Can we deviate from the 'bathroom uniform' that seems to have been imposed?

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There seems to have been a rule passed by the Bathroom Police that all bathrooms have to look essentially the same now. You know, big beige tiles over the floor and walls, not a scrap of wall left untiled, enormous showers, very 'hotel' finish. I don't dislike this, but am concerned it will date the bathroom and I don't want my room to look like every other bathroom. We are thinking of 5 years before selling. Any advice?

I think beige is what people have been fitting for the last few years, but is not what people are having now. We had the beige bathroom fitted ten years ago, a white and grey one a couple of years ago and we are currently having grey with wood style floor tiling fitted (three different houses, we don't change the bathroom every time Pinterest reloads).

At our last house we had a shower room with greige porcelain tiles throughout, but chose a very quirky globe shaped basin on a floating console to make it more interesting - this room was done when we knew we were going to sell though so it was more 'hotel' than our usual style!

In the other two bathrooms we used lots of antique mirrors, cupboards, copper mosaics and art work. In one the vanity was a vintage, marble-topped washstand and we had an Art Nouveau cast iron rad in the ensuite.

Here - just starting to shop for bathrooms - we are having a crazy (but gorgeous imho) gold tap in the d/s cloakroom with vintage wallpaper and a brown/gold mosaic splash back. It will replace a primrose yellow suite, that would look fine in a 1960/70s house but not here in an Arts & Crafts one!

The family bathroom we inherited when we bought the house is ok apart from the nasty beige carpet with fairly good quality (if slightly dated) sanitary ware and some very nice panelling. Currently the latter is painted light blue and the shower is tiled in matching mosaics. In time we'll change the tiles and sanitary ware (but keep the panelling), probably going for a period creamy colour scheme injecting personality with our oak and copper mirrors, cabinets etc. This room also houses our controversial collection of vintage framed butterflies......don't shoot me!

ha! interesting. we are planning our en suite and i am looking at bauhaus wall hung vanity sink unit, a normal loo and a frameless shower unit with low tray.

im thinking slate type floor and lighter grey large wall tiles. im another cliche!

I'm planning on something like these for my bathroom!

It's funny, all I can see at the moment are not beige, but bathroom with glitter (white sparkle floor tiles, or glittery wall tiles). I was wondering how quickly they would be dated, I guess they already are!

I agree with above, ignore fashion and choose something you like, as long as it is fairly neutral (maybe not golden swan tabs, or avocado suites ...). Whatever you choose, someone will love and someone else will criticises!

I have a similar thing with kitchens. I crave bright orange 1960s cupboards just for the sake of something less generic, and I don't even like orange.

Our bathrooms were done 4 years ago and I went for big, matt-ish white tiles, black, grey and silver mosaic border and black/charcoal floor tiles. We left as much untiled wall as we reasonably could, so we could change the overall look easily with paint. Of course, the trick is then to avoid painting it grey!

Ooh Arty, I lurve those!

Arty that mosaic tiling on the floor would be a nightmare to clean but I guess you wouldn't really notice a bit of grime -too much else to take your attention
I cba to take a photo but white tiles can look ok ....and not that difficult to clean on walls that aren't in showers etc ...
(actually I think I associate beige/travertine with wet rooms - and I hate wet rooms...I went to stay with a friend who wasn't very well and hadn't been for a while- she was on the verge of needing to call Kim and Aggie -so I did a big clean for her and her wet room (travertine) was covered in limescale, soap scum and mould ...a shower cubicle would have contained it better and it was an absolute nightmare to clean )
I did google for an eg for nice white tiles but there are (lots and lots) of hideous bathrooms out there...beige, white, multicoloured many that have been uploaded by their proud owners
I can't see any that I like ...
So I agree ignore fashion, go for what you like and is easy to clean ...

My lovely green and white patchwork style bathroom in my old house. Can't bare floor to ceiling tiled bathrooms...

