This is the easiest trick to elevate a boring bathroom, according to an interior designer
Designer Cortney Bishop reveals her incredibly simple tip for giving a bathroom more depth and character
Bathrooms hold the potential to be the pinnacle of elegance in your home, infusing tranquility and luxury into your day-to-day life. I love creating a rich and rejuvenating environment for my clients simply by elevating the bathroom. The magic lies in choosing the right materials, a decision that can transform a mundane space into a sanctuary of style and comfort.
By integrating custom window treatments, unique towels, or other textile additions, you can establish a luxurious dynamism that will give back to how you feel every day. I have integrated pastels, jewel tones, and rich textures into many client bathrooms by selecting and combining luxurious and detailed fabrics.
How to elevate a bathroom with textiles
Adding fabric elements like plush accessories, custom curtains, hand towels, and bathmats can add a distinctive touch to your bathroom. Textile items of high quality, unique patterns, and textures can introduce a new layer of aesthetic appeal, making the bathroom more sleek, inviting, and elevated. These fabric additions can also create cohesion in the bathroom décor, harmoniously blending with other elements and contributing to a well-rounded, luxurious experience.
Cortney Bishop, principal designer and owner of Cortney Bishop Design founded the full-service interior design firm in 2007. She holds a BBA in business marketing from the University of Georgia and pursued her design career by blending her passions for travel, art, fashion and music. Her wide-ranging talent and innate ability to mix patterns and hues have resulted in a robust portfolio of diverse, inspiring residential and commercial projects, each reflective of a client’s lifestyle, personality and aesthetic. With a vision that runs the gamut of style and structure, Bishop enjoys inspiring other creatives, clients and everyday people through design. In addition to running her design studio, Cortney also launched Harwood House, a line of woven textiles designed for season layering while offering a modern interpretation of classic patterns in collaboration with Holland & Sherry.
Don't be afraid of soft window treatments in a bathroom
In this project, I wanted to craft a soft reveal for a bathroom entry. Walking into the space, you immediately see a large freestanding bathtub and windows filled with a view of green palmettos. While I loved the airiness and the scenery, I needed to create a sense of intimacy and luxury in the space. I think bathrooms should offer deep rejuvenation and soulfulness, and it’s essential to create that balance if you have lots of natural light and structured lines.
I installed beautiful vertical moss green bathroom tiles all along the walls with a free-standing modernist white tub as the bathroom centerpiece. I decided to create a custom, beautifully textured floor-length white Roman shade to filter the light in. Besides serving practical purposes, a custom curtain acts as a catalyst to elevate the bathroom’s aesthetic appeal – a well-chosen curtain, whether full, half, or roman can add a layer of sophistication and vibrancy.
This addition not only injected soft and delicate texture and dimension into the room but also allowed the space a moment to breathe, creating serenity and depth. The filtered light allowed the green tiles to come alive and generate deeper vibrancy and intimacy in the space. The Roman shade’s delicacy and soft, clean vibe showcase the transformative power of textiles in washroom spaces.
Make towels and bathmats an aesthetic addition
For this bathroom, I utilized gorgeous Milanese pink towels to create pops of color and brightness to suffuse the space. Towels and bathmats, while bathroom essentials, can be much more than just functional items when chosen thoughtfully.
They can be a statement, reflecting personal style, creativity, and taste. Choosing towels with unique designs, textures, and well-made fabrics can enhance the visual allure of your bathroom, contributing to an overall luxurious feel. Bringing in lush textures, vibrant colors, and intricate patterns revitalizes the feel of a bathroom, adding a touch of extravagance to the daily routine.
Choose materials that work in a bathroom
Material matters when elevating your bathroom with textiles; the material of the fabric is paramount. While aesthetic appeal is crucial, practicality and functionality should always be considered. Choose textiles that are easy to clean and maintain, resistant to mold and mildew, and quick to dry. For instance, a curtain in a silk blend, while luxurious, should be lined with a water-resistant material to prevent damage and ensure longevity.
Opt for materials that are visually appealing, durable, and suitable for humid environments. Fabrics like Egyptian cotton and bamboo blends are renowned for their softness, durability, and moisture-wicking properties, making them ideal bathroom choices.
Elevating a bathroom with suitable textiles is an art, combining aesthetic allure with practicality. A custom curtain can add soulful intimacy to a space. Unique towels and fabric additions can further enhance the visual appeal and harmonize a bathroom color scheme, making it a sanctuary of style and comfort.
Choosing the right materials, harmonizing colors and textures, and balancing aesthetics and practicality are key to transforming your bathroom into a peaceful and restorative retreat.
By paying attention to these details, you can create a luxury bathroom experience that is a feast for the senses, enveloping you in luxury and sophistication every day.
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Cortney Bishop, principal design and owner of Cortney Bishop Design, founded the full-service interior design firm in 2007. She holds a BBA in business marketing from the University of Georgia, and pursued her design career by blending her passions for travel, art, fashion and music. Her wide-ranging talent and innate ability to mix patterns and hues has resulted in a robust portfolio of diverse, inspiring residential and commercial projects, each reflective of a client’s lifestyle, personality and aesthetic. Cortney regularly contributes to Homes & Gardens.
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