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5 Modern Design Ideas for a Bathroom Refresh

We've rounded up a few stylish modern bathroom ideas and designs, including eclectic lighting and geometric to calming vanities and tubs

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By House & Garden South Africa | February 2, 2024 | Bathroom

There is something so stylish about a chic bathroom that has been designed with a clear-cut vision. Of course your bathroom should ideally mingle with the overall aesthetic of your home, but that doesn’t mean it cannot carry its own aesthetic style.

For those looking to revamp their bathroom this year, from the smallest touches like new towels to going all out with a brand new tub or tiles. For those looking for bathroom inspiration (or simply ideas to copy), we have pulled some of the most stunning bathrooms that have had the pleasure of dawning the pages of our beautiful House & Garden SA magazine.

Make an Entrance With Double Doors

Make an Entrance With Double Doors. Photograph via the House & Garden SA Archives.

The overall appeal of this all white bathroom is the stunning double doors that create a bold entrance to this monochromatic space. Presenting a modern twist on a farm-style bathroom where the bathtub and barn doors are an all white ode to country living. Marble and old floor tiles bring additional sophisticated depth to the space.

Embrace Every Angle

Photograph via the House & Garden SA Archives.

Bathrooms come with the luxury to play with proportion and materiality. Iron framing and reclaimed pipes that form the shower and towel rails add a sturdy industrial element to an otherwise soft room in the house. The bathroom sits within the home’s naturally slanted roof is given a refresh with pearlescent tiles and a tall shower head to give the illusion of height within an already tight space.

Don’t Be Afraid to Play with Proportions

"Consider the thickness of your bathtub rim,“ says Lavo Bathroom Concepts’ Kirsten Stigling (who stocks the pictured Novecento bathtub). ”You want to rest your head on something comfortable, and a thicker edge is better suited to providing that.“

Create depth via a thick-rimmed Novecento bathtub. Photography by Greg Cox

Make Way for Large Space

If your bathroom is big on space, don’t be afraid to get experimental with texture. With the sheer volume of space that comes with a large bathroom, it is easiest to go the modern route an tap exotic textures that are easy on the eye over vibrant colour palettes. This minimalist California home designed by Noa Santos, founder of architecture and design studio NAINOA, carries a sort of monastic quality where the focus is very much on these singular, larger volumes within every room like high ceilings, and dramatic proportions as seen in the bathroom shower.

Despite its outward appearance, there is nothing precious about this home – right down to the stones beneath the bath tub.Photography courtesy of Nainoa.

Inject Colour and Patterns with Wallpaper

Think of guest bathrooms and their nature to be one of the homes few transient spaces, giving you the opportunity to make a high impact through unexpected design touches. This eclectic example combines colourful Christian Lacroix ‘Butterfly Parade’ wallpaper, available at Home Fabrics, with rustic furniture pieces and raw stone.

Photography by Elsa Young via the House & Garden SA Archives.