Ever walk into someone else’ This trendy bathroom trend was staring me right in the face last month when I visited my friend Sarah’ lovingly decorated bathroom. Walking into her pale sage-green painted bathroom made me feel like I had left my house and entered an uber-stylish hotel bathroom. Throw away any ideas of Jenny-from-the-block sage green that makes you feel like you have entered your dentists waiting room.
Sarah’ I had been mocking up my guest bathroom for months before Sarah’ The beige walls and honey oak cabinets had a serious “we chose these at Ikea in 1995 and never looked back” vibe that was putting me off making any changes. Every time I thought about tackling my bathroom renovation anxiety would set in. Mess up one wire near the pipes and suddenly you’re flooded out, calling your insurer on the emergency line and crying about your excess.
Sarah’s bathroom woke something up inside me. Sage green was cool without being ostentatious.
Invigorating without being tacky enough that you will hate it two years down the line when everyone has moved on to what Tumblr tells them is trendy.
After months of staring at my boring bathroom I decided it was time to plunge in and get swapping ( and making some seriously rookie mistakes in the process). I think sage green could be the most forgiving colour you can paint your bathroom. Deep navy bathroom walls may look hot in photos, yes.
But they can make your space feel smaller. Cave-esque even. Sage green however; makes your bathroom feel bigger.
It contains some grey which allows it to work with almost any lighting situation and it’ complement your current bathroom fixtures. Paint is always a great place to start if you’ bathroom renovation on a budget. Painting your walls is the cheapest way to test out if you’ve made the right choice.
I tested around six shades of sage green and painstakingly painted out grey patches until I landed on Farrow & Ball’ While £89 for a bucket of paint that just enough to cover my small bathroom is robbery. The colour however is amazing. Deep and rich.
It actually changes colour based on the lighting. I bedroom! Sage green in the morning turns into more of a grey-green whereas by night time it is this beautiful botanical shade.
And it covered really well which is essential as sage will try to creep through at every opportunity. Your trying to disguise after all. Only needed two coats and it hasn’ everything my husband and I could throw at it – vigorous towel brush-ings (read: tossing wet towels around everywhere), shower steam etc. etc.
FOREVER. Pale enough pooch?. Paint your ceiling WHITE.
As soon as I finished painting the walls I excitedly painted the ceiling sage green. I read somewhere that painting your ceiling the same colour as your walls makes the space feel wrapped up in, snuggled tight and COZY. Spoiler alert: it does not.
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Not only does painting the ceiling green make it feel smaller/dimmer- it actually highlighted every.single.imperfection in the ceiling. I painted mine white about 3 weeks later. Enough time that I knew it was the wrong choice – but not enough time that I could justify living with it.
Another trick I wanted to incorporate was sage green subway tiles to bring some more sage into the space. However…tiles are expensive. Even these gorgeous sage subway tiles from Topps at roughly twenty eight pounds per square metre.
Installed them vertically about half way up the wall as a faux tile splash behind my sink. White grout with a hint of green played nicely off of the soft green tiles. Gives a cool textured look without being overwhelming.
They also have more of a handmade vibe to them with slight variations in colour that makes it look more natural rather than flat/ perfect. I also spotted quite a few people doing something similar with sage green penny tiles as their shower floor. This looked AMAZING but y’all.
Those grout lines trap grit/grossness like nobody’s business. Sure, they look nice. But I spend enough time cleaning my bathroom weekly vs. daily, I really didn’ want to add more anxiety over small tiles ruining my groove.
I LOVE using sage green for accents because it allows you to have fun without breaking the bank. Switched out my old boring white towels for some sage green towels from The White Company. They were a bit spendy but have held up to months of washing without losing colour.
Picked up this sage green bath mat from Next for £18 that has also held up to be much nicer and thicker than I expected. Simple things like a new tooth brush holder/toothpaste tube maxim paired with a sage green soap dispenser are an easy way to really pull the whole room together.
Plants are pretty obvious but they really are a gorgeous compliment to sage walls.
My bathroom gets absolutely NO natural light so I opted for low-light friendly Pothos and Snake Plants that seem to thrive in the damp atmosphere. The variation of greens from your soft walls to the darker greens of the plants creates texture and interest that you just can’t if everything is the same tone of green. Tip: Sage Green will look dramatically different depending on what type of lighting you have.
I chose my paint colour under my old Halogen bathroom lights and then ended up switching to LED bathroom lights about a month later. The colour ended up becoming cooler/grayer and while I ended up loving it – it was a nice surprise at first. The beauty of sage green is that it’s not going to be flashy trendy colour.
It’s sophisticated enough that you won’t get tired of it as an adult but muted enough that guests won’t grimace every time they use your bathroom. Goes with brass/ chrome/ black/ white/_TILE YOU WANT IT TO MATCH. If you ever do decide you hate sage green and want to re-do it- it’s a mild enough colour that you can pretty much paint your walls any damn colour and it will work. ?
Coming up to 3 months since I finished my bathroom and I still get moments where I float into the bathroom and am just overjoyed to be in there. It truly feels intentional/calming/ relaxing- words I can’ say for the rest of our house if I am honest.
