A great contemporary family bathroom

I love the look of this bathroom for a young family or newly weds. It's super bright and friendly and very functional. The color combination is subtle and there is a wonderful use of textures and shine to really give this bathroom character.

 

Plus, this bathroom looks squeaky clean. Exactly how you want a bathroom to look and feel. Walking in here in the morning would be a great start to the day, with everything so fresh, clean and tidy. It would put you in the right mindset for the day.

 

Now let's take a look at the elements that give this bathroom that

'wake up and jump start the morning feel'.

First, there's the use of clean white.

 

PAINT: They used a nice bright white paint color. Notice that the same color was used on both the walls and ceiling which helps to make the walls feel taller and the room larger.

 

TILE: 24 x 24 square, high gloss white floor tiles. These large tiles and minimal grout lines make the floor almost look like one sheet of white. The floor looks less busy and cleaner due to the fewer grout lines and the glossy sheen helps to make the room feel larger and brighter.

 

WINDOW COVERINGS: The floor to ceiling windows bring in a lot of light, but what is key is the window treatment they chose. The thin white blinds keep the privacy but still let the sunshine in. Also, there is no pattern in the blinds which helps for them to blend in with the white walls creating a seamless look and adding to the no nonsense, clean look of this bathroom.

 

COUNTERTOP, BACKSPLASH & SINK: There's no denying that the arctic white color of this countertop helps to give a crisp clean look to this bathroom. The wide white framing around the wood doors works to brighten up the tone of the wood. If there had been no framing the wood would hang there grabbing your attention, because it is framed in high gloss white the wood looks brighter and softer, it doesn't assault the eye like a vanity that doesn't have a white frame would. The white legs balance the wood and help blend it into the rest of the space. The fact that the built in sink is also white helps to create a blanket of white to relax the eye as there is no change of color between the countertop and sink. I think the 2 wall white backsplash is a key element too. A lot of people would have instead made the backsplash out of the same square mosaic tiles that are in the shower in order to unify the two areas. I really like that the designers didn't do that here. If they had used those small glass tiles on the feature wall in the shower as the backsplash it would have created a busier look and you would lose that wide open feel created by all the white elements in the room. The mosaic backsplash would have instead made the wood vanity doors feel darker and the whole mood of the bathroom would feel more closed in and much, much busier. Plus, I bet it would look dated sooner then this design will.

Next there's all the metal touches.

 

VANITY HANDLES: A stand out wow design element in this bathroom have got to be these amazing long rectangular metal handles on the vanity. Ok, you'll get finger marks on them, but they are bold and fantastic, definitely worthy of a little extra cleaning. I like how the handles have a similar style to the panel of the wall mount faucet.

 

 

ETC...: From the towel racks to the wall mount faucet, the kinetic shower railing to the shower door handle and shower fixtures. All accessories are simple, sleek chrome which adds nice reflective surfaces and clean lines.

Then there's the fantastic bright lighting

 

This bathroom is well lite. From the gorgeous natural light, to that amazing mirror to the ceiling lighting, there is no way you're going to have any qualms about putting on your makeup in this bathroom. It all helps to make this bathroom feel bright and fresh.

 

RECESSED LIGHTING BOXES: Mirrored light boxes. I love this style, they have similar lighting to this in the changing rooms at Zara, they light up the mirror wonderfully and add a chic little touch.

 

BUILT IN LIGHTING IN MIRROR: We are seeing more and more versions of these amazing lite mirrors. They are a fresh modern take on those bulb makeup mirrors. I am happy to see they are becoming available in larger sizes and that they are getting more and more affordable. I love the look of this one. It's the perfect size for this vanity.

 

SHOWER LIGHTING: Adding some ceiling lights to the shower is a great trick. It's especially important to do in smaller bathrooms where the shower eats up a lot of the floor space. Having lighting in the shower can really help to brighten up a small to medium size bathroom.

 

The shower tile design also has a big impact on the brightness & fresh feel of this bathroom.

 

 

See how they only used the mosaic tile on the feature wall and tiled the 2 side walls in the same large white tiles as the floor? It saves you a lot of money on mosaics and less grout lines to scrub! The white tiled side walls make the bathroom feel bigger. Imagine if they had tiled the entire shower in those square mosaics, the shower would feel shrunken in and the shower would stand out like a big tiled box. Instead you have a pretty feature wall. Plus they choose a pattern that has some white tiles and used white grout, this also helps to keep the look light.

 

I've been raving about this bathroom, but I do have 3 little pet peeves about this shower. First, there's the diamond pattern floor tiles. I'm not a fan of the diamond layout for a contemporary bathroom design like this. The pattern looks dated and doesn't match with the rest of the feel of this bathroom. Maybe it's the photo lighting but the tiles also look more of a creamy color. I'm not a fan of the floor tile choice. 2nd, a long rectangular invisible drain would have really looked spectacular in this shower instead of this standard round drain. However I do like the placement of the drain (I'm guessing that maybe there was a tub here before and they saved some $ by not moving around the plumbing which is a good idea). The invisible drains are pretty pricey so I can see why they would stick with a standard round one though. I just think it would have been a nice design element. Finally, I've said this dozens of times in posts, but I'll say it again, gotta have a handshower! Ugg, cleaning this shower with only a rainshower head, and one that's not even able to pivot is going to be a real hassle. You are going to have to fill a bucket and splash the walls. This is no fun! A long thin baguette handle style handshower would have looked really nice in here and would be a huge, huge benefit. Hope these peeps have a cleaning lady. Poor cleaning lady thought. I know one cleaning lady who refuses to clean showers that don't have handshowers, she says it takes to much time and she ends up soaked. Good on her!

 

 

 

Catch the round & square theme throughout the bathroom?

 

My favorite shower look is when round nobs are paired with rectangular panels. Here they combined round with square panels which looks really great. I'm glad they went with a round rainshower head, and not a square or rectangular one. The round rainshower head looks great combined with the round wheels on the glass sliding door rail system. The thickness of the showerhead is also a good choice to stand out strong against the railing system. And let's not overlook the great pairing of the round rainshower head with the square panel, looks great with the square mosaic tiles.

 

I really appreciate how consistent they were with shapes which is not always easy to do. The sink wallmount faucet is also a combination of round and rectangular design. The towel racks also have round bases, square could have worked too, but I prefer the softer look of the round circles, it helps to tie in nicely with the sink faucet design.

 

Also, back to the vanity, glad they kept it simple and went with 2 doors instead of multiple drawers. It mirrors the shape of the mirror and the square floor tiles keeping the look sleek and having minimal lines. Even the direction of the grain of the wood is perfect! I like that the grain was placed horizontally instead of vertically and is paired with vertical handles.

 

Overall, a really wonderfully designed bathroom.

 

 

I think the key design theory here is less is often more. They really nailed it! 

 

images via: 2id interiors