Bathrooms
If you have painted walls in your kitchen, you’ll need to wipe them down more often than the walls in other rooms. Choosing a hardwearing paint finish will make this job easier. “Use an oil-based eggshell [finish], as you can easily wipe this clean without damaging the paint,” Whyte says. Pick the Right Paint Finish to Fit Your Style
Anchor With Color Having lighter colors at the eyeline will help a bathroom feel clean and airy, but try balancing them with a deep color lower to the ground. This adds a sense of richness that helps keep the space from feeling too stark, without making it overwhelmingly dark. Plus, it beautifully sets off classic white fixtures.
A similar medium blue-gray adorns the ceiling, walls and tub surround of this London bathroom from design-build firm Bashtan. This is an excellent color choice for a bathroom that’s on the smaller side. Cool colors tend to visually recede, so using them in a tighter space can make it feel less confining.
8. Don’t Spotlight the Floor A star of the stage would be furious if the spotlight hit the floor instead of them. Similarly, one of the most common lighting mistakes is to position recessed downlights over bare spots on the floor. Instead, position downlights over countertops and other working areas that could use the extra light. This San Francisco bathroom designed by Total Concepts is a great example of well-placed downlights.
. Do Give Yourself Backlighting Backlighting illuminates shoulders and hair, making it easier to see clothing and shapes. This comes in handy around the vanity, so consider placing a light behind and above where you’ll be standing. A surface mount or semiflush-mount fixture with a frosted shade, such as the one featured in this Toronto bathroom by Custom CADD, will block glare and provide functional overhead lighting.
Do Get the Height Right Once you’ve decided on the perfect light fixtures for the sides of your bathroom mirror, it’s important to get the height right. The exact height to hang your fixtures will depend on who uses the bathroom most. But a general rule is to hang the fixture at eye level, usually somewhere between 65 and 70 inches from the floor.
. Do Add Diffuse, Even Light Light fixtures, pendants or sconces on both sides of a mirror will bring diffuse, even lighting to your bathroom vanity. If you have a double vanity with one large mirror, consider adding a light to the middle of it. If you have a double vanity with two mirrors, as in this New York bathroom designed by Gertler & Wente Architects, add lights on both sides of each mirror. This way, two people can primp at the same time without hogging each other’s light.
With mesmerizing swirls and veining, natural stone is a popular choice for bathroom countertops. For a more wallet-friendly alternative, consider stone-inspired laminate such as the quartzite-style surface seen here. “You can spend $40 to $45 per square foot for an uninstalled stone slab,” Chmiel says. “Laminate, on the high end, is $3 per uninstalled square foot. You don’t have to seal it like granite or concrete, and the day-to-day upkeep is very easy.” In most cases, a damp, nonabrasive cotton cloth and a mild liquid detergent or household cleaner will suffice. Use postformed laminate — which is thermally curved over the substrate with the help of a local fabricator — to avoid brown edges and reduce seams. You can also use specially designed decorative edges for a polished look, Chmiel says.
Not all porcelain tile is costly, but if you shop around long enough, you’ll start to notice a trend: It’s generally more expensive than ceramic is. If you’re on a tight budget, ceramic will fit the bill. It’s difficult to find a quality porcelain tile under $3 per square foot; high-end porcelain tile will easily surpass $5 per square foot. Ceramic, on the other hand, seldom costs more than $4 per square foot, and there are plenty of affordable styles under $2 per square foot.
Scenario 1: You’re installing tile in a room with high moisture content. The best pick: Porcelain Remember, the TCNA defines porcelain as tile that absorbs less than 0.5 percent of moisture. Why doesn’t porcelain absorb much moisture? According to the TCNA, porcelain is naturally dense, which means it’s harder to penetrate. In other words, it’s nearly waterproof. This property makes porcelain a no-brainer for bathroom installations, as well as other areas of your home that are exposed to moisture. This doesn’t necessarily mean that ceramic is a bad choice for bathrooms. In fact, many homeowners install ceramic in their showers and on their bathroom floors. However, porcelain’s impermeability will ensure you have the best protection against moisture.
