I prepared nine design rules. Follow them, and you are guaranteed a beautiful contemporary bathroom interior that stays current for years.

The current direction is completely sensible: simplicity, natural materials, balance, and neutral colors. This is a case where you can follow fashion.

Contemporary Bathroom Design Through a Solid Interior

A contemporary bathroom interior is first of all a solid layout without dark corners and hard-to-reach places.

The main idea of contemporary bathroom design is a unified appearance, as if the bathroom were cut from a single piece of stone. If that seems abstract now, by the end of the article you will clearly understand how to make a beautiful contemporary bathroom interior:

  1. No dark corners
  2. No gaps
  3. Keep the floor as open as possible
  4. Build in everything possible
  5. Hide every object from view
gray bathroom with concrete-look and wood tile

The explanation below uses real photo examples, mostly from expensive fashionable bathrooms. Be sure to read the more down-to-earth articles:

  1. Small bathroom design: 9 rules
  2. A 43-square-foot bathroom with a washer and toilet: more than 80 layout examples

1. A Countertop Instead of an Ordinary Sink

Ordinary sinks are used less often in contemporary bathrooms. Their fixed dimensions do not let you build them in without gaps. Gaps between the sink and bathtub or wall make the appearance look much cheaper. To create perfect joints, use an undermount sink or a vessel sink instead of an ordinary freestanding sink.

The countertop itself can be built from a tile-ready backer and finished with tile or mosaic, or made from laminate or solid-surface material. Because it is made to fit, perfect joints are possible. We are not tied to standard sizes, but the vanity will have to be custom-made too.

In the photos below, look only at the countertops and sinks. The faucets come later.

acrylic countertop in bathroom interior bathroom design with sink bowl sink basin in modern bathroom bathroom design with mosaic on accent wall Modern bathroom design with a toilet bathroom in modern classic style Built-in sink in a mosaic countertop in a modern bathroom bathroom design with two sinks bathroom design with sink on vanity bathroom with built-in sink basin and faucet design of a modern flushmount sink in the bathroom idea of modern bathroom design Wall-mounted vanity with an acrylic sink modern bathroom design with countertop drywall countertop for sink in bathroom countertop from particleboard in a modern bathroom countertop from stone with built-in sink in bathroom

2. Contemporary Wall-Mounted Faucets

This point does not come second by accident. A sink built into a countertop plus a great faucet is critically important and raises the bathroom interior to a fundamentally different level.

It is like the difference between an old floor-mounted toilet and a wall-hung one with a concealed carrier. It is worth paying more.

wooden sink in the bathroom bathroom design with built-in faucet modern built-in faucet in bathroom

Yes, wall-mounted faucets cost more, but they take bathroom design to the next level.

A bonus is cleaning:

  1. When the faucet is in the wall, chrome stays chrome. I think many people who live where the water contains plenty of minerals know how quickly ordinary faucets lose their appearance.
  2. Dirt and yellow water marks constantly collect where an ordinary faucet meets the sink, and cleaning them is inconvenient.

Faucet design has moved far forward, and the selection is now enormous. There are relatively inexpensive wall-mounted options too.

built-in faucet for modern bathroom faucet in modern bathroom design bathroom design with two sink basins bathroom design with countertop and freestanding bathtub tile in bathroom resembling slate hanging vanity with basin and built-in faucet in bathroom modern bathroom design with shower and bathtub

Ordinary deck-mounted faucets can have a beautiful contemporary design too, but you lose the practical advantage:

beautiful modern design faucet for bathroom design bathroom with modern gooseneck faucet modern white faucet in bathroom modern design faucet for bathtub modern thermostatic faucet in the bathroom

The finish is a background. A contemporary finish is a neutral background. Current fixtures and faucets look especially good against it.

3. Lift Everything Off the Floor and Hang It

Our eyes judge room size by the free floor. More floor makes the room seem larger. That is why the recent direction is to wall-mount the vanity, cabinet, and toilet.

Fashion is not always sensible. But wall-mounting really does make a bathroom beautiful, contemporary, and practical. There is no dark space under furniture where dirt constantly collects and where the legs make cleaning difficult.

modern wall-mounted vanity in the bathroom bathroom hanging vanity hanging vanity, cabinet, and toilet in a modern bathroom modern idea for bathroom - suspended vanity toilet with installation in bathroom

If the floor has porcelain tile with deep texture, you can install LED lighting under the vanity or bathtub. Light creates shadows and depth on textured tile. It looks very cool. The effect of a floating bathtub:

floating bath with bottom lighting

4. Closed Storage

Two facts:

  1. Every bathroom has a huge number of shampoos, gels, creams, toothpastes, and toothbrushes.
  2. All of it looks bad and needs to be hidden.

You can make the remodel as cool and contemporary as you want, but permanent clutter from bottles and jars with incompatible colors will ruin everything.

nowhere to store things in the bathroom - eternal chaos modern minimalist bathroom open shelves in modern bathroom modern light bathroom with toilet

Usually, the only bathroom storage is the drawers in the vanity. They are not enough, and toiletries are almost always left in view. The solution is a narrow vertical wall-mounted cabinet. It holds a huge number of things while taking almost no useful floor area. Choose a color that matches the rest of the design. The cabinet does not need to stand out. Use glossy white for a light room, and black, gray, or wood-look for a dark one.

white glossy vertical wardrobe in the bathroom modern bathroom storage system built-in washer and dryer in bathroom design black cabinets next to the mirror in a modern bathroom modern bathroom interior bathroom cabinet above the toilet installation

5. Replace the Bathtub with a Shower

Do not rush to defend your right to lie in the bathtub. Yes, it is a nice option. But in the contemporary world, time is the most valuable resource. Functionally, a shower beats a bathtub without a chance.

