White: a multi-faceted color
A white bathroom represents timeless elegance, tranquility, freshness, and a feeling of spaciousness. All-white can quickly make a room look cold or sterile – however, this neutral look has the specific advantage that it offers countless options for personalized decoration and ways of jazzing it up and and making it cozy.
Whether with natural materials, stylish accessories, or targeted color accents: With the right tricks, you can make a white bathroom both modern and homey.
Have you ever wondered why white is so popular in the bathroom, and realized that this color doesn’t necessarily always look the same?
Anyone who has ever stood in front of a shelf of white paint in the hardware store knows that the color white has many nuances. There are around 100 listed shades of white. The options include old white, polar white, ivory white, and many more – and you will almost certainly have come across the description “alpine white” in association with Geberit products.
Tips for designing a white bathroom
Designing a white bathroom requires a fine sense of nuance – because not all white is the same. Different shades of white, combined with the targeted use of light, significantly determine the atmosphere in the room.
Especially in the bathroom, the lighting effect plays a central role: It can make the room appear larger, fresher, or even warmer. With stylish details such as modern faucets, the right actuator plate, or playful accessories and decorations, you can also create highlights that add character to the white bathroom. And if you want to make your white bathroom cozier, opt for soft textiles that give the clean look a homey touch.
The effect of light in a white bathroom
Creating atmosphere with light: Light in the bathroom plays a central role in ensuring that the room does not appear sterile. There are now mirror cabinets and mirrors with a sophisticated lighting concept in which brightness and color temperature are linked and tailored to the needs of the bathroom.
White reflects daylight: Light colors, especially white tones, reflect daylight and make even small bathrooms appear larger. Incidentally, the same effect can be achieved with a large mirror above the washbasin which reflects even sparse light and thus creates additional brightness.
Not all white is the same
White has many nuances. RAL, the German institute for quality assurance and labelling, distinguishes between more than eighty different shades of white. The selection includes Old White, Winter White, and Signal White.
White is a color that is strongly influenced by its surroundings. Daylight, artificial light, the orientation of the room, and the material all influence the perception of it. Even a precisely defined shade of white can have a different effect on different materials such as plastic, glass, or ceramic.
- In general, when it comes to white shades: A touch of yellow brings a sense of warmth and comfort to a room. Blue and gray variants create a straightforward, cooler look.
- Alpine white is a slightly warmer shade of white specially designed for bathrooms, which was defined in 1987 by the European Fachverband für Sanitär-Keramische Industrie (professional association for the sanitary ceramic industry). It corresponds to the established RAL colour “Signal White” and is seen as very neutral. The colour tone creates freshness, spaciousness and brightness in the bathroom. It also represents hygiene and cleanliness.
- Matte white products look modern and unobtrusive and are just as easy to clean and just as scratch-resistant as their glossy counterparts. A little tip: Compare the available matte variants and ideally choose products from the same manufacturer, as even matte colours can differ significantly from one another.
Create highlights with faucets and flush plates
Well-matched bathroom faucets complement the chosen bathroom style and create a striking visual highlight. Wall-mounted faucets for the washbasin offer a sleek design and outstanding functionality. They leave enough space around the washbasin and allow more freedom of movement, as well as making the washbasin particularly easy to clean. A matching flush actuator plate adds the finishing touch to your white dream bathroom.
Soft fabrics for a cozy white bathroom
In the minimalist white bathroom, soft fabrics provide added coziness. Fluffy towels, a soft bath rug, or an airy shower curtain bring warmth and comfort into the room – without detracting from the modern look.
Combination options in a white bathroom
A white bathroom offers the perfect canvas for diverse styles and creative design ideas. Whether in trendy Scandi chic with natural materials and light wood tones, luxurious surfaces such as textured tiles or matte marble, or in a modern black-and-white look with strong contrasts, white can be combined in many ways when furnishing a bathroom and can be reinterpreted again and again.
Scandinavian bathroom: White with wood
Scandinavian design epitomizes naturalness and simplicity. White combined with wooden elements are essential characteristics of Nordic interior design. While the white elements radiate simple and stylish elegance, wood brings warmth to the room. A solid wood or wood-look washbasin cabinet is a harmonious addition to a bathroom with white tiles and sanitary ceramics.
Modern bathroom in black and white
A black-and-white bathroom looks timeless and elegant while also modern at the same time. The strong contrast between light and dark brings tension into the room and lets clear lines come into their own particularly well.
Whether minimalist, graphic, or with a touch of nostalgia – the combination of black and white offers a wide range of design options for a stylish and expressive bathroom. Black faucets add striking highlights and emphasize the straight-line design concept.
Black tile joints enhance the graphic effect and emphasize the structure of the wall and floor tiles even more clearly.
A dream bathroom with unusual surfaces
Surfaces decisively influence the character of a bathroom: Marble, stylish textured tiles, and glossy or matte finishes create an exclusive, luxurious atmosphere. The materials feel good while lending the room depth and elegance.
Wooden surfaces in dark tones also add warm, stylish touches and create an exciting contrast to the cool aesthetics of stone and ceramic. In addition, fine shades of gray make the white appear softer – gray breaks up the severity of the bright surfaces and blends harmoniously into the overall effect.
