5 Black-and-White Bathrooms With Distinctive Style
Designers stamped this classic color palette with their clients’ personalities
It’s hard to imagine a time when a black-and-white bathroom wasn’t classic. Avocado bathtubs and pink toilets may come and go, but this time-tested, high-contrast look suits everything from traditional older homes to modern industrial-style houses. Here’s how five designers created black-and-white bathrooms to complement their clients’ personal styles.
Urrutia woke things up with black in the table next to the tub, in the accent in the floor tile, on the window sashes and here on this floor-to-ceiling accent wall in the shower. These elements draw the eye and inject a dose of modern style into the traditional design.
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2. A Study in Warming Up Contrast
Corine Maggio of CM Natural Designs knows that the stark contrast between black and white can skew too sterile. So she carefully homed in on subtle details to inject warmth and interest into this crisp transitional bathroom design.
Browse traditional vanities in the Houzz Shop
Corine Maggio of CM Natural Designs knows that the stark contrast between black and white can skew too sterile. So she carefully homed in on subtle details to inject warmth and interest into this crisp transitional bathroom design.
Browse traditional vanities in the Houzz Shop
The soft gray veins in the Carrara marble countertop break up the palette and add warmth. The curves of the mirrors, cabinet hardware, sconces and vintage scale contrast with the room’s sharp edges. And a combination of black and antiqued brass finishes softens any hint of matchy-matchy-ness.
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3. Classic Yet Woodsy
Designers Tanya McLean and Nichole Skladan gave this 38-square-foot bathroom in Vancouver, British Columbia, classic bones, then injected a woodsy personality that suited the homeowner’s style. Cole & Sons’ Woods wallpaper creates a forest above the traditional white Shaker wainscoting. The accessories add to the forest feel.
“The acacia mirror and walnut shelves add warmth and a place for [the homeowner] to add her personal touches of nature,” McLean says. “The ravens, rocks, wood and feathers are from [her] collection and are a theme throughout the house.”
Designers Tanya McLean and Nichole Skladan gave this 38-square-foot bathroom in Vancouver, British Columbia, classic bones, then injected a woodsy personality that suited the homeowner’s style. Cole & Sons’ Woods wallpaper creates a forest above the traditional white Shaker wainscoting. The accessories add to the forest feel.
“The acacia mirror and walnut shelves add warmth and a place for [the homeowner] to add her personal touches of nature,” McLean says. “The ravens, rocks, wood and feathers are from [her] collection and are a theme throughout the house.”
A raven figurine perches atop the wainscoting, where it looks down at the vintage-looking claw-foot tub. A clever trick the designers used here was framing a block window with traditional millwork. This made the more contemporary element fit with the style of the room, avoiding the budget-busting expense of replacing it.
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4. Rock ’n’ Roll Meets Glam
Deirdre Doherty Interiors gave this stylish Los Angeles couple’s bathroom a design that combined rock ’n’ roll and glam (the chic kind, not the hair band kind). The encaustic cement floor tile rocks out an intense rhythm on the floor, while the large circular mirrors, marble countertop and brass finishes bring the glam.
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Deirdre Doherty Interiors gave this stylish Los Angeles couple’s bathroom a design that combined rock ’n’ roll and glam (the chic kind, not the hair band kind). The encaustic cement floor tile rocks out an intense rhythm on the floor, while the large circular mirrors, marble countertop and brass finishes bring the glam.
Browse encaustic cement tiles
One of the homeowners is a professional stylist, so Doherty pulled out all the stops for her vanity. An antiqued mirror, smoked glass sconces, acrylic hardware and a black lambswool-topped stool create just the right spot for her to do her hair and makeup.
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Bold Industrial Style
The rumble of a nearby train helped inspire the redesign of this bathroom in an Alexandria, Virginia, row house. “My clients were drawn to industrial style, black and white, and patterned floor tiles mixed with reclaimed wood,” designer Michelle Schmauder says. “And their row house is right next to the railroad tracks — you can feel the train in the house when it goes by.”
The designer repurposed a TV stand into a vanity by adding plumbing and vessel sinks. And when she found faucet handles that resembled train wheels, the homeowners were on board. Black mirror frames, light fixtures, P-traps and Schluter strips atop the backsplash add more industrial-style touches.
The rumble of a nearby train helped inspire the redesign of this bathroom in an Alexandria, Virginia, row house. “My clients were drawn to industrial style, black and white, and patterned floor tiles mixed with reclaimed wood,” designer Michelle Schmauder says. “And their row house is right next to the railroad tracks — you can feel the train in the house when it goes by.”
The designer repurposed a TV stand into a vanity by adding plumbing and vessel sinks. And when she found faucet handles that resembled train wheels, the homeowners were on board. Black mirror frames, light fixtures, P-traps and Schluter strips atop the backsplash add more industrial-style touches.
When it came to flooring, the homeowners were drawn to the graphic look of patterned encaustic cement tiles. Schmauder recommended a double-hexagon ceramic tile on the shower floor to complement it. When pairing different patterns of tile, she advises, look for a common element, such as color or shape. The black-and-white palette and diamondesque shapes around the circles in the main floor tile play off the shower floor’s palette and pattern.
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“A white bathroom is traditional. But to keep it from being sleepy, you need to wake it up,” architect Jason Urrutia says. He added key accents in black to liven up and update this mostly white master bath in a 1910 Sausalito, California, home. But first, the architect used elements such as a marble-topped vanity, a classic freestanding tub and polished chrome finishes to lay a traditional base.
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