toilet wallpaper

[user1489228947]

Hi all.

I've been doing a fair amount of home renovation and decoration in the last couple of years and no matter how much thought and effort I put into it, I never seem to quite get it right. That's not me being hard on myself - design just doesn't come naturally to me.

I am about to replace the bathroom and obviously decorate it. I feel relatively confident with the bathroom design choices, tiles and colour scheme. Our toilet is next door to the bathroom, and is a very small room (toilet width plus maybe 20cm or so either side. The room is about 2 metres long. There isn't room for a sink in there and so we are putting in a toilet with a built in sink on top of the cistern. So far so good.

I was going to just paint the toilet room but am leaning towards a wallpaper and have seen a large print design I like. There is a wall in the bathroom where this wallpaper would also work well and would tie to two rooms together somewhat. However I am unsure if a large design in the small space of the toilet would work or feel overwhelming for the room. To break it up I though about putting in waist height white wooden panels with the wallpaper above that to the ceiling. I don't see the point of bringing in the bathroom tiles into the toilet other than above the tiny cistern sink. This is the paper - a lot more £ than I would normally pay but I like it and treats are much deserved after the last 11 months!

www.johnlewis.com/sanderson-fernery-wallpaper/dglw216633/p4131256

I can't believe how much I'm overthinking this - possibly to distract me from everything else thats going on in the world - but also because I just want to feel satisfied and not another design failure!

Any advice or suggestions welcome.

I think in a small room like that, where you don’t tend to spend a lot of time, you can definitely be braver with your style choices than you might normally be.

I think that wallpaper is lovely. The pattern is big, but not enormous, so I reckon that would work quite well. I like the idea of having panels too, but I’m not sure I’d go for white panels.

Unless the background colour of that paper is pure white, it may end up looking a little bit dirty if it’s placed next to white panels. I’d pick out one of the darker greens in that paper and use that instead, but then I absolutely love green, so am probably biased!

I like it and I've seen that or very similar in a toilet. Slightly bigger room than yours, had a separate sink. I liked it so much if I had a seperate loo I would have copied it.

I love a big bold print in a small bathroom, that paper is really nice!

Love that paper.

It's a rule that toilets can take bold wallpaper.

There's even a name for having bold decorating choices in your toilet: jewel box bathroom (google it for ideas). I like the idea of green panelling in the bathroom with that paper.

OP look for the Farrow & Ball Fans Facebook page. If you join and search for small toilets you'll see loads of stunning ones, lots with brave wallpaper choices.

Thanks all for this - I feel much more confident with the choice. Just unsure now whether to do the panelling or if to bring in the bathroom tiles and have them up to waist height instead.I think the panelling may be cheaper and do like the idea of the panels being a colour rather than white! Thanks so much.

It's lovely wallpaper. I'd put a real growing fern on the toilet windowsill if possible. The finishing touch.

friend of mine did very bold wallpaper in the loo - looked great.

Oh dear.

I like it but I LOVE this one and this one as even better. Horrifically expensive though!

BTW I have a loo which is very similar including the sink in the cistern. I went for really jazzy tiles similar to these behind the loo and did the rest of the walls in magenta paint. I have then put lots of little pictures and framed embroideries on the walls.

I decorated our downstairs loo at the beginning of lockdown. Ours already had tongue and groove panelling painted a mole-type colour, and I knew I wanted something bold that would tie in. Before and after below. A small loo can DEF8NITELY take a bold look

Are you sure you can’t fit a sink in? We changed our door to open out to get the sink in, makes such a difference.

I did my downstairs loo black with black and gold psychedelic wallpaper. It’s great and honestly gives me joy.

I love that it’s becoming a thing with ‘jewel box bathrooms’. So absolutely go for it and have fun!

Nice paper but I would go for a darker paper
As it’s a small space you may as well go with the cave feel

I love the jewel box toilet and bathroom ideas. The bolder and braver the better. I'm due to move shortly and was wondering about papering the bathroom. But I'm just concerned about how well wallpaper fairs in a warm and wet environment. Any advice?

This room is beautiful. We could change the way the door opens but overall I feel happy with the ‘sink over cistern’ option as the sinks will be the same size either way (small!) and it’s only for a hand wash.

But I'm just concerned about how well wallpaper fairs in a warm and wet environment. Any advice?

You can get vinyl papers. But for normal paper you use decorator's varnish. And make sure the paper is well stuck down, if steam gets under the paper it will start lifting.

Wow that’s lovely! I feel I’m getting it wrong already!

Are you glad you kept the panels? We are thinking of putting white panels in -but may have it as a colour. Another option would be to use the bathroom tiles for the bottom section instead but tiles feel a bit unnecessary as water or steam etc isn’t really going to feature with just a loo and tiny sink. These are the tiles

www.ctdtiles.co.uk/gemini-tiles/arles/p-7748-arles-forest-gloss-tile-300x100mm.aspx?gclid=CjwKCAiAkJKCBhAyEiwAKQBCktSrIgW_t04rQe3bx6KddGHnrlLLwinPSSBjLAwtG4832sfS3UrrZRoCdroQAvD_BwE

Since it's just a loo I'd be tempted to put in panelling since it's so fashionable at the moment. Especially if it's cheaper, you'll have much more flexibility to change the colour than with tiles.

Here's my before and after

@MakeTeaNotWar

Here's my before and after

Love that wallpaper - I have a sample of it (in a different colour) and just couldn’t make it work with the tiles. Your room looks lovely. In terms of layout and dimensions it looks identical to ours.

@user1489228947 we have a tired bathroom next to the loo that needs a refurb, what are your plans for yours?

I love everyone's photos, they all look stunning!

I think both the tiles and the wallpaper you have chosen are beautiful, OP. On screen, the tiles look like they have a blue/grey green tone and the wallpaper has a yellow green tone. It looks like they will clash.

I'm not sure about the wallpaper in such a small, narrow room because it draws the eye vertically, highlighting the height compared to width of the room. I think random, all over patterns work better, like EmmaStone's and Accoooooo's photos or a pattern that draws the eye horizontally, like MakeTeaNotWar's koi. Sorry... Part panelling or tiling will help counteract that a bit. 2/5 wall height is the classic proportion.