incorporate design elements in the bath area: besides just color selections, wall paneling, wood-looking floors and fabric patterns can all be drawn in from other parts of the home. (We especially love that “pop-of-color” color wall in the shower area!)
Read more at Houzz.com.
Check out some of our other articles:
From Around the Web – Wood in the Bathroom?? Absolutely!
Decisions, decisions: Should you remodel? Or refinish?
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