After. By moving the shower to the end of the room and replacing the baseboard heating with the new HVAC system as well as electric radiant-heat flooring, they gained space for the new shower stall. It has a sliced pebble mosaic tile floor in shades that pick up on the vanity’s colors. And there’s a rain shower head and a handheld wand.
Finally, the ability to dim lighting is a desired feature in other rooms and can be in the bathroom as well. Installing dimmers is worth the effort and cost; bright task lighting that’s optimal in the day can be softened in the evening, a nice touch if relaxing in the bath is a favorite ritual to help wind down the day. Proper lighting can make all the difference in a bathroom, not only in how it looks, but also in how it supports our daily routines. HAVE A NIGHT LIGHT ON A SWITCH FOR TOILET USE.
It’s hard to have too much light in a bathroom, so don’t skimp on larger fixtures at the vanity if your space can accommodate them. Tip: Avoid recessed ceiling fixtures installed directly over the sink, which can cast shadows on the face. If recessed lights at the sink area are desired or already in place, consider putting them on a different switch from the task lighting for more control over the lighting plan.
Although fixtures mounted on either side of the mirror are considered best for casting even light across the face, mounting them above the mirror remains a popular choice. Sometimes it’s simply impractical to do otherwise, given the size or position of the vanity mirror. Fixtures above the mirror should be 75 to 80 inches above the floor. Also look for fixtures that hold higher-wattage bulbs so available light has the best chance to fall evenly over the sinks.
Three damp-rated 30-inch Corva bath vanity lights by Tech Lighting are intended to be set horizontally but are striking mounted vertically over rows of mosaic tile. Tip: These fixtures are available with incandescent or fluorescent bulbs, but LED fixtures are the wave of the future, with a long life and energy efficiency topping the list of benefits.
In this bathroom, Chase double-shade bath strips by Robert Abbey provide all the light anyone could need, each housing four 60-watt bulbs. Tip: Clear bulbs with filaments are popular these days, but they tend to cast shadows. Opt for opaque or frosted bulbs instead, particularly if the bulb is exposed. In general, look for fixtures that are designed to hold 75- to 100-watt bulbs for a single-light sconce. The equivalent wattage is approximately 18 to 22 watts for fluorescent bulbs and 9 to 13 watts for LED bulbs.
A trio of Visual Comfort’s Graydon double bath lights by Thomas O’Brien in bronze with white glass shades ensures adequate light along the length of this vanity. Tip: When shopping for fixtures, make sure to check what wattage each option supports to guarantee sufficient light output.
The choice of fixture style presents an opportunity to introduce character or reinforce the design aesthetic of the bathroom. With so many options, make sure to embrace this chance to make a statement. Here, black enamel backplates on the Rejuvenation sconces pair successfully with nickel plumbing fixtures and hardware.
If the bathroom is small, sconces may illuminate the entire room. In larger bathrooms, light from additional sources, such as recessed lights and ceiling fixtures, will be necessary for adequate general lighting. Tip: A longstanding guideline has been to match finishes within a bathroom, such as the beautiful brass tones seen throughout this bath. But more homeowners and designers are feeling free to experiment with mixing metals for a potentially dynamic, more collected look.
To avoid dark spots at a long vanity, consider mounting a dual sconce in the center with single sconces at the outer edges of the mirrors and vanity. Tip: Avoid asymmetrical lighting. Placing a fixture on just one side of a mirror will create uneven illumination and make grooming difficult.
Sconce shades are an important feature since their transparency and color greatly affect how much light is emitted. White fabric shades give off a diffused light that provides a bright, clean tone.
Light from sconces should be softly flattering yet bright enough to shave, like the light provided by this pair of fixtures framing a recessed medicine cabinet.
If the fixtures are to be installed near a tub or shower with a risk of having contact with water spray, look for styles with a “damp” rating. Here’s an example of a compact bathroom where the vanity sconces are close enough to the shower area to warrant choosing fixtures with this rating.
