When l advise customers on their bathrooms l run through a few websites and visualisers to come up with a palette of colours based on colour themes they may like.
Then l ask them to apply it to their bathroom through their choice of tiles and fittings. Often it helps to create a focal point. Our eyes and brains like to see things in stages. We don’t want to see everything in symmetry and like a surprise. Your eyes are drawn to focal points. A focal point can be created with tiles or a vanity unit, a shower, or just a tap. There can be many foal points, even in a small room.
I also ask customers to pick a colour scheme for the theme early, then other things follow. Three colours are enough. Too many and it is too busy. Not enough and it is dull. Three is the ideal. Then l ask them to apply the rule of thirds. The rule is used by artists to create restful images. It works every time.
For example two thirds of the walls could have one colour and the other third a different colour. A focal point can be applied two thirds of the way along a wall; as in this room. It can be applied in tiles or paint. In this bathroom the theme is black and white, but the other colours are a brown vanity unit and grey floor. The extra colours are important because the black and white theme is more appealing if it is broken with accents. (This is known as creating a deliberate crack; it is a little-known fact that church bell makers put a crack in their bells to make them sound better; which is where the phrase a cracked bell rings true, comes from). Artists crack their images to make them look better. The put in accents. Your bathroom should be viewed like piece of art if it is to look good. Here the tiling is restricted to avoid the prison-cell feel of a totally tiled room. The geometric tiles break the wall down in to thirds. The geometric tiles also become a focal point. Your eye goes to them. The rule of thirds is all over in this room. From the use of paint and colour, to the height of shelves, to the placing of the shower unit. You have to work hard to get it right in a small room, but it can be done. I know rules are no guarantee of success, but bathrooms should be restful for the eye and mind and it really helps to aim for them.
