2024's big bathroom trends — colors & buys for a fresh look |

We’ve finally seen the back of the bland white bathroom, and the designs making a splash for the coming year have never been more exciting

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There’s a tendency to play it safe when it comes to re-designing a bathroom. More so than even the kitchen, which often falls victim to being remodeled with re-sale in mind, our bathrooms are treated to basic and uninspiring makeovers.

But it doesn’t need to be that way. Take a look at the bathroom trends inspiring some of the world’s best and most fearless designers, and you’ll find a common thread. They’re bold, and often colorful, while introducing exciting materials that bring a fresh perspective to these spaces.

These modern bathroom ideas don’t have to be maximalist, but ask our editors for their favorite ever bathroom designs, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a plain, white scheme in the mix. After all, while simple white bathrooms might be ‘timeless’, bathrooms that embrace trends can endure equally as long if they’re well-considered.

As an interiors editor, I’ve pared down my (quite frankly very large) list of the things I’m loving in bathroom design that’s happening right now to the key moments you need to know about if you’re remodeling next year. These are the 9 bathroom trends on my radar, and I'll be back to update this list into 2025 and beyond as the picture of bathroom design changes.

I once worked with an interiors photographer who told me that, on average, the photos of white bathrooms or kitchens he shared on Instagram got half the likes of the ones that introduced some sort of color into the mix. And, while I don’t recommend decorating with your Instagram feed in mind, it’s a definite insight into how people react to color in these sorts of spaces.

The balance is in giving your bathroom wow-factor, and still making it feel like a restful retreat — so, with that in mind, we’re seeing designers embrace rich, deep color palettes, over the likes of primary brights or soft pastels, for a more elegant, cocooning use of color. Paired then with brass accents, dramatic natural stone, and more ornamental design details, and you’ll be left with a space that has a cool, member’s club vibe.

This bathroom design, created by New York’s Crystal Sinclair, is one of my favorites of late. "I always feel like a powder bathroom should be dramatic," Crystal tells us. "It’s a small space that you can have fun with. The floor is a marble slab which matches the channeled form floating sink."

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Color drenching has been an enduring trend over the last few years, especially in small spaces like the bathroom. The premise? Pare down by making all the elements the same color, and you get a softer space with less harsh contrast.

For 2025, this color trend has evolved to some degree, and we’re now seeing it expressed in monochromatic shades. So-called ‘double drenching’ works in a slightly different way to traditional color drenching, but it feels a little more sophisticated and nuanced as a way to decorate for next year.

This green bathroom, designed by Sam Donnely, designer and property developer at Merchant & Mercantile, is a perfect example. “Since there are a few layers to the design, we decided to keep the color palette monochromatic, and play with the color and tint of each layer to give the design a bit of depth,” Sam explains. “It took a couple of go's to get the color blend just right, but now it feels effortless.”

When it comes to wallpaper trends, we’ve seen a super-maximalist approach to using wallcoverings in a bathroom in the most design-forward projects, especially in small spaces like powder rooms.

Combining a bold wallpaper print against a similarly scaled pattern in something like a statement stone is a challenging but rewarding approach. “I think the key is to have a strong idea and to unify it in some way, and then the clashing kind of makes sense,” explains Gretchen Krebs of California-based architecture and design studio Medium Plenty, who designed this maximalist space. “The wallpaper wraps the entire room in a continuous scene like a mural and the recessed stone vanity is a solid chunk with the sink carved out. When you open the blind door and step inside, you are totally enveloped by the pattern and palette.”

A classic 80s resurgence, the glass brick design trend is making serious moves in 2025, especially against the backdrop of kitchens and bathrooms. Also known as 'jazz bricks', this textural design makes a great alternative to tiles and, better still, it's super practical, too.

"For the last 20 years I've been gagging every time I've been confronted with a glass block from a 1980s bathroom remodel and made my feelings known. Now, my tail is between my legs, because I am smitten with the new interpretations of this Art Deco classic and am itching to use it in a project," says Bethany Adams of Bethany Adams Interiors. "Rather than ubiquitous and hefty grids of semi-opaque blobbiness, today's glass blocks are lighter, brighter, and more colorful lending an air of delicate playfulness to bathrooms."

Another reason this intriguing design idea is proving so popular in bathrooms is largely owing to its distortive effect, making it a great alternative to frosted glass in these private spaces.

There are so many tile trends for the bathroom right now that it’s hard to pick just one. Basically, anything but plain subway tiles are in fashion, depending whether you want to apply pattern or texture to your space.