The primary place to hang wall sconces in the bathroom is on either side of the bathroom vanity mirror, providing ideal lighting for the sink area. The American Lighting Association’s general rule is to mount them 65 to 70 inches from the floor, at about eye level. This allows light to fully illuminate your entire face without casting shadows. Ideally, the fixtures should be placed about 28 to 30 inches apart, but achieving this depends on the size of the room and configuration of the design. When installing fixtures above the mirror, the ideal height is about 78 inches.
10. Choose a toilet with a slide-off seat option. Many toilet seats now allow you to remove the plastic covers on the screws that affix the seat to the bowl and easily slide the seat off to clean this crucial spot. Most manufacturers offer this option; just read the fine print when choosing a toilet seat. This photo shows Kohler’s Quick-Release seat.
9. Find a toilet seat with an antimicrobial surface. This is an easy addition you can make whether you’re renovating or not. (Even this DIY disaster has successfully swapped out a toilet seat herself!) Today’s toilet seats are much more resistant to staining and fading than the old ones were. For example, American Standard’s EverClean toilet, seen here, features a permanent glaze additive that inhibits the growth of stain- and odor-causing bacteria, mold and mildew inside and out.
8. Pick a toilet with a skirted base. A skirted toilet has a base with a smooth profile all the way to the floor. This means none of those pipe shapes along the sides or other crevices where dust and toilet paper lint can collect. Those nooks and crannies often require some serious yoga positions just to reach them and are tough to get clean. Skirted bases make for a much easier and smoother wipe-down so you don’t have to hold your yoga position for very long.
7. Choose a water-spot-resistant glass coating for shower dividers. When I remodeled my own bathroom, the shower glass pros let me know about Clarvista, a protective coating for shower glass that resists water spots and is guaranteed for life. I still squeegee after every shower to keep things looking clean and use glass cleaner to give it a thorough cleaning about twice a month, but after eight months there are no signs of water spots. Note: Make sure to carefully review which types of cleaners the coating manufacturer recommends. Using certain products can void the warranty. (All of the products I ever dreamed of using were on the approved list.)
6. Use a large-format tile or large porcelain slabs. The larger the tile, the less grout you have to clean. And in the case of large slabs like those you see here, no grout at all. This shower surround looks like Calacatta marble but is actually composed of thin porcelain slabs. “Thin slab porcelain does not require sealing and will retain its polished or honed finish under all types of conditions,” says the designer, Bonnie Bagley Catlin.
5. Use a shower base instead of tiling the floor. Architectural designer Alison Strickland was not a fan of having to clean grout lines in the shower. So she used a shower base for the floor of her shower stall and designed the space around it. The ledge and the base seen here are made from a material called Krion from Porcelanosa.
4. Use a frameless glass shower surround. I found that the metal shower frame was one of the biggest grunge-collecting culprits in my bathroom. Stuff would collect between the frame and the glass and was almost impossible to extricate, and a piece of gummy sealant between the glass and the frame would peel off if I tried too hard. Get rid of the frame and all of that grunge is never even born.
2. Consider quartz. Quartz is an engineered material that can be patterned to resemble natural stone — but without the porosity that makes stone more prone to scratching and staining. Quartz is easy to wipe down with soap and water.
3. For faucets and fixtures, select a finish that’s resistant to fingerprints and water spots. Or choose a finish that gets a better patina from these things, if that’s your style. The finish seen here is oil-rubbed bronze, which is resistant to both. For a thorough list of finishes and their ease or difficulty of keeping clean, check out A Crash Course in Bathroom Faucet Finishes.
BUILT INS AROUND AND IN THE BATHROOM TO PROVIDE STORAGE SPACE, ANY WHERE THEY WOULD FIT. AROUND THE CLOSETS EXTRA WOULD BE HELPFUL. 4. What items are kept in this room? Let’s say you have one bathroom that’s shared by several family members, and you’re looking to remodel it. When you describe all the things that are stored in the space, the number of people who use it and so on, a designer will help you come up with the right storage solutions while keeping style in mind. For example, open shelving with baskets would give each family member his or her own basket, and would look great. Shallow wall built-ins, such as a medicine cabinet, would provide storage for shampoos, creams and toiletries. A good designer can help solve storage issues but needs to know what issues should be addressed.