Go for it, bathrooms should be luxurious and fun. I think I've been spending too much time on Pinterest! Just doing ours now, mainly white with a pale grey ceiling, grey antique mirror with gold leaf highlights and built in wooden shelves for the books and candles. Have just found wall lamps suitable for a bathroom too :) Am trying to talk myself out of random gold stars on the ceiling ...... Yes it will be different but we're not planning to sell anytime soon!

Kitsmummy Lovely patchwork tiles but that's not a proper hardworking bathroom. The basin is far too small (the splash back is weeny) and there's no shower (perhaps it's at the other end of the room?). It reminds me of the sort of bathroom you find in an owners' direct French holiday home: sweet but impractical. For e.g. how on earth do you clean that bath, there's no shower head to rinse it down after cleaning.

Friends have recently redone their bathroom and put in a high tank loo with chain. It looks awesome and, for something so traditional, really fresh. I agree with the pp about being sick of pressing buttons to flush!

We have large white wall tiles (half tiled except the shower cubicle) with a sparkly black mosaic border along the top and with a panel in the shower.

Black mottled modular tiles on the floor( don't go for the plain black non slip- they show every mark.) oak bathroom furniture with a recessed basin(Paramount Bathrooms- fab prices and excellent quality) and bright aqua blue on the walls. Taps are modern and squary as is our toilet, bath and sink. Huge lit mirror and yes we have a chrome (squary) radiator which annoyingly shows every water spot- wish I had thought to get a white one.

Not a bit like a hotel!

PS dont go for a black slate floor- unless regularly sealed it can get this white bloom water damage which you can do nothing about!

No beige tiles! But there is a huge shower behind the wall in the first picture. The lights you can see are my favourite feature, they go on as soon as you open the door - perfect for when you go in the middle of the night.

My bathroom is the only room in the house where I had free rein.

It has gorgeous retro flowery wallpaper, an old wash stand painted hot pink plumbed in for the basin, which I retiled with quirky Rob Ryan tiles, a black and white tiled floor, fluted green glass wall lights and a massive free standing bath. And a yellow blind. And niche shelves full of books. I had a thread on here when we were doing it because I kept losing my nerve. Everyone told me to stick to what I wanted and it is AMAZING.

Those beige bathrooms suck. But people viewing houses really do find it so difficult to see past decor. I may have shot myself in the foot in that respect but I don't care!

Polished concrete is the future. You can get it in a range of colours now, and the best things about it is that there is no grouting to clean and you can paint over it if you get bored of the colour. This is what I am planning for my new bathroom that we are doing this year.

I can't stand tiled walls.

I'll take this thanks. :)

Most of the baths that are in the photos currently on this thread are what are going to date your bathroom. Tiles are easy to change but by doing the whole statement bath, you're dating your bathroom to late 2010's.

By late 2010's, I mean 2008-2013.

Astounded at numbers of replies. I think, as someone said, it is impossible to avoid dating the bathroom to an extent. Also jealous at the people who seem to think 5 years is the lifetime of a bathroom........ Our room is north facing so something light is necessary, I think I will definitely keep some walls tile free anyway.

Ooh, Thistle - please could we have a pic?! It sounds wonderful.

Our bathroom had blue sanitary wear in it, black floral wall paper & pink carpet when we moved in, it all came out and now we have white tiles and everything but not all over the walls, only splashback and shower area over the bath with a single black stripe. The paint is aqua, shower curtan blue spots, OH doesn't like screens.

Not sure I would agree with crikeyblimey I had textured tiles on my kitchen floor before and the dirt got trapped in the rough texture.

We have vinyl on the floor, easy to clean, and things won't break when clumsy oafs like me drop them on the floor.

White is less dating than colours, if you want colour have it in the paint, towels, & small items but have what you want & love not what you think other people might want after you. Unless you are doing it to sell immediately.

Alpha, there's a huge shower the other end of the bathroom and genuinely the basin was large (can't remember if 50cm or 60cm but it was wide). I'll let you have that about the shower head in the bath though

Down this way, beige is long gone. I thought you were going to say black and white.

This sort of thing seems to be predominant right now.]] Very bland in that example, but it can look lovely.

Personally, I prefer something just slightly left-field with a bit of quirk injected.