If there is one room in any house that should be a refuge for the stress of daily life, it is the bathroom. After a long day at the office or looking after the kids, there is nothing better than kicking back and relaxing in a warm bath in the cosy surroundings of a well-designed bathroom. For those that like to achieve a state of harmony with the universe and who favour natural design, the following is a list of simple design tricks that can be used to imbue your bathroom with a more rustic and natural feel.
1. Deck out your bathroom with as much stone as you can
It may be slightly more expensive and require buying your bathroom fixtures from a local stoneworker, but nothing gives a bathroom an earthier feel than using stone to decorate it. Give your bathroom that intimate and personal feel that comes with fitting it with a stone washbasin, shower or bathtub, and tiles.
2. Use natural-feeling pastel colors and aged wood
In this day and age, the standard bathroom is usually decorated with cold colors and metallic fixtures. Painting the room with pastel blues, greens and yellows and filling it with aged wooden furniture is one of the quickest and cheapest ways of achieving that bucolic, countryside feel.
3. Use soft lighting
How a room is lit can make all the difference to how it feels. Using bright high-wattage bulbs can make a room feel clinical and institutional. If you want people to feel at ease in your bathroom, it is a good idea to make sure that the lighting uses bulbs which give off a lower light. Doing so will give the room a cosy and intimate feel which is exactly what you want when trying to wind down after a hard day.
4. Fill the room with plants
A wealth of research exists which shows that simply putting plants in your home can increase general feelings of well-being. In the same way that owning a pet is associated with heightened mood and lower stress, adding plants to your bathroom can really bring the room to life. Carefully choosing a selection of plants which can survive the steamy environment of a post-bath or shower bathroom can give your bathroom that extra-natural feel.
5. Avoid straight lines
The real key to any rustic design is to make sure that your surfaces, fixtures and fittings feature as few straight lines as possible. Curves and slope should be included in every aspect of the room to give a softer impression. Modern bathrooms are often afflicted by an overemphasis on straight lines which can give a room a severe and impersonal feel.
The bathroom is one of the most important rooms in the house. This article has provided some useful suggestions on how to give your bathroom that rustic feel that will help set even the weariest or most stressed-out person on the path to tranquillity and serenity.