You spend more time in the bathroom than you think; perhaps even more than the kitchen. It takes longer to shower and shave than to microwave a pizza and brew a pot of coffee.
If your bathroom reminds you of an outhouse with only the bare necessities, it’s time to step up your game. It’s time to put the same level of care into decorating your bathroom as you do achieving that perfect shave.
Don’t worry, you don’t need to be a professional interior decorator. You just need to follow three main guidelines:
Keep it simple
Combine style and comfort
Everything must match
With these three points in mind, let’s get into the nitty gritty of turning your bathroom into a palace.
Table of Contents
Detach from outdated décor
To create room for something new, you need to let go of the old. If you’ve spent years shaving in front of a small mirror with permanent fog, the rest of your bathroom décor is probably in shambles. it’s time to detach from outdated décor. Give it away, throw it away, or use it for an art project – just get it out of your bathroom.
Start small
Considering the size of the average bathroom, it won’t take much to turn your bathroom into a mini version of what you’d find at a five-star hotel. You don’t need to remodel – just focus on four things: décor, towels, comfort, and fixtures.
1. Décor
The first step toward creating a luxurious bathroom is to get rid of whatever fading and unmatched décor you’ve got. Did you buy a toilet rug that doesn’t match your bath mat just to have something to keep your feet warm? Toss it – it’s an eyesore. Your guests notice every time they use your bathroom, but don’t have the heart to tell you. Besides, once you decorate your bathroom with a real sense of style, you’ll realize the horror of unmatched rugs.
Buy high quality décor
When turning your bathroom into a palace, you have three main objectives: to make your bathroom décor look simple, elegant, and make it all match. If it doesn’t match, it’s not elegant.
The following basic bathroom items should match in some way:
- Rugs and mats
- Your shower curtain
- Your toothbrush holder
- Your mirror (if one isn’t built-in)
- Your trash can
- Art hanging on the wall
Items don’t need to be the same color to match. Mixing up colors that go well together is fine, but avoid mixing patterns like stripes and polka dots.
Although it’s tempting, don’t buy your bathroom rugs at discount stores or department stores. Head over to an actual home décor store. It’s possible to find decent rugs at Walmart, but as you decorate you’ll run into a bigger problem: you won’t be able to find other items that match.
Department stores carry a limited selection of bathroom items made by manufacturers that didn’t consult each other on design. The most beautiful rugs in the world won’t hide mismatched decor.
If you don’t have a home décor store in your area, your next best option is Amazon. Although it helps to see and touch items in person, you can still get a good feel for what you’re buying online through pictures and user reviews.
2. Towels
We all have one towel that absorbs water better than any other towel in the house – a towel so good, when we buy new towels they just sit in the cupboard. It’s the towel we’d die before throwing away no matter how ratty it gets. Chances are, that towel is at least fifteen years old and has some kind of cartoon character on it. Am I right? Either way, a towel that good is painful to throw away, but it must be done in the name of luxury. Don’t worry, there’s an equally absorbent (and softer) solution.
If you’ve ever been to a classy resort, a five-star hotel, or any kind of massage or sauna therapy, you’ve been given an ultra-absorbent, heated towel that also felt soft on your skin. Who would have thought drying off with a luxury towel could feel better than your ratty old Tweety Bird towel back at home?
It’s time to replicate the experience of luxury in your personal bathroom, starting with your towels.
Bamboo towels are superior
Bamboo towels are used by professional spas and resorts for a reason. Bamboo fabrics absorb better than cotton, dry quickly, are durable, and are naturally anti-microbial. Using anti-microbial bath towels ensures your bathroom never smells like a locker room.
Your luxury towel experience isn’t limited to full-sized bath towels. Embrace the luxury of washing your face with a soft yet scrubby bamboo wash cloth before you lather up with shaving cream.
You’ll pay a little more for quality bamboo towels, and that’s okay considering you’re aiming for luxury.
3. Comfort
Luxury towels alone aren’t good enough – you need warm luxury towels for a comfortable experience. Nothing feels more luxurious than stepping out of the shower and wrapping yourself up in a warm towel.
At this point, tossing a towel into the dryer while you shower isn’t an option. If you need to leave the bathroom to grab a warm towel, you’ve missed the point of luxury.
There are two ways to get warm towels: with a towel warmer, or a heated towel rack.
Towel warmers
A towel warmer traditionally keeps and warms your towels inside a box or drawer. They’re convenient for professionals because more than one towel can be warmed at once. Most towel warmers look better when they’re built into a drawer rather than free standing. On the counter, they tend to look like miniature toaster ovens.
Heated towel racks
A traditional towel warmer is plumbed into the wall and circulates heated water through its structure made of pipes. The downside to this style is you’re limited with where you can place it along the wall, and it requires a professional plumber to install.
The easiest type of towel warmer to install is electric. Provided you don’t need to do any rewiring, these are easy to mount on the wall with basic hardware. An electric towel warmer can be mounted anywhere in your bathroom as long as you’ve got the wall space. The down side is the visible cord, but there are plenty of creative ways to hide cords. For instance, you could tack the cord against the wall in a straight line and build a shelf in front of it.
If cords really bother you, hire an electrician to hard-wire your towel warmer.
4. Fixtures
Last but not least, upgrade your shower head. Don’t just grab a $40 massage head from Home Depot. Do yourself a favor and get a rainfall shower system. It’s the kind of shower professional spas provide for guests who come in for therapies like far infrared heat, sensory deprivation float tanks, and Japanese soaking tubs.
Most rainfall shower systems have similar installation methods, so watch installation videos on YouTube to see what you’re getting into.
Luxury in the bathroom will make you a morning person
When you upgrade your bathroom experience, you’ll be eager to wake up and go through your morning routine. Most importantly, you’ll get a noticeably better shave and wonder why nobody said anything before.