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Inspiring Design Ideas to Enhance Your Bathroom with Wallpaper
Whilst wallpaper has become a firm favourite throughout the home – from living rooms and libraries to playrooms and parlours – many people still feel tentative about using it in some of the rooms that we frequent the most; one such place is the bathroom. So, can you wallpaper a bathroom? Most definitely!
High-humidity spaces can be daunting to use anything other than tiles or bathroom-specific paint, however with the right preparation and maintenance, wallpaper is the perfect way to create a unique space to start and end your day.
Before deciding how to give your bathroom an update it’s important to look at the space you’ll be working with – one key factor is ventilation. In order to keep your wallpaper pristine, it is important that your bathroom has a window that can be opened or a powerful extractor fan. If your bathroom is not well-ventilated you may want to look at using wallpaper in a powder room or separate water-closet as the lack of humidity in these smaller areas lend themselves well to keeping your wallpaper looking as good as the day that it’s hung.
Hanging wallpaper in a bathroom begins the same as any room in the house so you will need the same tools and preparation – when in doubt about hanging your wallpaper, we always suggest working with a trained decorator who can ensure that the paper is hung correctly.
Once you have confirmed that your bathroom has plenty of ventilation and is suitable for wallpapering, it’s time for the fun part: the design. There are a multitude of options when choosing wallpaper, however designing a bathroom is particularly exciting as the rest of the scheme often needs to be very functional; the walls are your time to let your imagination run wild.
If you are updating your existing bathroom look to complement the suite or tiles that are already in place, you can build your colour palette from the tones that are present. A white bathroom suite is ideal for a bright and bold design, whereas coloured tiles can be the perfect coordinate to hues within a striking print, elevating the entire space.
Utilising the elements that are already in place also means that your bathroom update is quicker and easier to achieve and allows you greater flexibility to change your scheme in the future.
Just because you are wallpapering in a more humid atmosphere, doesn’t mean that you can’t use a normal wallpaper. Cole & Son non-woven wallpapers can be used throughout the home, including bathrooms, powder rooms, and downstairs cloakrooms. In order to protect your wallpapered walls once you have finished your new bathroom space, our in-house decorating expert, Ray Goodheart, recommends using a decorator’s sealer like Polyvine. He explains “this will protect the paper and help to avoid any minor stains from stray splashes of water or steam.”
Alternatively, if you are planning your new bathroom design from scratch, look at using tiles or wooden panelling around the lower half of your walls combined with wallpaper on the upper half in order to minimise water splash stains and introduce other textures to your scheme.
Begin your redesign by browsing some of our favourite designs and colours for wallpapered bathrooms, powder rooms, and cloakrooms.