Not to brag or anything, but I have a really cute bathroom. Some of the credit goes to my husband, who chose the color scheme, but I'm perfectly okay with that. It's one of the prettiest rooms in our whole apartment, after all.
"But what about my bathroom?" You cry. "It's so boring in there!"
Have no fear, troubled reader! These tips will help your bathroom go from lifeless to lovely in no time.
Work with the bare-bones you already have
I lived in a house that had bathroom countertops in a creamy amber swirl. This would have been pretty with the right color scheme; maybe some classy browns, or a fun greenish-blue. But no. My roommates paired it with fuchsia and soft black, including a lip-shaped rug. It was the ugliest interior I have ever seen. Moral of the story? Assess what you already have, and coordinate the rest of your bathroom accordingly.
Combine design with utility
Bathrooms are typically small spaces with few surfaces to place decorative items. My advice is to incorporate design into the functionality of your bathroom, so that you can maximize the visual space you do have. Towels, toothbrush holders, and drawer hardware fit the conventions of bathroom use, so select decorative items in these categories. They perform double-duty: creating a fun look while still drying you off and letting you get to your stash of cotton swabs.
Choose a theme
My favorite way to combine décor and utility is by carefully choosing a shower curtain. Like a blanket in a small bedroom, shower curtains take up a lot of visual real estate. Therefore, they are a great way to create a theme in your bathroom that the rest of your décor can follow.
Even if you have shower doors or prefer a less assertively designed shower curtain, the cohesive look of your bathroom depends on you choosing a theme to follow. Consider the atmosphere you would like to create. An elegant spa? Fun at the beach? Oriental? Vintage? Each look conveys a different feeling, and knowing the feeling you want to create helps as you seek out items for your bathroom.
Repeat elements
Let's talk about an example. My shower curtain is white with a large stylized flower, so I hung some art in a flower-shaped frame on the opposite wall, which is also white. (By the way, light colors help a small bathroom look bigger!) I also repeated the tangerine orange, cherry red, and apple green colors from the shower curtain in our bright towels, as well as the plastic cup where we keep our toothbrushes. With white counter tops and walls, the colors really pop, and the plastic accessories help to keep the look casual. This gives our bathroom a bold and whimsical look. We achieved this by repeating strong elements of color and shape, balanced with white walls and few accessories. The concepts of repetition and balance allow for unity and help your bathroom to look decorated instead of just full of stuff.
Consider your needs
Does a member of your household apply makeup or trim a beard daily? Make sure your bathroom has excellent lighting for these tasks. Do your kids love bath toys? Having a bin for them can help control the chaos. If you need more surfaces in your bathroom, install shelves. This provides areas for storage, especially if you utilize the wall over the toilet, or the space above the door. Just make sure the shelves you purchase fit in with the rest of your design. For families that take hot showers every day, wallpaper in the bathroom could peel off from the humidity. Therefore, bathroom walls lend themselves well to a coat of glossy paint.
As you can see, different factors in your household can determine the direction of your design.
So there you have it! Establish your starting point, make the necessary and useful things part of your design. Decide on the look you want, repeat design elements and take into account the use of the bathroom in your particular household. Now get out there and put some pizzazz in your powder room.
