How to Decorate a Bathroom in Your New House

Bathrooms are for relaxing mind and body, but they must also be efficient. If the bathroom is yours alone, or shared with one other, you can concentrate more on the aesthetics. If this is a family bathroom, function may take precedence. Because the space is small, using ex-pensive tiles, flooring and window treatments may not be beyond the budget. If you’re lucky enough to have a modern bathroom that functions well, you can have a lot of fun imprinting it with your personal touch. While I tend to promote white for every room in the house, the bathroom is the one place you can go wild with color, texture and patterns.

If your bathroom is horribly cramped and outdated and in need of remodeling, you might be able to do a lot of it yourself, but you should hire a professional for rewiring and replumbing. Take the time to look through manufacturers’ catalogs (available in home centers) for the types of fixtures, bath tubs and shower units, and floor coverings that might appeal to you. Home centers such as Home Depot and Builders Square have in-house professional designers who can advise you or even create the design right down to the shower curtain. Take advantage of these services for good ideas and working plans. You might not know all your options from just browsing through books and magazines. There are many bathroom showrooms in most major cities. Check to see if there’s one in your area. An added plus is that you can save a great deal of money by getting everything you need at a discount home center.

If you can’t remodel, consider changing the sink and shower fixtures. This involves a plumber, but if you find fixtures that can be installed into the existing openings, it might not be a costly job. This is a good way to bring an old bathroom into the twenty-first century. It’s not difficult to give an old bathroom a facelift.

At the very least a fresh coat of semigloss or glossy paint will do wonders to make an old bathroom look better. Consider painting the ceiling a pale peach or sky blue. Paint the trim around doors and the baseboard a contrasting color. For example, if the walls are ivory use a moss green for the trim and pale celery green on the ceiling.