The biggest bathroom tile trends have a timeless quality about them, working for both modern and more traditional designs. Our editors’ pick? This organic, wavy tiled flooring design, by fornace brioni + cristina celestino for Cle Tile. “This hardworking floor tile feels old and new to us at the same time,” says interior designer Kristin Fine of The 1818 collective, who used in the small powder room, above.

When it comes to bathroom faucet trends, there’s no one real clear winner that you should definitely pick. Your choice will depend on the style of design, and how you want to piece your finishes together. However, taking a quick straw poll across the most recent projects featured on Livingetc, it seems that brass is still winning out in most design-forward spaces. Valerie Furazhenko, a Toronto-based designer and founder of Viola House Design says: “Brass, at this point, has become a timeless finish for faucets, but it’s about finding the right level of sheen and texture to suit your design.” Darker, antiqued brass is the choice for more sophisticated spaces, especially metals untreated and allowed to patina over time.

"Brass has been a popular fixture finish for years, but antique brass has taken over this year," agrees Livingetc's executive editor Pip Rich. "The subtlety of its shine, the way it just picks up the light but without too much sparkle helps to create a really relaxing space. I'm seeing designers use it as the most common choice."

Elsewhere, while dark finishes remain popular, there’s less of a focus on matte black than there once was. “Instead, I recommend options like pewter tones or blackened stainless steel, which are far less likely to fall out of fashion,” says Valerie.

If there’s one designer whose work has come back to the forefront this year, it’s Jean Royère. Known for his playful design aesthetic, it’s the French designer’s wrought iron designs that are inspiring modern design aesthetics right now.

From playfully ornate dining chairs and kitchen stools to signature undulating mirrors, it’s this style that’s being seen in the coolest, most characterful bathrooms right now as a mirror trend, whether faithful Royère pieces, or new designs that rift on these decoratively-framed designs.

Where the standout trend for bathroom basins had undoubtedly been statement-making single bowls before, we're seeing a more lowkey approach with the advent of the trough sink. Though still made from equally as luxurious materials, the trough sink - whether recessed into the bathroom vanity or sat atop the counter - has a more relaxed feel, and offers a still-generous, but slightly more subtle option to the traditional double sink that feels more streamlined and minimalist.

"We're seeing more of these trough sinks over 'his and her' basins," says Livingetc's interiors editor Emma Breislin. "They offer more sink space, and are easier to clean — you just need to make sure you design it in a way that doesn't leave you lacking in countertop space, though."

The most dynamic and exciting shower trend I expect to still see in 2025? The slab shower. The basic premise of this design is that you use solid slabs of beautiful material to line your shower enclosure, instead of the likes of tiles.

If you're going to invest in a slab of marble, granite, or quartzite, it makes for one of the largest, most impressive ways to show it off. "The seamless floor-to-ceiling application clearly allows you to see all the details of the slab and draws your eye up," says interior designer Emily Ruff of Cohesively Created.

Given the size the stone slabs come in, it's largely an efficient way to use an expensive material too, with little going to waste.

As well as our picks above, there are often trending colors you can look at for the bathroom for 2025. Terracottas, reds, and salmon pinks are among the big color trends for the year — all colors that haven't traditionally been used in bathrooms much.

"More and more, we see the bathroom as a space to relax, rather than just as a functional room," says Livingetc's executive editor Pip Rich. "And that includes during the five-minute morning dash while you do your teeth - why shouldn't it soothe you then, too? Terracotta and peachy tones are perfect to do this - pair warm orange-y tiles with soft, plaster pink walls. Heaven."

For another on-trend look, turn to other 'ugly' colors, like browns and olive greens, for the next step in the evolution of bathroom color ideas.

Hugh is Livingetc.com’s editor. With 8 years in the interiors industry under his belt, he has the nose for what people want to know about re-decorating their homes. He prides himself as an expert trend forecaster, visiting design fairs, showrooms and keeping an eye out for emerging designers to hone his eye. He joined Livingetc back in 2022 as a content editor, as a long-time reader of the print magazine, before becoming its online editor. Hugh has previously spent time as an editor for a kitchen and bathroom magazine, and has written for “hands-on” home brands such as Homebuilding & Renovating and Grand Designs magazine, so his knowledge of what it takes to create a home goes beyond the surface, too. Though not a trained interior designer, Hugh has cut his design teeth by managing several major interior design projects to date, each for private clients. He's also a keen DIYer — he's done everything from laying his own patio and building an integrated cooker hood from scratch, to undertaking plenty of creative IKEA hacks to help achieve the luxurious look he loves in design, when his budget doesn't always stretch that far.

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