6. Nickel faucets. While the trend of warm brass in bathrooms is certainly not over, the most popular choice for faucets looks to be warm nickel and classic polished chrome. Brushed nickel especially is a safe-bet choice that has a hint of warmth, minimizes water spotting and goes with virtually any other palette of materials and finishes. It can even be mixed with brass, bronze or black accents if you want to try out other finishes in more changeable elements but keep the fixtures trend-proof.
7. Undermount sinks. It wasn’t that long ago that vessel sinks were the big bathroom must-have, and while there are still many beautiful options, designers are now overwhelmingly choosing a simple white undermount porcelain sink. Why? Probably because with beautiful vanities, faucets and countertops around it, the sink doesn’t really need to fight for attention. Plus, an undermount sink is easy to keep clean and doesn’t eat up counter space.
3. Give something old a new life. Farmhouse charm oozes from this antique family storage unit that a Georgia couple repurposed as bathroom storage. The coat of seaweed-green paint updates its aged finish and makes it stand out against the tan and white colors surrounding it. The cabinet also keeps with farmhouse style by having open shelves on the upper part. Here the couple displays family photos right alongside fresh towels.
Industrial lighting and shiplap. This bathroom is a great example of popular modern farmhouse style thanks to a shiplap wall and industrial sconces. Though the vanity itself does not appear to be a true antique, it does have an aged look, and the warm stain is a welcome foil to the cooler tiles found in the shower and on the floor.
2. Antiques. Nothing creates a space that feels cozy and collected over time quite like an antique.
Some tasks require lighting that reveals true colors: blending your blush or achieving the perfect shave, beautifully plating a dinner entree or successfully pairing black socks and navy socks with their mates. Layer in pure, clean light in rooms where precision matters, such as kitchens (above work areas), closets, bathrooms and craft rooms. The bathroom seen here uses this type of bulb in the vanity sconces, ideal for avoiding makeup fiascoes.
Glass Shower Panels What better way to show off beautiful details like a feature tile, new niche or sleek shower kit than with a glass shower panel? BUILT Design Collective Email Save Whether you add a glass shower panel or door to a tub surround, or skip the bathtub altogether, using glass instead of an opaque curtain will avoid breaking up the sight lines, which in turn makes the space inside and outside the shower area feel bigger and airier. See how to add a glass shower panel
Adding a wall niche (which is often fairly simple with modern kits) creates a functional storage space that’s great for daily-use products like shampoo, soaps and creams. The open storage helps create a more relaxed vibe for an air of casual elegance. For products you don’t want fully on display, a frosted or tinted glass door will partially obscure labels and details for a tidier look.
Storage Niches This photo is from one of my favorite projects I’ve designed. People tend to respond to its sleek storage niches. Not every project is lucky enough to have space in the wall cavities available to turn into a niche, but it is usually an option somewhere in the space if you’re willing to have the walls examined to check. This is usually easy during a major renovation when walls are being opened or built from scratch anyway.
Find brass a little too brash for your taste? Consider using nickel finishes, one of my personal go-to’s, for a crisp metallic option that is a touch warmer and more refined than cool chrome. Feel free to use a brushed finish to hide prints and spotting on elements you will touch, and a polished finish for those you won’t (such as lights). However, it’s best to keep the finish of your items consistent across each category: lights all in one finish, fixtures in another consistent finish.
In-Floor Heating If you want to make the room feel a lot warmer physically without jacking up your heating bills, consider installing an in-floor heating system during a renovation. Heat radiating upward from the floor will make the space feel warm even if the overall space isn’t technically heated to as high a temperature as with typical heating systems — plus you won’t have to deal with icy-cold floors on your bare toes. See what to know about adding a radiant floor heat system
Color You may have read about how certain colors are “warm” (like reds, oranges and yellows) and other colors are “cool” (like blues, many purples and a lot of greens). However in practice, any color that makes you happy can make a space feel more warm, and a dose of color of almost any kind can make a space feel more welcoming. For example, this bathroom uses a cool blue wallpaper, but the result is friendly and fun, not chilly.
