Truthfully though, when did we become afraid of colour in bathrooms? I was pinning ideas on Pinterest recently (Instagram, if we’re honest – I was avoiding grouting the shower tiles,) and I noticed I couldn’t find a single colourful bathroom. White subway tiles, grey vanity unit.
Bold? Was I dreaming of having exposed brick walls? The majority of bathroom Pinterest is tiled grey from wall to wall with white towels strewn across a stylish stool.
It actually made me sad. Think of all the joy we could be spreading if we decorated our bathrooms with personality rather than fear.
Danny and I did ours completely unintentionally.
We were renting the damp flat in Beeston I mentioned earlier, and decided to ‘freshen up’ the bathroom. It was depressing. Yellowish-overhead strip lighting.
Walls and units a shade of greige I’ve since learned is a designer euphemism for beige+grey. It looked awful. Our landlord agreed that we could paint and change stuff, as long as we “kept it neutral for when you move out”.
Neutral? I went to B&Q and spent a fiver on the brightest turquoise paint I could find. Bright.
Doesn’t even cover grey properly primer kind of turquoise. Danny thought I’d gone mad. As it turns out, we hadn’t.
Not only did it brighten up our sad little bathroom, it made me smile every time I walked into the room. Coloured tiles make my teeth look whiter. Makes that dingy mirror shine.
Bright paint made me feel – kind of glad to be brushing my teeth. Surprisingly! When we moved out, our landlord refused to change it back.
Said it was the first bathroom any of his tenants had enjoyed cleaning. Middle-aged men from Nottingham secretly love having something a little fun to look at when they shave it would seem. It made me realise just how ridiculous we are about bathroom colours.
Sure we might spend five minutes wondering if it’ll sell our house later on down the line. But we spend two minutes, twice a day brushing our teeth. That’s years of your life spent staring at your bathroom tiles.
Maths. Doesn’t. Add.
Up. We’ve since repainted a bunch of times since then. Our current house has been through more phases than a teenager’s Instagram.
Here’s what I’ve learnt along the way… Colours look different depending on when you look at them. Paint that turquoise bathroom last summer and it’ll feel totally different to how it looks now. Bright and fresh in the morning when the light comes in.
But when you turn the light on at night, it becomes a deep shade of dusky blue. Make your morning routine extra special by choosing a colour that works for night and day. Use bold colours on smaller surfaces.
I painted a whole vanity unit coral and absolutely loved the effect. It made plain old bog-standard IKEA furniture look like it cost hundreds. We’ve also painted our downstairs toilet emerald green (midnight blue actually, but who’s counting?) which I was told was insane.
It isn’t. With white trims and brass taps, it looks lush. I’ve even had a hot pink phase (DON’T DO IT, AVAVEDISH!) but after three months I started getting throbbing headaches when I woke up.
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Moodboard wasn’t enough, live with the colour to really know if it works. Claire even tiled her whole bathroom in these insane looking Portuguese tiles. Blues, yellows, traditional patterns.
It makes her bathroom feel like a little glass of Portuguese sunshine. Mum wasn’t best pleased – “But what about when you come to sell?” Claire waved her off saying she’s not decorating for some imaginary future owner, she’s decorating for the person who has to LIVE there. Preach, Claire, preach.
It sucks that we care so much about future owners that we refuse to make our own houses feel like home. Honestly who are we kidding? You could spend £10k re-decorating but if you don’t love the colour underneath it all, it’ll never feel homey.
That said, I did learn a few tips when doing bright bathrooms. Dark colours can work really well if you don’t have a window. Sounds crazy but white tries to brighten a small room that has no natural light, making it feel more cave-like than welcoming.
Bold colours with a gloss finish are easier to wipe down and they reflect the light better too. Not sure about a whole room? Have a bright shower curtain.
Throw some funky towels on the rack. Stick some funky wallpaper on the back wall. When I first went bright, I chose millennial pink because bloggers raved about it.
It looked amazing online because Instagram airbrushes everything these days. Hang around your house when you wake up at 6am then tell me it still looks that good IRL. Trust me and go with colours that make you LOOK good.
Fresh, rested, not needing another coffee kind of good. Paint is by far the cheapest way to change the vibe of any room. That burst of turquoise cost me £35 and I got more compliments painting that bathroom than any other DIY project.
That sounds preposterous when you think about it. You could spend thousands renovating your bathroom but it wouldn’t have half the impact of picking the right colour. I’m thinking about painting our bathroom ceiling peachy pink next.
Tiny en-suite, but it’ll wow Danny when he gets up (he will hate it.) and make the natural light wash over us more gently I think. Worst case? I hate it.
Paint over it! That’s another thing. It’s not permanent.
Even if you HATE the colour you put on, it’s only paint. Sure you could spend days carefully painting tiny edges and lining parts. But it’s still as easy as needing a weekend and some willingness to roll up your sleeves.
The problem with ‘mad’ bathrooms is fear.
Afraid it won’t fit with the rest of your house? Painting things always sounds a lot crazier when it’s just a thought in your head.
Afraid it won’t sell? My beige-brown bathroom from 2017 is about to sell our house. Afraid your mum will judge you?
Get her round for coffee so you can laugh about how cutting edge your orange bathroom was back in the 1990s. Look, it’s just a bathroom. Most are about six foot by eight foot.
It’s not like you’re painting your lounge tree topplers, or living room hideous green. Give yourself permission to go wild – at least in your bathroom. You’re going see it every day for the next few years.
At least enjoy that! ?
