Bathrooms serve many functions. Yes, it’s where you brush your teeth and start your day. But it’s also become a place to unwind and escape from everyday stresses, which has impacted the way we design them.
However, your beautiful bathroom should still suit your space, taste, and level of mobility – whether you’re upgrading an ensuite or your entire guest bathroom.
That’s why we’ve used our experience and eye for design to select 48 bathroom design ideas of all shapes and sizes – all for your inspiration. Go to the style that you like with our quick links below:
- Minimalist ideas
- Industrial bathroom ideas
- Classic ideas
- Marble ideas
- Spa-like and relaxing bathroom ideas
- Elegant bathroom ideas
- Retro ideas
- Chic bathroom ideas
- Contemporary ideas
- Scandi bathroom ideas
- Natural bathroom ideas
- Small bathroom design
- Accessible ideas
- Rustic ideas
- Microcement ideas
- Tropical ideas
- Bohemian ideas
- Set one-colour ideas
Minimalist ideas
Minimalism is popular because of its simplicity. Many people want their bathrooms to feel calming and free from clutter, which is the key aspect of minimalist bathrooms.
Vintage bathrooms might have colourful tile patterns, but minimalist bathrooms use lots of whitespace with straight lines and monochromatic palettes. See what we mean below.
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Unsplash: Beazy
Minimalism and modern bathroom designs go hand-in-hand. In the above image, the minimal simplicity results in a clean finish that suits the primary function of your bathroom: getting clean. The simple colour scheme and decor also reflect the secondary function of the bathroom space: creating a relaxing and comfortable haven for you to escape and unwind from a hard day. We also love the small splash of green from the plant in the corner – this complements the muted colours around the bathroom and would help you to feel a sense of connection to nature. Bliss.
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You can also use plants to add colour.
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Pexels: Curtis Adams
Minimalist bathrooms normally have black-framed shower enclosures and matt-black taps. Remember, minimalism is characterised by clean lines, highlighting the shape and colour of just a few essential elements.
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Original owner: Laci Lacko
Minimalist bathrooms are easy to personalise. For example, this bathroom design idea has more eye-catching elements than the previous images, but it still feels calm thanks to the straight lines and monochrome finish.
Industrial bathroom ideas
An industrial bathroom is typically factory-themed, drawing inspiration from the Industrial Revolution. With exposed pipes, grey walls, and hardwood finishes, they’re very different from minimalist bathrooms. In truth, an industrial bathroom is typified by its carefully-curated, ‘chaotic’ layout.
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Original owner: Omar Saad
In an industrial bathroom, you’ll likely find exposed pipes, tubes, and ducts. It’s all part of the ‘unfinished’ aesthetic. In this bathroom design idea, we like the symmetry of the hanging mirror and multiple lightbulbs, while the floating basin offers a practical alternative for wheelchair users.
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Original owner: Razoo Architects
Unlike the previous industrial bathroom idea, this design replaces exposed pipes with machinery-inspired, grey tiling. Here, you have a beautiful bathroom with contrasting materials and textures, which is what industrial design is all about.
Classic ideas
Classic bathrooms are timeless. In fact, no list of bathroom design ideas would be complete with some classic examples. Generally, this design pairs white tiling with natural light, creating a bright and airy space. If colour is used, it’s normally fresh tones of primary colours.
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Original owner: Future/Polly Eltes
If you enjoy baths, then you’ll love this classic bathroom design idea. The standalone tub is a beautiful centrepiece amongst the bright and airy bathroom, with the large windows bringing in plenty of natural light. The flamingo painting – while contemporary – adds personality.
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Original owner: Whitefield and Co.
White is the most common colour for bathrooms because it’s everything you want your bathroom to be: fresh and clean. In the above image, the white tiles pair nicely with the toilet and basin, while the light blue gives a subtle edge.
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Original owner: Tony Colangelo
You don’t always need to use blue to accent your classic bathroom. You should also consider green. The relaxing bathroom idea above uses a lovely shade of green that you’d typically find in a classic library.
Marble ideas
Marble has been used in construction for thousands of years. It’s durable, stylish, and naturally water-resistant, making it one of the most popular materials for creating elegant and luxurious bathrooms. Below, we’ve picked three bathroom design ideas that use marble in different ways.
