I Basically Covered My Entire Bathroom in Carpet, and I Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way

Getting cold feet is usually a term reserved for runaway brides or grooms, but for me, it’s about the cold tile floor of my bathroom. Growing up, my parents had a large, plush bath rug that was at least three feet long and two feet wide, so when brushing my teeth or washing my face, I was always comfortable sunken into that blue fluffy mat.

In every apartment I lived in for ten years in New York City, I only had a bath mat for after I stepped out of the shower —the kind that you have just to make sure the floor doesn’t get wet that isn’t optimized for comfort. In my 30s, when I moved to Los Angeles and started over in a bigger apartment with surprisingly very cold tile floors, I decided to effectively carpet my bathroom. I got the full set of plum bath rugs from Bed Bath & Beyond on sale the first week I moved. (The brand, Nestwell, calls it “Purple Ridge.”) The set included a 24-inch by 40-inch rug I use in front of the shower, a  17-inch by 24-inch smaller rug I use in front of the sink, a toilet seat cover, and the around-the-toilet rug. I also have a papaya bath mat from Urban Outfitters that I use as a little rug in front of my full-length mirror outside the bathroom, which is featured in many shameless selfies.

For me, prioritizing comfort in the bathroom is a version of self-care. Fuzzy toilet seat covers aren’t cool or trendy, but I like them because they’re cozy, and I don’t constantly see dust building up on top of the toilet seat lid. That said, I can throw all of them in the washing machine twice a month to make sure I’m still keeping the bathroom super-clean. Even after washing and drying them that often for almost two full years, they’re still as fluffy, soft, and comfortable as the day I bought them, if not more from their… aging? Also, even though it barely gets cold in LA, the tile always seems to be cold in my bathroom — perhaps a ghost, hopefully, they like bath rugs? — so these bring me joy in every season. 

Even though I like the high-pile rugs (1.5-inches!) and the simplicity of the solid purple, I’m thinking about swapping them out for some more fun food-themed rugs, like moving the papaya in and getting this strawberry bath rug next. It’ll all go great with my three vintage fruit-and-vegetable stained glass cupboards in the bathroom — purchased on Facebook Marketplace for $10 each! — and will encourage me to spend more time decorating the bathroom. For as much time as many people spend in bathrooms, they’re rarely the most fun and comfortable part of a homes. So now I’m trying to change that, one fluffy bath rug at a time.