I’m sat on my bathroom floor in the midst of a Monday morning. Surrounded by tiles whilst listening to my electric toothbrush hum gently in my mouth, staring at the walls I painted three years ago. I went with blue – having flicked through approximately 15 colours and glued each swatch to my wall and analysed them for hours on end.
This particular shade of blue has the quirkiest characteristic; depending on how much light there is the walls change significantly. Pale blue-grey with subtle undertones on a grey rainy morning. Bold and exciting with hints of purple when the sun is beaming through.
A calming and serene spa vibe on lazy Sunday afternoons. My mum (and quite possibly everyone else) doesn’t understand my fixation with having blue walls in the bathroom. “Why blue?” She questioned me when I told her. “Isn’t blue so.. safe?” “Yeah, predictable.” Dead simple logic there.
Clearly I didn’t spend months deciphering the correct colour for my bathroom!
Fast forward three years and I bloody love it. Love it. I mean, I love my bathroom towel rail as much as the next person but loving my bathroom wall colour is borderline obsessive.
So much so that I picked blue for my downstairs W.C. too. Choosing the colour wasn’t a decision I made overnight. Unlike most of my life decisions I carefully analysed each colour for days on end.
Blue vs white. Arguably anytime you paint walls white it makes a room feel bigger and brighter. Kloser Diy home experts claim white “leaves less mental clutter, providing a greater feeling of space.” But hey – my bathroom already felt sterile and white wouldn’t fix that.
Therefore my research led me to a fairly interesting concept called colour psychology. Yep. The same logical damn fool used her developer brain to decipher paint colours. colours can actually affect our mood.
Every single article I read said blue was a great colour to use in bathrooms. Tips from Angela provided me with this handy colour visual – different tones can completely change how we view a colour. Warm tones vs Cool tones.
Blue ticks every box for me when creating a comfy atmosphere in a bathroom. Feeling calm and relaxed is blue’s primary sellings point for bathrooms. So how did I finally decide on my favourite shade to cure all bathrooms?
Simple – I painted them and immediately hated them. Test-patch version 1 was some sort of turquoise colour that made me imagine jumping into a swimming pool. Second attempt was sooooooooooo grey it may as well have been called ‘flat no vibes here’ – thank you Dev for that wonderful depiction when you came to visit during my stressed out “everything is a mess” phase.
Test patch number 3 though, was perfect. It wasn’t bright enough to be overpowering but gave off enough coolness to contrast the warm white furniture. Naturally I repainted the entire room.
One thing I quickly learned. Having blue walls means nothing if you don’t style the rest of the room to flow accordingly. Upon initially finishing my bathroom, I painted everything blue then proceeded to.
Paint the entire room white. White shower curtains. White towels.
White toilet roll holder. Heck I even painted my soap dispenser white. If this bathroom were a hotel I’d easily scrape the bottom of the rankings.
Most hotels have some sort of personality – mine tasted like bland regret. Once I switched out all the fixtures to brass everything started to come together. Wasn’t cheap ordering new towel rails, toilet paper holder, cabinet handles and a mirror – we’re talking around £160ish – but it made all the difference.
You Might Also Like
The warmness of the brass against the cool blue walls made my bathroom look intentionally decorated rather than “Netflix randomly picked walls and accessories that kinda match.” After scouring the internet for a shower curtain to no avail I eventually stumbled across a linen shower curtain. Definitely on the pricier side compared to traditional polyester options but it had such a nice texture to it. Linen as a material brings a sense of maturity to any room – especially bathrooms.
Incorporating natural materials into your bathroom can make you feel like you’re at a 5* resort versus getting ready to sit in another day of meetings. Storage has played a huge role in keeping everything looking stylish rather than just plain useful. I bought a few oak shelving units and placed them above my toiletries – oh and by “placed” I mean I’m pretty darn obsessed with what I display on them.
Everything you can see on my shelves are stored within either a glass jar or ceramic container. Sure it takes me an extra 30 seconds to transfer everything into these when buying more products but boy does it create such a relaxing atmosphere. Not to mention, my number one fiancé organisation.
Lighting, took me AGES to get right. The original wall mount shower light was pretty much god awful. Yellow toned light that washed everything out and appeared so.. clinical.
But after adding softer ceiling lighting and two wall-mounted lights on either side of my mirror I finally found my happy place. Not only do they evenly distribute the light throughout the room but they shine upwards. Creating a soft glow on my blue walls rather than flat lighting.
Now bring on the plants. Plants are a god-send if you’re worried about blue making your rooms look cold/clinical. As long as you have good enough ventilation in your house (mine is pretty decent) you can buy plants that will flourish in a bathroom.
Currently I have a small Fiddle Leaf Fig in the corner. They’re supposedly great with humidity so fingers crossed she thrives! Bonus tip – I tend to switch up what smaller plant I have on my shelf too.
Currently it’s a Snake Plant & Trailing Pothos which is actually doing better than expected. Colour repetition is probably the most common mistake I see when looking at bathroom transformations. Painting your walls blue, buying blue towels, then accessorising with blue products will get boring very quickly.
Rather than using blue as a foundation – try using other colours to add interest. My towels are actually a cream colour with thin stripes. My bathmat is Jute material and I actually have wall art hung up that features reds/yellows that compliment my blue rather than fighting for attention.
I wanted to utilise darker tones of blue within my downstairs bathroom as well. Curious to see how different shades can work in small spaces. In the end it worked out really well.
Dark walls can create a sense of drama but because my bathroom has plenty of light (natural light from white subway tiles & brass fixtures brightening up the space) and a LARGE mirror the darker walls don’t make the room feel smaller.
Treating your main colour as more of a base and playing around with colours that go alongside blue allows you to change up your bathroom whenever you want without feeling bored. How do I keep my bathroom from getting boring?
By not treating the blue walls as a final product. Think of your walls as a blank canvas that you can change at any time. Instead of focusing on the walls.
Focus on the elements that you can change. Changed up my shower curtain? Done.
Changed plants, textiles and art every few months to keep it fresh! Trust me I’ve had enough conversations with my parents about how overly invested I am in decorating a space that you “simply throw clothes at in the mornings” – Thanks for the quote dad. But every.single.morning when I wake up and stare at these walls they never fail to make me smile.
Not because I love waking up, no where near – but because I love knowing that I’ve created a space that feels intentional and calming; A space that I can truly call mine.