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Original owner: Siobhan Doran
This is one of the most elegant bathroom design ideas on our list, primarily thanks to the white marble wall. Naturally water-resistant, this type of marble lends itself perfectly to bathrooms, giving an expensive feel to the shower enclosure without being flashy.
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Original owner: Platform Building Group
You can also use marble for your bathtubs. Doing so results in a luxurious centrepiece for your minimalist bathroom, with the gold taps and light fittings adding another layer of elegance to the tub. Don’t forget that marble is one of the most expensive materials you can use, so it might not suit everyone’s budget.
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Original owner: Invictus
In modern bathroom designs, marble is particularly popular. Marble gives the floor a fresh, clean, and durable feel on your feet, while allowing you to personalise the walls and shower enclosure in any style you wish. White marble goes with pretty much any other colour.
Spa-like and relaxing bathroom ideas
From our experience, the most relaxing bathroom ideas use neutral colours, dimmed lighting, and calming hues. The colours should, after all, relax the mind. What’s more, spa-themed bathrooms are as relaxing as it gets.
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Original owner: MOMA Design
Brown is one of the most calming neutral tones, offering deep and earthy hues to your shower enclosure. In the above image, the varying tones of brown and multiple shower heads combine to create one of the most relaxing bathroom ideas we found.
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Original owner: GAA Architecture
The combination of water streams, minimal lighting, and marble seating turns this sleek shower enclosure into a fully-fledged spa. However, as far as modern bathroom designs go, this would be one of the most expensive ideas on our list.
Elegant bathroom ideas
Elegant bathrooms are neat, stylish, and graceful, sitting somewhere between minimalist and classic on the design spectrum.
For an elegant bathroom, striking the right balance can be tricky – you need to consider storage, accessories, and colour palettes. But don’t worry, we’ve included two elegant bathroom ideas, based on both modern and traditional designs, to inspire you.
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Original owner: Tawfeek Kalagi
This elegant bathroom idea uses a simple colour palette of wood and white marble to great effect. It’s neat, tidy, and stylish. What’s more, the low-key picture frame adds a tasteful touch without drawing too much attention.
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Original owner: Next Luxury
Many traditional bathroom elements, such as standalone tubs, are naturally graceful in their design. As you can see from this elegant bathroom idea, you can use lots of whitespace and a few stylish elements to create a tasteful bathroom.
Retro ideas
Retro bathrooms are an eclectic mix of old and modern features, making them one of the most creatively challenging bathroom design ideas. It’s about finding the right balance.
Using elements from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, you need to pair those traditional styles with contemporary features in a way that doesn’t look too mismatched. We’ve included some examples to help you get it right.
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Photographer: Liz Daly
This bathroom perfectly strikes the balance between contemporary and retro. It contrasts the modern, minimalist glass shower screen with a blend of subway and triangle patterns, inspired by the 60s and 70s. Like all beautiful bathroom design ideas, it doesn’t feel too ‘busy’, either.
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Original owner: BYGGFSBRIKEN
The basins are retro in their style and colour pattern, bringing a vintage accent to the white tiling. If you love bold, popping colours, then you should consider contrasting the colour of your taps with the basin, like in this image.
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Credit: Retro Renovation
Retro bathroom design ideas usually comprise pastel colours, such as pink and mint green. This colour scheme won’t be for everyone, but it can help create a truly unique bathroom.
Chic bathroom ideas
In terms of bathroom design, ‘chic’ normally means elegant, casual and fashionable, and can be tailored towards different eras or styles. For example, you can have 70s chic, contemporary chic, or farmhouse chic bathrooms – as long as they’re stylish and true to that design trend.
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Original owner: Veronica Solomon, Casa Vilora Interiors
This bathroom design idea is very fashionable, with its tropical chandelier and wallpaper creating a ‘nature chic’ style. Everything about this bathroom feels trendy, especially its lavish colour palette of black, gold, and purple.
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Original owner: Nathan Kirkman
Art deco started in France just before World War I and can be used to create early 20th chic bathrooms. This era of design is all about mixing extravagance with elegance, as you can see from this bathroom design idea.
