Bathroom Trends in Materials: Stone, Dark Tones, Concrete and Glass

The bathroom ideas that last are the ones that suit a wet, hard-working room: materials that take water, finishes you can keep clean, and one strong idea in the room, not five. Seven have kept their appeal over the years. Here is each one, with what it takes to live with.

A bold powder room

A small room is the best place for a big statement. A powder room has no shower, so there is no steam to lift wallpaper, and nobody stays long enough to tire of it. A large-scale, high-contrast paper can make a tiny room feel larger and more deliberate. It is also the cheapest room in the home to redo if you change your mind.

One material, used throughout

A classic bathroom is always in fashion, and one way to keep it fresh is to hold a single color or material through the whole room: all one green, or marble on the floor, the walls and the vanity top. Traditional tile shapes and patterns still have a place inside it. The result reads like a jewel box, special without being loud. It asks for discipline, because one off-tone piece shows.

Dark bathrooms

Black and other deep tones give a bathroom the mood of a good hotel spa. They also ask the most of you. Dark, glossy surfaces show water spots, soap and dust at once, so choose matte or textured finishes where water lands. A dark room needs more light than a pale one: at the mirror, in the shower and overhead. In a small bathroom without a window, a dark scheme works best on one wall or below a chair-rail line.

Glass in place of walls

The open bathroom drops the wall or the curtain between the shower and the room and puts a pane of glass there, clear, tinted or steel-framed. The room looks bigger because you see all of it. What it asks: a floor sloped properly, so the water stays where it should; a panel long enough to contain the spray; and a squeegee, because glass shows every drop. Obscured glass answers the privacy question in a shared bathroom.

Art

A good picture gives a bathroom a focal point that tile alone cannot. Humidity is the catch. Keep works on paper to the powder room, or frame them sealed behind glass. In a bathroom with a shower, let a tile panel or a stone slab be the art.

Marble and its look-alikes

White and gray marble has been used in bathrooms for generations. It moves easily from traditional to modern. It is also a soft, porous stone that needs sealing and will mark over time. Porcelain tile and quartz made to look like natural stone are the workhorses: they give most of the look and ask for almost no care. A common compromise is real marble where you look, on a vanity top or one wall, and porcelain where you stand.

Concrete

Concrete turns up in basins, counters, floors and walls. On its own it can feel cold. Set against wood, steel, porcelain or resin it has real warmth, and that pairing is what makes it work. It is heavy and it has to be sealed. Porcelain in concrete tones is the lighter, easier route to the same color.

Choosing among them

• Choose one idea for the room and let the rest support it.
• Put delicate materials where water does not reach and the durable ones where it does.
• In the bathroom everyone shares, favor what cleans easily. Save the experiment for the powder room.
• Check the floor tile for grip before you check it for color.

How to judge a tile for size, slip resistance and grout is covered in how to choose bathroom tile. Finished rooms are in our bathroom gallery, the stages of the work are in the bathroom remodel timeline, and the whole job is described under bathroom renovation in NYC.

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