One of my favorite rooms to design is the guest or powder bath. The fun you can have in such a small space is as vast as your imagination. It is one of the most used rooms in the house – and it’s always fun to “WOW” your guests, right?

One of my first go-to design options for the bathrooms without a shower is wallpaper. Sometimes I have to bring a sample or show photos to my clients before I say “the W word” because they immediately think of Grandma’s ivy wallpaper with the gardening tool border. But wallpaper is a gorgeous way to bring interest to a space. You can see we went bold with large pattern in this small space located in Preston Hollow:

Another detail is the ceiling. It’s hard to see in this photo, but the ceiling is a deep shade of eggplant with a high gloss coat applied so it really shines. The light fixture plays with the finish with the pattern that is created when the light is turned on.

Below is a Highland Park powder bath designed using a bold wallpaper pattern, art, and a graceful mirror. You can see IN the mirror, that there was a small ledge where we installed a Carrara marble slab and added some small decor (see that topiary?). We went rather neutral with the finishes in order to not compete with the wallpaper.

And speaking of finishes, check out the finish on these walls below. It’s hard to see, but they’ve been painted AND a stencil with a raised design in the same color was applied. It’s subtle but really gorgeous. This is a house in the M-Streets, so it really coordinates well with the architecture and style throughout the space.

Another fun option I like to use is tile as a bold design element. This glass mosaic tile brought some drama to this space AND looked super cool as you walked down the hallway it opened into. The dark porcelain floor and paint in Swiss Coffee (Ben Moore) really set it off, don’t you think?

Finally, if you follow me on Facebook (and if you don’t, you should), you’ve already seen this powder bath below. We just finished the design & staging for Charlene Tilton’s foray into real estate here in DFW. We took out the sink and replaced it with this mirrored vanity – so there is a dramatic look AND functional storage. The wallpaper has a subtle sheen, with a vein of silver metallic running through it. (High glamour + storage = “Glamorously Functional”.) Oh, and click HERE to see the before version of this bathroom.

So do you love or hate a bold design in a bathroom? What material do you prefer to use? Wallpaper? Paint? Tile? Or something altogether different?

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