How to design a bathroom in your dream home

Choosing the right bathroom look and layout is an important part of designing a dream home. Making significant changes down the track is both inconvenient and costly so you want to get it right with a timeless bathroom layout and design.

If you’re building a new home the amount of choice you have with bathroom design will depend on which building option you take. With Homes by ZAC you can choose one of our Ready-to-Build Collection of plans and tailor to your needs, or you can opt for full Bespoke Custom Design which gives you complete flexibility.

Whichever pathway you choose, you’ll have to make choices for fittings, tiles, and colours.

When choosing the best bathroom design for you and your family, you want to strike a balance between a design that reflects your personality, and designs that will stand the test of time and won’t need frequent updating.

Choose function over fashion

The explosion of renovating blogs and websites, reality TV shows, and social media means that bathroom design ideas have never been as plentiful and available. But it can also provide endless choices, and a focus on the appearance of your bathroom, rather than the function.

Of course, it’s important to have a bathroom that looks good, but you don’t want to be a bathroom design fashion victim and find your beautiful new bathrooms appear dated in just a few years.

In the long run, the functionality of your bathrooms will become much more important than how it looks.

Choose a timeless colour palette

The colour palette of your bathrooms refers to all the colours including the paint or wall finishes, tiles, tapware, fittings, and even the towels and ornaments. And remember, that modern homes have more than one bathroom. Often there’s at least one main bathroom, an ensuite bathroom, and a powder room – all of which require their own design treatment.

Using a neutral colour scheme in your bathrooms produces a classic, timeless design. Neutral colours get a bad rap for being plain, or even boring, but neutrals like beige, taupe, stone, greys, and browns are the cornerstone of great design. Using the contrast of light and dark neutrals such as greys in a bathroom can create a restful oasis.

In smaller-sized bathrooms, teaming white and neutrals will create the appearance of more space.

Black and white is also another way to create a timeless design. White is crisp and clean, while black is perfect for creating a feature.

By choosing a neutral design you can add a splash of colour with your paint or textiles. Adding bold colours with towels, bathmats, candles and other accessories is a much easier and cheaper way to change the look of your bathrooms. Colour can also be introduced with paint which is easy to change as fashions move on. Incorporating neutral coloured natural stone also has a timeless look. A natural stone benchtop can be a focal point that is easy to accent with other items such as bathroom fixtures.

Tapware choices

On home renovation shows you’ll see plenty of gold, brass and more recently black tapware and accessories, and while they look great, if you want a truly timeless bathroom, look no further than chrome. Chrome works well with most bathroom designs and colour schemes and does not wear and corrode like gold and black. Although, if you really want the latest look in tapware, you can quite easily update tapware down the track. Obviously, there’s a significant cost involved and fixtures that are attached to tiles will not be so easily replaced, but it is an option.

Add plenty of storage

Bathrooms, particularly those used by several family members can be cluttered when there isn’t enough storage incorporated.

Storage options include vanities, wall-mounted cabinets, recessed nooks, towel rails & hooks, and shelving, and all need to be incorporated in bathroom design for a functional and aesthetically pleasing room.

A mirrored wall-mounted cabinet is the best way to gain additional storage in your bathroom without creating any extra clutter and it will look great if it’s recessed into the wall for a seamless look. Each bathroom will have different storage requirements depending on its uses. A guest bathroom will require less storage, than an ensuite bathroom that is used regularly, but storage for spare towels, toiletries and supplies will still be needed.

Get the lighting right

Getting the lighting right in your bathrooms is important for functional and aesthetic reasons. Adequate lighting to vanity mirrors is needed for shaving and makeup application so think about lights above the mirror or mirrors that come with built-in backlighting.

Like all parts of your dream home, natural light in your bathrooms is desirable, but privacy is also important. If you can’t have a large window, a skylight is another option to provide ambient light throughout the daylight hours. The amount of natural light your bathrooms receive during the day will also influence your colour palette choices.

Should the ensuite bathroom be different?

All the bathrooms within your home should match the overall style and décor of your home, but you don’t need to have identical colours, fittings, and fixtures in all your bathrooms.

When ensuite bathrooms were first included in modern homes they were merely a small utility room adjoining the master bedroom. Now the ensuite is an extension of the main bedroom and is a very personal space. Like the other bathrooms in your home, a timeless look will be achieved with a neutral colour palette but by adding new towels and high-end accessories you can make your ensuite into a luxurious oasis.

Designing your bathrooms with Homes by ZAC

Homes by ZAC has 30+ years of experience advising hundreds of customers on bathroom design. Our in-house design team is on hand to provide advice and guide you through your choices.

We enjoy taking on a challenge and helping families build their new home in their dream location. Homes by ZAC builds with craftsmanship, respect, integrity and pride, which we work hard to deliver to every client. Call us on 1300 350 793 or send us an online enquiry and our team will work with you to design and build your dream home.