Contemporary ideas
Contemporary is used interchangeably with modern, when in fact – they’re different. In the design world, ‘modern’ technically refers to previous modern design eras, such as the 1950s and 1960s, while ‘contemporary’ focuses on the now and future.
All the minimalist bathroom design ideas on this page are contemporary. However, these days, the terms ‘modern’ and ‘contemporary’ have become almost synonymous.
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Credit: Etelamaki Architecture
This bathroom is contemporary because of the straight lines, which can be found in the wooden mats, symmetrical vanity unit, and hanging light combo. Also, the colour scheme is grey and understated, which is typical in contemporary design.
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Credit: Airbnb
As we mentioned, grey is a great friend of contemporary design. Minimalism is, too. When combined with black frames, piping, and taps, you end up with a contemporary colour palette that shouldn’t ever go out of fashion.
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Original owner : Abi Dare
This bathroom design idea is contemporary thanks to its minimalist colours and straight lines. The whitespace allows small, colourful elements to pop, which is what minimalist and contemporary designs are all about.
Scandi bathroom ideas
Scandi design is minimalist with a focus on functionality. You’ll find that most scandi bathroom ideas have light colours, wooden accents, and pendant lights.
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Original owner: Imola Tiles
As far as Scandi bathroom ideas go, this one is classic. It combines light tones, wooden finishes, and pendant lights, resulting in a minimalist bathroom that makes the most of its limited space.
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Pexels: Karolina Grabowska
You might notice a theme now. Scandi bathrooms are functional and stylish in equal measure, using light colours and tasteful elements like circular mirrors. Don’t forget you can also use plants to add colour.
Natural bathroom ideas
If you’re feeling disconnected from nature, you can turn your bathroom into a lush yet functional space in a few simple steps. Below, you can see some natural bathroom ideas to help you connect with Mother Nature while you bathe.
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Pexels: Monstera
This is one of the more understated natural bathroom ideas we found, using only a few plants to create a nature-style vibe for the room. You’ll notice the Scandi-inspired pendant lights and wooden drawers, which lend themselves nicely to nature-themed bathrooms.
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Credit: Homes To Love
If you have the space adjacent to your bathroom, you can turn a small garden into a shower enclosure. It makes the most of natural light, too. After all, what’s more natural than outside?
Small bathroom design
Less space doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice style and functionality in your bathroom. You just need to know the space-saving tricks. That’s where we can help, as you’ll see from our small bathroom design ideas below.
iStock: Lois GoBe
When it comes to tiling your small bathroom, a little colour goes a long way. With loft conversions, you can use skylights to bring in lots of natural light to keep the room feeling bright and spacious.
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iStock: KatarzynaBialasiewicz
As long as you don’t mind compact spaces, you can fit your toilet snugly in between the basin and walk-in shower. Remember, walk-in showers typically save more floor space than shower-over-tubs, which is something to consider.
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Original owner: Kirsten Francis
This small bathroom design idea sacrifices floor space within the shower, while cleverly using caved storage areas on the wall. The floating basin saves space, while offering a wheelchair-user-friendly element to the bathroom.
Accessible ideas
There are a number of ways of creating a more accessible bathroom, from installing a few grab bars to an entire walk-in bath. And remember, an accessible bathroom can remain stylish, as you’ll see below.
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Credit: Fleur Ward
This is one of the most subtle, accessible bathroom design ideas on our list, with the loo roll holder doubling up as a grab bar. This bathroom also uses a miniature wet room next to the toilet, offering fewer step hazards than a regular shower.
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iStock: Wollwerth
Walk-in showers are more accessible than shower-over-baths, with just a small shower tray to step over. You can also add grab bars and built-in shower seating to take the weight off your joints, allowing you to bathe more comfortably.
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iStock: Downloadit
If you have very limited mobility, you should consider installing grab bars from the toilet to the walk-in shower, ensuring you can enjoy the whole bathroom with more independence. This bathroom also uses two shower heads, allowing you to sit down and reach the shower head more easily.
