Top tips for styling your bathroom

If you’ve got an eye for design and detail, the thought of styling a bathroom is probably an exciting prospect for you. Whether you’re constructing a new bathroom or just want to give your existing bathroom a bit of a makeover, the chance to style a bathroom opens up a range of possibilities for you to experiment with. 

In this blog post, we take a look at some styling tips and advice to help you create the bathroom of your dreams. 

Question - who are you styling this bathroom for?

Before you embark on your bathroom styling endeavour, you need to know who your target audience is.

Are you remodelling or designing a bathroom for yourself? A friend? A loved one? Or are you planning to flip the property?

If you are styling a bathroom for yourself, obviously you know what you like and only have to impress yourself. But if you are doing this for someone else, it becomes a bit trickier. You need to know what they like. Ask your friend or loved one to send you photos of bathroom designs that they like to give you a starting point so you’re not going in blind. 

And if your ultimate goal is to sell a property, you want to style the bathroom in a way that appeals to the most amount of people possible. Be conservative with your choices in colour schemes and fixtures. Not everyone has bold tastes. Keep things simple and neutral and your resale value will be higher.

Choose a type of bathroom style

To achieve a really pulled together look, it’s best to choose an overall style that you really love, and zero in on the features attributed to that style. Then you can look for furnishings and fittings which go along with this style and match these with different decor and colour schemes to complete the picture.

But don’t think that you have to decide on one style and one style alone! With a bit of experimentation, you can bring a number of styles together and make it work. If you’re not sure if one feature is going to clash with another, get some advice from someone with a good eye for style or consult with an expert at a bathroom showroom. 

Below is a quick rundown of the most popular bathroom styles. 

French provincial

French provincial invokes a touch of nostalgia from 17th and 18th century France. It combines rustic charm with an elegant ambiance. This type of style works great in remodelled Queenslanders. 

Think lots of white contrasted with navy blues. Ornate mirrors and drawer handles. Embroidered towels. Wood and ceramic surfaces as opposed to anything glossy or plastic. 

Contemporary

Contemporary styling is really a very broad category as it borrows any elements that are currently on trend, so it can be considered an evolving style. At its heart, contemporary is about simplicity and using different textures and layers to add depth. You’ll typically find timber materials in contemporary bathrooms as well as smooth surfaces and clean lines. There are no unnecessary ornaments or flourishes. 

Think simple, clutter-free and spa-like. The latest tech like heated floors and cutting-edge designs.

Mid Century Modern

It’s easy to confuse the two terms ‘mid century modern’ and ‘contemporary’. Both styles share a few important features. They both emphasise clean lines and minimal adornment. But while contemporary style is influenced by the here-and-now, mid century modern style is firmly rooted in another era: the middle of the 20th century, from the mid-1940s to 1970. 

Mid century modern bathrooms feature plenty of chrome and stainless steel fixtures. Colour schemes are usually simple and feature lots of white, letting textures have the starring role. 

Think Two Pack cabinetry. Plenty of glass. Framed geometric shaped mirrors. Small flower pots and skylights. 

Rustic

Rustic is all about old meets new. Rustic style bathrooms embrace the beauty of the outdoors with raw, natural materials and warm, cosy textiles. 

Think reclaimed timber. Natural stone floors, wall treatments and accents. Earthy, nature-inspired colour palettes and statement bathtubs. 

Pick a colour palette that works

A bathroom can often feel very removed from the rest of the house. But you should consider the colour palettes you’ve used in other rooms when choosing colours to style your bathroom. If the rest of your home features cool colour tones, you probably don’t want your bathroom to have warm colour tones, otherwise it will stick out like a sore thumb. You ideally want every room to flow nicely onto the next one. 

Once you’ve got an idea of the types of colours you want to use in your bathroom, ensure that you balance everything out. If you are opting for brightly coloured tiles, then you’ll probably want more neutral colours elsewhere. And vice versa. You can jazz up neutral colours by opting for more brightly coloured accessories and towels. 

For a truly harmonious look to your home, you can bring in accent colours that you have featured in other rooms into your bathroom. If you’re not sure what other colours to feature, you can go down the monochromatic route, which essentially means choosing one feature colour and using different shades of this single colour throughout your bathroom. Or you can try a complementary colour scheme, which involves selecting any two colours located opposite to each other on the colour wheel.

Get the right lighting

When choosing lighting for your bathroom, it needs to be practical, but it can also be decorative. The vanity, tub area and shower all require different lighting choices, but the bathroom's overall design still needs to feel stylish and cohesive. Placing the wrong style of lighting in the wrong areas will create shadows.  

Side-mounted sconces with cool lighting mounted either side of a mirror are a popular option and some mirrors come with integrated lighting. They make it easier to perform grooming tasks like shaving and doing makeup. For an alternative to sconces, consider pendants. They're an elegant lighting option for a vanity, but can also function as ambient or accent lighting if necessary.

Any bathroom can benefit from three layers of lighting to enhance the beauty of the space. To ensure that light is distributed evenly, opt for a combination of ambient light in the form of chandeliers, pendants or flush mounts, a second layer - task lighting that's ideal for daily grooming activities — and a third layer, accent lighting, which is designed to highlight the bathroom's architectural features and decor.  For instance strip lighting around your mirror or under your vanity edge.

Bring in some greenery 

Your bathroom shouldn’t ever feel cold and clinical. You want it to be an oasis of calmness and relaxation. All it takes is adding some plants here and there and your bathroom will be transformed into a lush hideaway in no time.

The air is moist and damp in a bathroom – which most plants tend to love. The main thing to consider when choosing plants is how much natural light you have in your bathroom and how much air and light your plant needs. Orchids are a good choice as they like indirect, filtered light. Zanzibars are a lush plant which are easy to grow indoors. Boston ferns are another popular plant for bathrooms as they need minimal care and the feathery ferns drape beautifully. 

Get creative as to where you position plants in your bathroom. You don’t have to just put them in pots on surfaces. Why not try hanging planter baskets from hooks on the ceiling? Doing this above your bathtub will create a truly luxurious bathing experience. 

Covering plants with bell jars or cloches has become fashionable recently. It’s a way of styling a simple houseplant, picking it out and helping it to look consciously chosen and positioned. 

Add a few finishing touches

 

Sometimes it’s the smallest things that have the biggest impact. For a cosy feel to your bathroom, add candles, seashells and corals. Small floating shelves above a toilet allow you to store extra items and decor.  

To create a more luxurious feel, you can’t go past Aesop hand soap, gilded mirrors and marbled toothbrush holders. You can easily create a stylish arrangement on your vanity using a resin tray and placing items such as soap, a brush and decorative plant on top. Placing 3, 5, 7 or any other odd number of items on a tray always looks better to the eye.

Shop around for accessories and decor that you like, keeping in mind your existing colour palette and the general theme of your bathroom. The great thing about finishing touches is that you can swap them out and around, giving your bathroom a new look as often as you want.   

Need help styling your bathroom? Talk to the team at arthaus 

Whether you’re renovating a home bathroom or working on a commercial project, arthaus is here to help. 

Our bathroom experts have all the right know-how to recommend the perfect products for your needs so that you can make that final decision with confidence. 

Click here to get in touch with us today. We have a dedicated bathroom showroom in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley which is open to the public 6 days a week.  

Or give us a call on 07 3252 6111. We look forward to making your dream designs a reality.