Bathroom design can be one of a designer’s most beautiful challenges. As a homeowner, however, this space can be quite intimidating to design as it has to be pretty and practical. The design choices need to be thoughtful in that they not only give a beautiful aesthetic but they also need to allow for the bathroom to function as optimally as possible.
This means every single design choice must be strategically thought out. For instance, when selecting a tile you need to see if water will stain the tile if it’s easy to clean and if it will become super slippery. That’s in addition to selecting a tile you like visually from the thousands of colors, textures, shapes, and styles.
With so many difficult decisions it can be easy to make mistakes. That’s why I’ve decided to share the top 5 bathroom design mistakes you want to avoid in your home. This way you don’t have to learn from experience as I did! As usual, if you love it do it. This is just my friendly advice based on my own experiences.
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Mistake #1 – Black Tile
More than anyone else I know, I fell in love with the black tile in the bathroom look. Whether it was on the floor, in the shower, or as a vanity backsplash, I fell hard for the luxury look. Unfortunately, it won’t take long for you to understand why it hasn’t always been a big thing in bathrooms. Black tile gets dirty fast.
Water stains the black tile and every bit of dirt and grime shows up on the dark color. Got a little bit of dirt or dust tracking in? Your black tile will put it on full display. Then, if you have the misfortune of having hard water, you might as well have purchased a limewash over your black tile.
You will have to spend nearly every moment of every day cleaning your tile for it to look decent. It’s honestly not worth the effort, so please, save yourself the trouble and just don’t do it!
Mistake #2 – Small Tile
We all love a good penny tile on the shower floor. Trust me, I’ve been a big fan of the adorable shower floor design as it gives a ton of character and a nice visual contrast to the larger shower wall tiles. Small tiles mean lots of grout. Lots of grout means lots of cleaning.
With a small tile, you will spend the majority of your time with a small brush attempting to get your grout to look like it did when you first moved in. It will quickly become filled with dirt, grime, and soap scum. If you do opt for a smaller tile, ask for your grout lines to be as small as possible. Or, if you’d like to avoid this cleaning fiasco altogether, opt for larger-scale tile all the way around.
Mistake #3 – A Small Shower
Speaking of tile in the shower, another common bathroom design mistake is not leaving enough room for a shower. It sounds crazy because who would want a small shower, right? Well, it happens more often than you think because of the blueprint of bathrooms.
My advice? Get rid of that big, clunky, built-in tub and swap it out for a free-standing tub. It will save room and allow you more flexibility in designing your bathroom space.
Then, I also recommend measuring out the shower dimensions and testing out whether you have enough space to move around. If it feels tight, go bigger. Seriously, no one has ever said “I regret making my shower this big,” but you always regret making it too small.
Mistake #4 – Cutting Your Tile Short
I love saving money as much as the next person, but being stingy with your tile budget isn’t the way to do it. Your shower is somewhat of a showpiece in your bathroom. It’s also a place you will spend a lot of time in and it may be your only place of peace and relaxation which is exactly why I recommend going all out for it. Unfortunately, many people still try to cut corners here.
If there is one takeaway you have from this piece, please tile all the way up your shower wall. When you do this it draws the eye up making your shower look bigger and therefore making your space feel more luxurious. Cutting the tile short at the top only saves a few bucks, shortens the visual height of the bathroom, and just looks cheap.
Mistake #5 – Skimping On Storage
Think you don’t need that extra shelf or cabinet? You’re wrong. Between cleaning supplies, linens, hair tools, lotions, makeup, and more, your cabinets will quickly fill up. All the space you think you had will slowly start to feel like far less than enough.
The more storage space you can add to your bathroom design, the more satisfied you will be as time goes on. Even if it’s just a single open shelf, it will make a huge difference.