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iStock: Wirestock
As we’ve mentioned, walk-in showers are an excellent alternative to bathtubs in terms of accessibility. That’s unless you install a walk-in bath, of course, which allows you to step into your tub with ease.
Rustic ideas
Rustic design combines natural and rugged elements with a deep and natural colour palette. Think greens, browns, and greys. That’s why most rustic bathrooms are characterised by gorgeous wooden furniture, stone slabs, and lush greens.
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Pexels: Max Rahubovskiy
There aren’t many items more rustic than rugged, wooden countertops. The dark brown contrasts beautifully with the grey tiles, resulting in an unpretentious bathroom that still looks stunning.
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Pexels: 30Nudos Adicora
This rustic bathroom design idea centres on the great outdoors, with its hanging plants, cobbled tiles, and wooden storage counters. This space would make you feel like you’re having a shower on a jagged coastline, which is one of the main ideas of rustic bathrooms.
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Pexels: Ksenia Chernaya
You can turn natural wood pieces into useful bathroom furniture, such as gorgeous countertops. When paired with grey slabs, wooden elements create a beautifully rustic atmosphere.
Microcement ideas
Microcement is a cement-based coating you can thinly apply to any bathroom surface. It’s most commonly used to cover tiles, creating a realistic cement effect, but at half the cost of using real cement.
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Pexels: Monstera
Given the pale colour of cement, you’ll normally end up with a light and spacious atmosphere in your bathroom, particularly if you cover all four walls in microcement. What’s more, the neutral tone of cement is timeless, meaning you can tweak your bathroom’s accessories as trends change.
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Pexels: Moises Arias
Using microcement is also an effective way to create a water-resistant floor, which can help prevent accidental slips when stepping in and out of the shower or bath.
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Pexels: Vecislava Popa
If you like bright bathrooms, you can use microcement on your floors and ceilings to reflect lights more effectively. The bathroom design idea above does this well, thanks to its ceiling lights.
Tropical ideas
The tropics are warm and lush areas, making them a common inspiration for many bathrooms. As you can see below, there are different ways you can turn your bathroom into a tropical paradise.
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Pexels: Dominika Roseclay
If you have the space and budget, you can transform parts of your outdoor area into a tropical bathroom. Then, all you need is some tropical plants and rugged elements, such as a rock-themed basin.
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Pexels: Jonathan Borba
You can use large skylights to make it feel like you’re having a shower outside, while using large plants to bring the tropical atmosphere. This bathroom design idea does this very well.
Bohemian ideas
If you’re not bothered about impeccably straight lines and clutter-free spaces, then you might want to consider a bohemian bathroom. In contrast to minimalism, bohemian design is characterised by carefree patterns and a lack of structure.
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Original owner: AGPcollective
Using eye-catching wallpaper is an easy way to bring bohemian vibes to your bathroom. If you have white tiling, you can accent the walls with bohemian elements quite easily.
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Original owner: Come Down to the Woods
The best thing about bohemian design is that you can experiment with colours. With this design style, you can create a truly unique bathroom.
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Original ownder: Fireclay Tile
Despite the lack of structure, this bathroom remains attractive and interesting, which is what makes bohemian design so special. We particularly like the unique mirror that brings lots of character.
Set one-colour ideas
White is the most common colour for bathrooms. But if you want to transform your bathroom into a unique space, you can use one set colour instead.
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Original ownder Sina
Using pink is an excellent way to create a retro bathroom that’s actually unique, especially when paired with 60s inspired, circular mirrors.
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Credit: mxk3 z5b_MI
Dark blue is smart and classy, making it one of the most popular colours for bathrooms. It also goes very well with gold accents, making it the ideal colour combination for regal designs.
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Pexels: Max Rahubovskiy
Don’t forget you can match your bathroom accessories with your chosen set colour. Here, you have beautiful emerald tiles paired with plants and fluffy green towels. It’s a green haven.
Now that we’ve shown you 48 amazing bathroom design ideas, you should have all the inspiration you need to create a bathroom that suits your space, budget, and needs.
However, your beautiful bathroom shouldn’t sacrifice practicality. If you have limited mobility, you should consider a walk-in shower or walk-in bathtub. Doing so not only provides extra support, but gives you the independence to enjoy bathing more freely.