If you simply think about it, using bathroom space for an extra object that will later cost you time and water no longer seems so obvious. So, keep the bathtub only if you are a fan, like me. Otherwise, use a shower.

We already have a separate article about bathroom design with a shower.

Large bathroom with a new expensive shower enclosure modern white bathroom with shower modern bathroom design without a bathtub modern light bathroom a gray bathroom with a shower and toilet

Ideas for a Current Bathroom Interior

Fashion is debatable, especially in bathroom design, where a remodel lasts many years. The good news is that the current directions are perfectly sensible. Interior fashion is not a field where some crazy things and kitsch lead the way. Simplicity, natural materials, and function are unlikely to become irrelevant soon.

6. No Bright, Unnatural Finish Colors

Bright unnatural bathroom finishes are a sure sign of a dated remodel. Accents and colors are added through decor, accessories, and textiles. Even a bathroom has towels and bath mats, which have their own colors, and all of it has to work together.

The main idea: a boring design can always be improved with decor, but an overloaded one cannot be saved.

Error - outdated bathroom interior blue outdated bathroom design violet tile with colors - mistake

This thought is here so you are not afraid. In reality, the result will not be boring. If you do not keep the idea in mind, it can become tacky. Balance, unity, neatness, natural materials, and open space are the main ideas of contemporary bathroom design. Colorful finishes, luxury, excessive complexity, and impracticality are relics of the past.

There is good news about what ceiling to choose for a bathroom too: a simple matte-white painted drywall ceiling is the standard U.S. answer, with almost no disadvantages.

Art-deco - a trendy bathroom design style fashionable beautiful bathroom in art deco style ordinary modern bathroom luxurious gray bathroom in art deco style modern bathroom in gray tones

7. Tile That Imitates Natural Materials

Let’s finish the walls with some unclear glazed colored thing. How does that idea sound? Not great. Here are three examples. The first photo has an ultramodern bathtub, but the tile ruins everything. In the second, everything is dated. The third is not so bad, but the tile has no idea and looks unnatural.

ultra-modern bathtub Non-modern bathroom design - error tile_not_imitating_natural_material

What about wood, stone, travertine, marble, metal, and concrete? This is exactly what contemporary tile should be: an imitation of real materials.

bathroom combination of stone and wood tile design for bathroom in modern style beautiful modern tile modern bathroom finish classical style with modern twists in the bathroom modern classical bathroom design

Read about contemporary tile design, how to choose bathroom tile, and how to make the wall layout. Never imagine the finished remodel as an empty room with only its finishes. Visualize the real room immediately, as it will look after move-in when all the objects and textiles appear. Then the chance of overdoing the intensity of the finishes will decrease.

8. Large Tile

If the previous points are followed and the bathroom interior looks unified, the rule works:

The larger the tile, the better and more contemporary the bathroom design looks.

If a wall is wide enough for two full tiles, that is enough. About 8 by 24 inches is the smallest size to consider; larger is better. Mosaic stands apart.

modern bathroom design shower with large stone-effect tile correct modern bathroom design modern idea for bathroom - large tile modern bathroom design with tile in marble pattern

This also applies to grout joints. They should match the tile or be gray so they do not break the plane into patches. The bathroom walls should not look covered with separate pieces. Everything should look natural and unified.

9. Combining Gray and Wood

The culmination of the entire second section is gray and wood. These two components are already enough for a beautiful bathroom design. It is not about color but texture: veins, knots, and saw marks on good wood-look porcelain tile, and the roughness and unevenness of the endless kinds of gray concrete- and stone-look tile.

trendy bathroom interior bathroom in a constructivist style Deep textured tile in modern style use of a wooden beam in the bathroom - a modern idea brown wood and gray in the bathroom beautiful bathroom interior gray shades in bathroom interior modern idea of combining gray and wood colors in a bathroom modern bathroom design with concrete-look tile gray and yellow combination in the bathroom dark gray color in modern bathroom

By combining tones with different brightness in different proportions, you can create a bathroom in any contemporary style:

  1. Light colors and light wood-look tile: a Scandinavian bathroom.
  2. Darker colors and concrete imitation: a loft-style bathroom.
  3. White and no decor: minimalism.
  4. Ultramodern fixtures, hidden light, metal, and glass: high-tech.
  5. Marble, a freestanding tub, and expensive decor: Art Deco.
high-tech style modern bathroom Large bathroom in loft style bathroom in an industrial style bathroom in scandi style Bathroom in loft style with tile resembling glossy concrete Bathroom in loft style with bright accents loft-style bathroom design bathroom in modern classic style built-in rectangular bathtub fashionable loft-style bathroom design fashionable bathroom design marble-look tile for modern design Simple up-to-date bathroom design minimalist bathroom design scandinavian styled bathroom design Art Nouveau bathroom design

By the way, a freestanding bathtub is the one place where you should not follow fashion. It is a monstrously impractical solution that looks beautiful only in a picture. Many people dream in pictures. Do not. Throw the bathtub overboard. The other contemporary remodel ideas are very good.