A Fun Lavender-Inspired Bathroom—For Adults!

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Often, bathrooms are too white. White walls, white tile—you get the picture. We all spend an embarrassing amount of the time in our bathroom, from bathing to alleviating nature’s call. So why not make these rooms more inviting? 

When my husband and I moved into our first apartment, I was determined to make our one bathroom a nice relaxing room. In its original form, this small, but well-sized, bathroom was completely white. It was far too sterile—white marbled floors, white sink and vanity, white tile in the bathing area, and white walls. The only existing color variation was within the floor tile, as there were tiny rivers of grayish brown patterning the white. As I quickly learned, these tiny river-like patterns were a big help in deciding the overall final decoration decisions. 

But first, I had to decide on a wall color!

First Step: Choosing Paint for the Walls

My initial thought was to paint the bathroom a serene pale green or a relaxing purple (cue the lavender!). I collected some Benjamin Moore paint chip samples in promising shades of green and purple. Laying them all out in the room, I quickly whittled them down to a small handful. With the remaining samples, I realized that comparing them to the only existing colors in the room—those tiny river patterns in the tile—was the best way to decide further. 

Needless to say, green was ruled out completely. This left two purple contenders. One was a bit too deep purple. The other one was a grayish lavender—and this one was the winner! 

I purchased a sample can of this color: Through the Looking Glass by Benjamin Moore. Putting a splotch on the wall, I made sure that it was the correct choice. 

Upon painting the walls, there was an interesting issue. All paint darkens as it dries. However, this color looked more bluish when first applied. Thankfully, it changed into its desired shade when fully dry!

Second Step: Choosing Accessories

Once the paint color was in place, I could turn my focus to the remaining accessories. I had removed the original towel rack that was on the wall behind the toilet. (Who wants their bath towels to hang over the toilet?) 

So I needed to get a different towel rack—possibly a rod—and a hand towel hanger. Luckily, I found both at IKEA: a round chrome hanger for the hand towel and a double rod for the bath towels (find a similar rod here). The chrome color matched the existing faucets and other hardware. 

Beyond that, I needed to find a glass wall shelf, a small trash bin, and a bath mat. I also found the glass shelf (similar shelf here) and bath mat at IKEA. I found the trash bin at the now-nearly-nonexistent Bed Bath and Beyond. Both the mat and trash bin were shades of brown—and matched the pattern on the white tile floor. 

Third Step: Putting It All Together

Installing the hand towel holder and the shelf were fairly simple. The shelf went on the wall behind the toilet. Although there was plenty of space for two shelves, I chose to only put up one shelf. The shelf went fairly high on the wall, with the idea that the items on it would match with the top of the existing medicine cabinet. There was also a very practical reason for this: I wanted to avoid having our cat jumping onto a glass shelf! 

Unfortunately, the bath towel rod proved more difficult to install. The desired placement of the rod didn’t match with the wall studs. I was worried that the inadvertent pulling of towels off the rod would dislodge it. My husband did an extra fix: he extended a metal plate inside the drywall to span the gap between one side of the rod and the stud. This way the rod was more stable. 

The mat and the trash bin were of course very simple: one went over the shower door rod and the other went next to the toilet!

Fourth Step: Finishing Touches 

Now I just had to do the finishing decorative touches: decorating the shelf and finding artwork to hand below the shelf to fill the space. I took my time with this step. Sometimes it is nice to live in a home before purchasing new artwork to ensure you make the correct choice. 

I definitely wanted to hang a print of a lavender flower or field on the wall. I found the perfect print of a flower at Society 6. I also loved this print of a sun brushing its rays on the same site. I bought picture frames via Amazon—I’ve had good luck with this one for the sun and this one for the lavender (I used the other frame for a different room). In order to fill the space and add some fun unpredictability, I hung both prints at staggered heights underneath the wall shelf. The sun print especially always brings a smile to my face in my grumpy, groggy mornings!

With the prints hung, I arranged some extra lotion bottles, my diffuser, and some lavender on the shelf. And voila! Bathroom accomplished!

This simple bathroom redo simply shows that a lavender-inspired bathroom does not need to be childish and overly-girly feeling. And, if you don’t really want lavender—feel free to take the simple tips of adding color and coordinating your decorative decisions. No need to have a cold white bathroom!