Furniture-Style Vanity Sleek bathroom vanities can be beautifully simple in a modern space, but to add some warmth and personality, consider using a traditional or vintage furniture piece instead. After all, almost any furniture item, from an antique chest of drawers to an old kitchen island cart, can be retrofitted to become a vanity as long as it is the right height and is sturdy enough to hold a sink. A good craftsperson can advise you whether a piece you have or are shopping for can be converted, or you can look for captivating creations at local fairs.
Even just a single small element of wood will pleasingly contrast crisp tile. Just make sure the piece is well-sealed to prevent moisture damage, and as long as it doesn’t regularly sit in pools of water it will hold up just fine. I’ve used attractive midcentury-style stools in many bathroom projects to double as an occasional seat and a place to set down a book, glass or towel.
Wood One of the best ways to add texture to a space is to introduce a healthy dose of wood through elements such as the vanity, shelving, furniture pieces (like an accent stool) or small accessories. Wood brings an inherent sense of natural elegance that comes through whether the wood is just lightly stained or hard-lacquered.
It also helps to find a balance between traditional and contemporary elements. For example, this room includes vintage wire baskets and classic schoolhouse-style lights contrasted against simple contemporary fixtures and a sleek glass shower door. This keeps a room feeling current but not coldly minimalist.
Enticing Stone Tile Naturally, in any bathroom space, a fundamental part of the design will be the tile. For that welcoming, “spa-like” look, nothing beats an element of stone tile. It looks beautiful and feels satisfying to the touch, while also being highly functional. If the budget allows, including some stone in the design, either as a singular material or contrasted against other porcelain tiles, will bring a lot of richness to the palette and a sense of sophistication.
Even if you choose not to tile all of the wall surfaces, I recommend having at least one area tiled floor to ceiling in some form of tile, with other walls bare, as opposed to having all of the walls tiled up to the same minimal height. This creates a finished look, with the contrast between the tiled walls and bare walls appearing intentional.
Palette To make a bathroom feel inviting but airy, and warm but also contemporary and clean, it’s important to achieve balance. Using a lot of white or crisp just-off-white will make the room feel larger and lend pleasing contrast to warm elements.
After Here’s a look at the new vanity wall after renovation. Feature wall: Gray shiplap brings a modern feeling to the space. Mirrors: These frames feature reclaimed barn wood, adding another farmhouse touch. Cabinetry: This was a custom design from a local cabinetmaker, and as mentioned previously, the Shaker style helps cement the modern farmhouse look. Cabinet pulls: The homeowners selected cabinetry hardware with a black finish, adding a dose of contrast to the room. Similarly, the dark shower floor and gray feature wall also add contrasting notes. Cabinets: custom, Marvel Cabinetry; countertops: TCE Stone 1196 quartz, King’s Stones & Granite; sinks: American Standard; cabinet hardware: Top Knobs, from Banbury Lane; barn-wood mirrors: Two Birds Furniture; main wall paint: Stonington Gray HC-170, Benjamin Moore; shiplap paint: Barnwood CSP-115, Benjamin Moore; find bathroom vanities
Cost: You can purchase a glass tub screen starting at $200, but Guttilla cautions that you get what you pay for and that the price doesn’t include installation. A custom glass screen or door that perfectly fits your space and is installed by a professional costs about $1,000 to $5,000. In general, Guttilla says, a glass door or screen will cost more than a sliding shower door or a rod with a curtain.
Material Considerations Glass thickness: The thicker the glass, the more durable your door or screen will be. “A thinner door is going to have more flex in it,” Guttilla says. If you are worried about it breaking, Guttilla says that most glass doors and screens are made with tempered glass so that you won’t have tiny shards in the bathroom if the glass does crack or break. Jeff King & Company Save Email Glass style: While clear glass is the most popular, Guttilla says, you also can find etched or frosted glass. Glass height: The top of the glass should go up at least to the top of the shower head. Hardware style: A glass screen or frameless glass door requires little hardware compared with a sliding or framed glass door. Clients often opt to use the same hardware finish as the shower hardware.
I like the bigger tiles... Should consider this look. Some smaller tiles arranged as a border high up could compliment the look.
This is simple but looks really nice.
Like it all
Top wall color is nice, subtle and works.
Q