I was gazing lovingly at my friend Sarah’s shiny black subway tiles last Tuesday morning when it clicked. Her bathroom didn’t feel cave-like at all – jewel boxy. Sexy.
Sophisticated. After rinsing my toothbrush, I found myself running my fingers across the tight seams of her impossibly smooth grout for at least five minutes. For whatever reason, dark bathrooms have had the dungeon connotation associated with them for years, as if someone wakes up one day and decides “Yeah, today I shall repaint my bathroom BLACK to make it feel like a damp underground prison cell.” Colours commonly associated with masculinity, such as dark blues, blacks and greys, somehow trick people’s minds into thinking “small” and “confined.” Well, they were tricking mine for years.
Mum always preached how light and bright colours opened up a small space. So for most of my life, I religiously stuck by her (and design experts’) word and painted every bathroom biscuit white or cloudy grey.
These are safe colours.
And let’s be honest, boring too. Until I stepped into Sarah’s gleaming matte black master bathroom. Charcoal walls paired with matte black fixtures highlighted the white marble vanity top like nobody’s business.
It had this moody, hotel bathroom kind of feel where you just want to light candles and soak away your troubles for hours. Come Saturday, I found myself leisurely wandering the tile aisle at B&Q (of course). I swiped tile after tile up, feeling midnight blue subway tiles, charcoal hexagon tiles, even slate-ish porcelain tiles that were so dark they almost looked like black marble.
It was pricey but felt so nice underneath my fingers. Dark bathrooms aren’t as simple as buying black paint and slapping it on a wall. When I first attempted to create a moody bathroom three years ago, I slapped dark grey paint on the wall, half-assed installed a dimmer (more on that later! ), and ended up with what you might expect a chocolate box bathroom to look like…icky and cave-like.
It’s all about the details. Or, in this case, the lighting. Sarah had three different sources of light strategically placed throughout her bathroom: ceiling recessed pot lights that dim, a brass vanity light that poured warm pools of light onto the countertop below, and LED light strips mounted underneath the mirror that lit my face with perfectly diffused lighting every morning.
I dropped a pretty penny (okay £400-ish on a bathroom that’s only six feet wide!!) upgrading my bathroom lighting, but it was 100% worth the effort. The recessed pot lights? Those are dimmable (Philips Hue to be exact, I’m that bougie).
I have bright light for washing my face in the morning, but can easily dim the ambiance for a romantic bubble bath at night. The mirror LED lightbulbs? Absolute game changer.
I can apply makeup at night without feeling like a total zombie. It’s all about the finish when it comes to dark bathroom paint. The black paint I originally purchased off of Instagram wasn’t labelled properly.
It looked like generic flat black paint – super high-contrast and every water spot and fingerprint showed like crazy. I’m currently repainting the walls with semi-gloss black paint (much easier to wipe down!) but it took me two full coats to get the paint colour to cover evenly. Same thing goes for the fixtures.
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When shopping for matte black taps, I didn’t realise how HORRIBLE they looked with water spots a week after installation. The ones I ended up keeping after almost crying at Target’s returns desk have more of a textured finish so water spots aren’t as noticeable. Oh, how things have changed with my current black bathroom.
Actually, it’s more charcoal but shhh. The dark walls contrast so nicely with the crisp white hardware. Whenever I walk into my bathroom now, it just feels more high-end than my old bright white boxes.
Using a dark paint colour for your bathroom isn’t a deal-breaker, you just need to find the right paint formula. I use Farrow & Ball’s Down Pipe (it’s pricey but the colour is so rich!) and make sure it’s a modern emulsion formula that can handle moisture better. Yes, it costs triple the amount of your average bathroom paint but hey – it’s been two years and I don’t see any cracks or fading from hot showers yet!
Details become even MORE important when you have a dark bathroom. White towels scream hotel-quality against dark walls. Gold or brass fixtures really help balance out the darker tones so your bathroom doesn’t feel cold.
I found these gorgeous white ceramic containers at TK Maxx for £8 each and they’re perfect for storing cotton pads and ear buds. They look 10x more expensive than they are against the dark walls! Another pleasant surprise?
Dark walls make my bathroom feel MORE spacious. It sounds crazy, I know, but hear me out. Dark paint seems to shrink into the background, making your bathroom feel more cocoon-like.
Private. Luxurious. Not boxed in.
Everyone who visits always comments on how calm it makes them feel and how they don’t want to leave. Head’s up: If your bathroom doesn’t have a window or some sort of ventilation, I wouldn’t recommend painting it DARK. Ours has a teeny tiny frosted window and an *okay* vent, so I always leave the window cracked after showering to release excess moisture in the air.
You don’t want that kind of stuff getting trapped with dark paint!
Speaking of showering, your cleaning routine will change when you have a dark bathroom. Since dark surfaces show water spots and dust more clearly than light paint colours, I find myself wiping down the bathroom every other day now.
It’s actually become part of my nighttime routine so I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing, just different! Do I regret going dark? Not at all.
Dark bathrooms are here to stay because they’re not only trendy; they create a calming, spa-like vibe that feels extra intentional. Like you’ve slipped away to your own personal oasis right off the hallway. If you’re thinking about jumping on the bandwagon, just remember lighting is KEY.
Finish is more important than the actual colour you choose. And go with your gut. Sometimes the scariest renovations are the ones we end up loving the most.
