Whether you are looking for a complete remodel or adding small touches, these colourful bathroom pack a big punch of inspiration. If anything from the 2024 Salone del Mobile showed us, it’s that our bathrooms are fast becoming a room that focusses on the most sustainable interior design trends through textiles, fittings, and innovations.
However, these design considerations shape our relationships with the body and rituals through personal taste. After all, the design of our bathrooms are all about a high quality and durable product, and a customisable and relaxed wellbeing experience.
As a lover of exquisite bathrooms, Features Writer Kimberley Schoeman shares bathroom design ideas that are changing how we view our home’s bathrooms:
Create a Colour Scheme Through Tiles and Textiles
If your vision for a more inviting bathroom involves an injection of colour, there are two major moves you can make: Introduce colourful tiles or replace old textiles with new, more vibrant versions.
Bathroom tiles have the power to set the tone for your bathroom. Depending on their placement and concentration— on your floors, shower stalls, and even walls — your choice of tile will follow suit. Moroccan style floor tiles create a grand entrance, while cooler square tiles add a spa-like feel; whereas geometric or scalloped tiles in a vibrant colour reflects the beauty of the surrounding environment.
Colourful textiles like hand towels, bath sheets, or curtains gracefully punctuate your bathroom. There is nothing more luxurious than enveloping your body after stepping out of a steamy shower, why not use your towels to show off your favourite colour?
Your Bathroom Needs a Stool
A moveable stool is the unsung hero of my bathroom. I use it as a sort of ‘side table’ to my bath tub where luxurious bath salts, scrubs, oils, and other bath accoutrement are always on hand. During loadshedding, I also fill my stool up with candles, which forms both my source of lighting, but has the power to create a more romantic mood.
Get Creative With Your Lighting
Speaking of lighting, your bathroom lighting does not merely have to lean exclusively on the almost-invisible side of practicality. There are so many different options in the world of bathroom lighting: Pendant lighting, vanity lighting, wall sconces, dimmers, and of course layered lighting to name a few. Consider introducing more creative (dare we say artistic) lighting installations in both your primary and guest bathrooms for added grandeur.
Add Artwork to Your Bathroom
Who says you can’t have art in your bathroom? While many consider their bathroom’s design a works of art in itself, there is space for your favourite artist in there too. If you are looking to breathe new life into an otherwise boring bathroom (especially if you live in a rental), consider adding a subtle art piece that reflects your personal taste. In the bathroom below at Hotel De L'Europe Amsterdam, a bold blue painting creates a stunning focal point above the bath tub, which otherwise would have been the bathroom’s focal point.
Your Hand Soap Is Also A Design Consideration
I’ll be the first to say it: Your bathroom soap says a lot about you. If your bathroom soap is a generic pharmacy brand, it is easy to assume you are practical, and don’t pay too much attention to minor details.
You can learn more from our hand soap guide here
If you opt for a higher end soap from Diptyque or Aēsop, I’ll assume you have a holistic vision for your bathroom from the tiles on the wall, right down to your toothbrush on the sink. If your hand soap is from one the many South African brands like Africology or Umu Ora, then it is easy to assume you enjoy a more subtle, elevated bathroom experience.
