Warm up your bathroom for the autumn and winter season

At this time of year, our thoughts turn naturally enough to ways of warming up our homes. If you’re looking to give your bathroom a warm glow, there are ways of doing this both figuratively and literally. Using a warm color palette and natural materials when updating your decor makes the room look warm, and adding innovations such as heated towel rails and underfloor heating will provide a warm feeling to match.

Your decor needs to match your bathroom furniture, so if you have existing cabinets and aren’t planning a full remodel, then think about the base color of your bathroom cabinets. If this base isn’t satisfactory and you’re willing to put in some DIY effort to tweak the bathroom to suit, you can paint your own cabinets with cupboard paint, a durable paint type available from DIY stores. Warm neutral colors from beige to ochre are a good starting point and can be complemented by richer accent colors: russets and orangey reds, warm greens, and shades of mocha, chocolate, bronze or gold.

Try using a combination of tile and vinyl (or washable) wallpaper: a neutral tiles and highly detailed wallpaper will bring a balanced combination of styles to the room. Or contrast walls of neutral bathroom paint with richer, more detailed tiled areas – tile small alcoves and a full feature wall, or add this detail in your shower enclosure or basin splashback area. Finally, you could tile or paint the whole room, according to your taste, and use bathroom accessories and art to bring interest and variety to the room.

Add real (rather than visual) warmth to your bathroom with underfloor heating (from £400 for a small area) – obviously this is something that will cause quite a bit of disruption so is best factored into a bathroom overhaul rather than a simple redecoration. Adding an electric towel radiator, provided you have the space, is something that can be done without disrupting your existing central heating system, as the power source is separate and the unit is self contained. Alternatively, you can exchange your existing bathroom radiator for a towel radiator.

 love the rectangular tub...

4 images above © betterbathrooms.com

Flooring additions like soft, cozy rugs or bathmats will amp up a bathroom’s comfort factor during the winter months, and task lighting combined with ambient lighting will bring warmth to the room (dark and cold just seem to go together, somehow) and ensure that you have sufficient light in the bathroom on gloomy winter days.

Here are some more bathrooms that I would just love to cozy up in on a cold winter's day:

This bathroom has a warm, Victorian-vintage vibe to it

via BHG

pardon my drool...I love the big armoire, rug, and beams in this eclectic bathroom.

2 above via Elle Decor

*disclosure: This post is sponsored by betterbathrooms.com

A chic and stunning Manhattan apartment

It's hard for black and white to not look chic....

One day I will have a huge gorgeous mirror in my entry way like this.

This room is a nice reading refuge from the dark walls used in the master bedroom.

What do you think?

via Rue Magazine

Bathroom inspiration - unique and chic

1. High Gloss Magazine, 2. Southern Living, 3. Scandinavian Chic, 4. Nate Berkus, 5. The Hawley House Project, 6. Casa Diez, 7. Christopher Peacock Cabinetry

Bathroom love - lavish and luxe

Right now I have been sharing a teeny, tiny bathroom with 5 other people while living with my boyfriend in Spain (we live with two other couples). I'm heading back to the states on Friday, where I will stay with my parents until my boyfriend and I go apartment hunting in DC in August. My parents just beautifully renovated their bathroom and I can't wait to go back to using that one for a little while!


This tub looks so wonderfully deep - and the chandelier above it is a great idea...
via Apartment Therapy


I don't know if I've ever seen a tub positioned in a corner like that, but I love the view from the windows and the blue on the wall



4 images above via Eric Roth


Love those doors and the blue of the tiles
via Interior Design Styles

Need a little extra wardrobe space?

I saw this in issue 3 of Lonny Mag and I really thought it was a cool idea. We could all use a little extra closet space - but what I really like about this is that it shows you how to create a little extra space for your accessories. I know I would love a closet specifically dedicated to shoes, handbags, and jewelry.

The wardrobe they use in this demonstration is called PAX from Ikea.

So nice!


I like the idea of adding a mirror to turn the wardrobe into a little vanity.



Go Lonny Mag, Archive, Issue 3 to see the project in the magazine.

Designer Portfolio! The elegant and chic work of Sara Gilbane

Probably the element of Sara's work that I appreciate the most is how practical it is! It's not so matchy-matchy that you can't add your own personal possessions, and it looks comfy but also has personality.

Do you agree?


Above two photos by Anna Wolf

The color of that bench next to the turquoise tables is perfect. I'm a big fan on fuchsia right now




Loving the ethnic, old world character of this room

See more of Sara's work at her website.

Modern elegance mixed with 1940s glamour

Not too many of us are blessed with the means and circumstances to live among such decadent furnishings, but we can dream! And besides, that's what the glossies are for. So when I was flipping through some of last year's magazines I rediscovered Ralph Lauren Home's 2008 "Mayfair" collection. In fact, I'd posted some other shots from the Mayfair ad campaign in the August 2008 post here. I think it doesn't hurt, especially in this season of giving to others, to give to yourself a little - even if it's just for a moment, in one's imagination, drooling over the keyboard.


oh that bed...that vanity...

I really like the clear to black candlesticks





I wear this same outfit when I have to go to the post office

via Ralph Lauren Home




via Color Me Happy