We Should All Pay More Attention to Our Bathrooms, and These 10 Are Proof

I have a confession that will come as zero surprise to anyone who’s read anything I’ve written: I love bathrooms. When I stay in a hotel, they’re the first thing I check out, and when I visit someone’s home that has a particularly good bathroom, I make sure to take extra bathroom breaks so I can fully take in its glory.

When I think about why I love bathrooms so much, about a million reasons come to mind. Bathrooms are (often) cozy. They’re a perfect manifestation of form following function. They’re easy to customize and/or be a canvas for expressing a style (tile! wallpaper!) that might not apply well to a larger space, like a living room or bedroom. The good ones are warm and have a nice candle burning. And they’re a perfect escape when you need to take a break, read, have a little privacy, or yanno, take care of some bathroomy business.

All of this is to say that when I look at our house tours, I pay extra attention to the bathrooms—and get particularly delighted when I see a good one. Because it’s the time of year for the culturally-imposed holiday of Valentine’s Day (no offense if you love it, not every holiday is for everyone!), I took a moment to reflect on the house tour bathrooms I really, really love and think of fondly. I may not be writing any Valentines, but if I were, they would go to these commodes:

I said I like tile, right? I really, really, really like tile, and WHEW, does this bathroom make a case for picking one and really going with it. The dazzling emerald color goes with the wooden vanity perfectly, and the mirrors, sinks, and fixtures give it all a lot of charming personality. It’s especially amazing if you see what it looked like before. Oh, and the shower is also not to be missed.

Anyway, I love you, emerald-tiled bathroom. Please be my Valentine?

OK, I guess I have a thing for green tile! Both of the bathrooms in this Grand Rapids home are lovely, but the green cement tile here is really something special. I’m in love!

When I first saw this powdery pink clawfoot tub, I needed to take a moment. I had no idea that a clawfoot tub could be improved upon, but I’m always willing to be proven wrong. I would let someone haul my Murphy bed out of my apartment and replace it with this tub if it meant I got to have this tub in my life. It’s so good that I almost didn’t notice the cool tiles and gorgeous blue paint. Almost.

I did not come up with the description of this bathroom (the owner did!), but it’s so spot-on that I have to co-opt it—and maybe the entire design of the bathroom itself? The terrazzo-like stone in the shower is hypnotizing; I may or may not be sitting here staring at it, mouth agape, a tiny bit of drool escaping out of the corner. But I think it’s also the bright white fixtures that really make this bathroom pop. To quote the owner, “I never knew I could have such strong feelings for a faucet.”

Plants? In bathrooms? Groundbreaking. Actually, these ones are ceiling-breaking; they’re suspended from a ladder that took a full day to install. And you know what? It was worth it. The plants look so lush and vibrant, and provide a verdant punch in the (mostly) all-white bathroom.

I like to think I’m a pretty self-aware person, but I had no idea how obsessed I was with green bathroom tiles until I looked back through all of my saved photos. The first step toward recovery is admitting you have a problem, right? These ones—and the whole bathroom—are so zen, I just felt my cortisol levels even out really nicely.

Well okay, my tile fixation apparently goes beyond just green tiles. Look at these blue ones! They feel vacation-y, like they’re out of a Portuguese guesthouse bathroom, and all of the other accents, like the clawfoot tub, bathmat, blue-painted cabinets, and gold touches, are just perfect. Mmm.

I love toile, and I always have. Now that grandmillennial style is officially trendy, toile feels perfectly au courant, and I couldn’t be happier, because that means it’ll start popping up in more and more places for me to gawk at—like in this 1890s home. It looks so good and so modern with the gold fixtures, and even better mixed with other black-and-white patterns:

The shower curtain! The floor tiles! Ahhhh! I’m re-doing parts of my bathroom this year, and feeling very inspired by all of this.

Eaves are so cozy and cute, and just perfect for shoving a sink and tub into, like in this bathroom. And as if that’s not charming enough, there’s that fish wallpaper. I’m not joking when I say I think about it a good 2-3 times a week. The combination of fanciful and glamorous is really just :chef kisses fingers:.

I just wanted to end my little Valentine to ‘throoms on a palette cleanser. This modern Spanish bathroom is just so nice, you know? That little cut-out shelf with its Aesop soap and diffuser sticks makes me feel like it belongs to my fanciest friend with the best taste, and isn’t that how you want to feel when you look at a bathroom? And that tub. Yes. There is no tub I don’t approve of, but I love what I see of this one.

Happy Valentine’s Day to these dear bathrooms, and every other one that’s provided me respite over the years. Do you have a favorite bathroom (in this post or otherwise)? Share in the comments!