Q: I bought the Trellis shower curtain from West Elm for our fairly small bathroom. It's great- just as pictured. I'm thinking about what to do for paint in the room and was thinking about wide stripes running horizontally, either in navy blue, or what my husband describes as "laser blue", or alternating. However, I don't want it to be too busy. I was wondering if your fabulous readership might have any other suggestions for adding some color and style to our bathroom.
Sent by Rebecca
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Comments (13)
Busy is the first thought that comes to mind, you're right. It's my own style but in my own house I'd err on the side of restful...leaving well enough alone. But do what feels right to you!
One wall of stripes? Ceiling stripes?
If you want some contrast with the shower curtain or a nautical feel to your stripes,you could go with orange or a yellow stripes or a muted palette suits you better, then you could go with a gray or a khaki stripe. Anyway, good luck!
It's hard to know without seeing it, but that does sound like a lot of big pattern for a small space. What about just painting all the walls (or one wall) in the navy? We painted our main bath a dark aqua blue (white tiles and fixtures) and it looks amazing.
Agree with classicchic above: I think if you want the contrasting pattern, do it in muted or almost translucent/faded colors so the two patterns aren't fighting one another. Pale yellow and pale grey sounds really cool..
I vote for painting the walls navy- no stripe. We did our bathroom a dark pewter color and there's enough white tile that it keeps the space from looking too cavelike. Let the shower curtain and bath mat be the pattern.
My general rule is three times the width of the design. The stripes either need to be three times bigger than the lines making the lovely floral pattern, or three times thinner which obviously would be a pain to do on the walls.
Also, I think a light to medium gray would look gorgeous, or keep the walls a stark, clean white and throw in lots of cobalt in the accessories, and maybe a bit of red, or orange, or canary yellow to add interest. Turquoise and olive also look lovely with navy.
Could you post a picture of your bathroom? It is hard to give advice without seeing it. I'd vote against painting navy unless you have a good source of natural light. In any case, stripes are probably more effort than they are worth.
If your bathroom is rather gloomy, you could paint white or a complementary colour like yellow or melon. If it's pretty bright, soft greyish blue would look nice. You can bring in the stripes with towels or a bath mat.
Maybe towels like these (UK only, alas):
http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/inkanorden/product/cotton-navy-striped-luxurious-towels-small
I'd stick to white walls and blue accessories. But that's me.
IF you could duplicate the blue in the shower curtain into a rug (if you don't have the pictured rug), there would be instant style. I'd do gold or golden towels.
Buy a roll of blue painters masking tape and try taping some stripes on the wall, making them as thick as you want. It won't be perfect, but it will give you some sense of what it would look like to help you decide if you like it or not.