What Are the Alternatives to an All White Bathroom Design?

Are you looking to perk up your morning routine, how about starting in your bathroom? I am working on designing my friend’s serious ‘70s bathroom renovation full of ugly powder blue tiles with a matching powder blue toilet and formica vanity. Her urge is strong to create a literal and figurative clean slate in the ample space after years of baby blue. For many, that means designing an all-white bath. Which can be fine, but it can also be boring, cold and uninspiring.

Here are three reasons to consider going with color in your bathroom.

1. Using hues from nature can make the space feel like a vibrant but relaxing spa, a space that gives you oxygen to start your day or unwind it. Color is a way to express your personality and lift your spirits. What color do you love? Deep ocean blues (like Pantone’s Color of the Year) or forest greens are my vibe right now and I am obsessed with emerald green like these Zellige by Cle tile which I put in my master bathroom design.  You can add color in many ways: wallpaper, trim paint, accessories, paint your vanity, change out some or all of your tile. This mural wallpaper by Christian Lacroix is a scene of a palace and its gardens on the outskirts of Paris, now what better way to be inspired in the morning than a trip to France! There is no white in this bathroom, even the toilet is a soft grey by Kohler. 

2. White can lack personality. It can be sterile like a doctor’s office and feel cold and uninviting. If you do have a white bathroom and do not want to do a full bathroom renovation, consider adding plants and wooden elements to accessorize like the pillows and vase from Anthropologie in this elegant master bathroom with a Californian vibe. colorful fabric shades or simply add colorful towels and paint the walls. I added these colorful palm frond fabric roman shades shown below called Palmitos by Old World Weavers at Scalamandre.

3. If you still want a white master bathroom design make it soft with a touch of ivory such as Benjamin Moore’s Simply White and add soft grey, off white tile such as one of my favorites, Cle Tile’s amazing weathered white Zellige shown here and of course add the color on the floor with coral cement tile also by Cle Tile.