You know that feeling you get when you go into someone else’s bathroom and you immediately think “bloody hell, this is gorgeous?” I had that feeling exactly last month when I walked into my friend Sarah’s tiny en-suite in Brighton. Her bathroom was painted a soft sage green and I swear I stepped straight into one of those posh spa places – minus the trying-too-hard vibe that always has me rolling my eyes. For literally months I’d been staring at my guest bathroom, waiting for the courage to do something with it.
The previous owners left it with awful builder-beige walls and honey oak cabinets screaming “we bought this in 1995 and never looked again”. I kept putting it off because I’m scared of doing bathroom renos. One wrong move around a pipe and you’re swimming in water, phoning Phil in a panic and possibly even crying about your insurance excess.
Sarah’s bathroom changed something inside my head. The sage green wasn’t trying to shout for attention – it was just quietly lovable. Calming without being boring, fresh without being embarrassing in two years time when everyone has moved onto what colour Instagram says is fashionable next.
Finally taking the leap (and making a few serious errors) along the way I think sage green may be the most tolerant color you could choose for a bathroom. Navy or forest green walls look amazing in pictures, no question – but they can make small spaces feel like you’re bathing in a cave. For whatever reason, sage green makes things feel larger.
It has enough gray in it to mix with virtually any type of lighting, and it won’t fight with whatever taps and fixtures you already have. I started with paint since it is the least expensive option to find out if you’ll love or hate your selection. After testing about six different sage greens (my bathroom wall became an odd quilt-work for approximately two weeks) I picked Farrow & Ball’s Vert de Terre.
Bloody expensive. Just shy of £90 for a bucket that just about coated my teeny-tiny bathroom. That said – the color is bloody marvelous.
Properly deep and rich. Changes colors depending on the daylight. Goes from soft grey-green in the morning to a beautiful botanical hue by nightfall.
It also painted extremely well, which is important since you’re covering up that stubborn beige that seems designed to come through every single coat. Needed only two coats and it has survived the steam from showers, my very enthusiastic brushing routine (which usually results in splashing water everywhere) etc., etc., etc. If that price makes you want to vomit (entirely understandable) I also tested Little Greene’s Sage Green and while it is not nearly as luxurious in terms of finish – it is almost identical to Farrow & Ball’s Vert de Terre for roughly half the cost.
Something that genuinely shocked me was how the sage green made me fall in love with fixtures I planned to tear out. Honey oak cabinets? Now they appear as a deliberate design element – warm wood combined with a botanical green rather than dated/old/sad.
Chrome taps that were cold/calculation against the beige? Looked bright/modern. I made one large error fairly early on.
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Painted the ceiling sage green as well, assuming it would give me that cozy, wrapped-up feeling I’d read about in a magazine. What a terrible decision. The room appeared smaller/darker – particularly at night.
Repainted the ceiling white about three weeks after installing it – long enough to confirm it was incorrect, yet not long enough to convince myself it was okay. Next item on my agenda was using sage green tiles to add additional sage green to the space – which is when things begin to get expensive. These nice sage subway tiles from Topps came in at about twenty eight pounds a square meter; installed them vertically as a half-wall splash behind the sink.
Soft green on white grout created a wonderful textured appearance without appearing overpowering. Have a slightly hand-crafted quality to them – plus slight color variation that appears natural vs. perfect/striated. Saw many people use sage green penny tiles for shower floor surrounds – which looks stunning – but seriously?
Those little grout lines collect soap scum like nobody’s business. Gorgeous? Yes.
Pragmatic for someone such as myself, cleaning the bathroom once a week rather than each day? Not likely worth the aggravation. Decorations are where sage green really shines, and where you can play around with minimal financial risk.
Swapped my old white towels for sage colored towels from The White Company – pricy, but have retained their color exceptionally well during months of washing. Picked up a sage colored bath mat from Next for £18 that has turned out to be impressively thick and comfortable. A new tooth brush holder/toothpaste container with a sage soap dispenser are just two simple ways to tie everything together.
Plants are an obvious solution, but they work really well with sage walls. Bathroom receives zero natural light, therefore settled upon Pothos and Snake Plants that seem content in the low-light, humid environment. Mix of greens – soft painted walls, deeper leafy greens – create layers of visual interest that would be impossible to achieve if all colors were the same shade.
One thing I wished someone had informed me regarding: Sage Green displays vastly differently based upon different types of lighting. I selected my paint under my old Halogen lights and then swapped to LED lights approximately one month later. Color shifted towards a cooler/greyer tone — which ultimately worked better — however was a shock at first.
Always test your color under the lighting you plan to retain. The best part about Sage Green in bathrooms is it is not here today gone tomorrow trendy colors. This is mature enough for adults but soft enough for visitors that they aren’t uncomfortable with it either.
Compatible with brass/chrome/black/white fixtures — essentially anything. If you eventually decide you want to switch, Sage Green is mild enough that virtually any color will pair nicely with it. About 3 months post renovation completion, I still experience moments of pure joy walking into my bathroom.
It feels purposeful/calming/relaxing — none of which I can truthfully say about most areas of our home — if I am being brutally honest.
