If you’re color-curious but timid about making any bold design moves, we suggest you start with the smallest room in your home: the powder room. Here are seven ways to bring a shock of color into the tiniest of spaces.
1. Pick one color and paint it.
Above: From Grandparent Style: 13 Design Ideas to Steal from a New Mountain Retreat in California: “Compact baths offer an opportunity to go unapologetically bold with color. In Fran’s Flat, a WC is done tip to toe in salmon pink.” Photograph by Jenny Swiegart, courtesy of Noble+Proper.
Above: The plywood walls here were stained in a semi-sheer Yves Klein blue-like color (a custom Benjamin Moore Arborcoat stain). Photograph by Naho Kubota, courtesy of Worrell Yeung, from Garage Envy: In East Hampton, A Place to Create Art—and Park a Vintage Car.
2. Pick one color and tile it.
Above: Inspired by Emery et Cie’s Moroccan tiles, the designers sourced the powder room’s pale turquoise Zellij from Mosaic House in New York. Photograph by Dustin Askland, courtesy of Elizabeth Roberts Architecture & Design, from Serial Remodelers Settle Down: A Brooklyn Townhouse Reinvention from Elizabeth Roberts.
Above: A bathroom drenched in yellow and sunlight. Learn the details in Steal This Look: A Sunshine Bath in a London Townhouse.Tonal Terrace BVDS Architects. Photograph by French and Tye, courtesy of Bradley Van Der Straeten.
3. Source a colorful sink.
Above: Most sinks are white, but they don’t have to be. This powder room’s vintage peach pedestal sink was a Craigslist score. Photograph by Maria del Rio, courtesy of Mother Magazine, from Bohemian Restraint: Lena Corwin’s Tranquil Home in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset.
Above: All the baths in The Rose, a seaside hotel in Kent, England, feature restored colorful vintage sanitary ware, like this mint green sink. Photograph by Seth Carnill, from Steal This Look: A Retro Bath on the English Seaside.
4. Consider color-blocking.
Above: An arresting and unexpected color pairing in the powder room—Skylight and Picture Gallery Red, both by Farrow & Ball. The colors reappear in the painted wood floors. Photography by Kasia Gatkowska, courtesy of Colombe Studio, from Creative Flow: A Novelist’s Elegant Pied-a-Terre by Colombe Studio.
Above: A bold powder room, thanks to doors painted in Muga from Paint and Paper Library, walls painted in Indigo from Edward Bulmer Natural Paint, tiles in turquoise and merlot, and a ‘Space Age’ vintage bathroom set in Ocean Blue Bakelite by Carrara & Matta. Photograph by James McDonald, from Found and Fine: A Curated Stay At 8 Holland Street Townhouse, Bath.
5. Accessorize with color.
Above: A patterned sink skirt and painted artwork add small doses of color to an otherwise neutral palette. Photograph from Archive Dive: 7 Wrap-Around Sink Skirts in the Bath.
Above: In this white powder room, bursts of color, including a painted ledge that hides the water pipes, make a statement. Photograph courtesy of Retrouvius, from The Reclaimed Bath: 8 Favorite Retrouvius Designs Featuring Vintage Components.
6. Go maximalist.
Above: You can count on Beata Heuman to use every design trick—sink skirt, patterned tiles, bright wall color, printed lampshades, a colored mirror—and somehow make it all work. Photograph from 9 Favorites: Sculptural Marble Backsplashes.
Above: Another maximalist bathroom that features pattern on pattern and no real discernible color palette. Photograph courtesy of Appreciation Project, from Bathroom of the Week: A Former Burberry Designer’s Playful Family Bath, Before and After.
7. Or add color, minimalist edition.
Above: For the truly color-timid, consider subtle bright spots in the form of colorful faucets. Photograph by Michael Fine, from A Reimagined Ranch House: An Artist’s Family Home, Ikea Kitchen and DIY Bath Ideas Included.
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