If you are looking to design a new bathroom or renovate one that you have already, then you probably already know that there are a lot of different styles you can pick from. For those of you who have no idea of what bathroom styles are, then I’m just going to anticipate that there are many, for example modern style, classical style, minimal style and traditional style.
In between all of those there’s also the urban style that is definitely worth considering if you are trying to design a new bathroom. There are some steps that you should probably take before picking the style you like the most for your bathroom; first of all, take a look at the rest of the house you are designing, or at how your current home looks like if you are only refurbishing the bathroom, and try to decide if you want to go for the same style you already have in the rest of the house or if you’d rather settle on a completely new and different style for your bathroom.
Once you’ve decided your style, then you’re going to have a lot of other decisions to take like which kind of tiles you want, if you want a bathtub, a shower or maybe both, if you have a lot of space and you’d like to have two sinks… The list of things to do is very long but here’s a quick article to help you out in case you chose to design your bathroom using an urban style.
For starters, I’d suggest asking a professional for their opinion, there are plenty of bathroom design companies that are going to be able to tell you if what you are deciding to do for your bathroom is going to be possible or not, and, if so, they are going to help you pick out some furniture, materials and tile colours and they can also point you towards other options that might be more suited either for your space or your budget.
Okay, know let’s start from the basis; what is an urban style? The urban style is starting to become very popular between young people and it’s a style that takes inspiration from the urban atmosphere you can find in big cities like London, Paris and New York, basically it tries to recreate an environment such as the old warehouses you can find in America. It’s very similar to a contemporary style and it’s also influenced by the minimal style since it’s a pretty simple style that focuses more on the materials you chose than on gathering a lot of unnecessary accessories for your bathroom.
The end line is that, for this style, it’s better to use simple lines for the design of your bathroom rather than use a whole lot of furniture that’s going to make the room heavy and feel too tight when you enter it.
However, designing a bathroom with a ‘simple’ style such as the urban one, doesn’t mean leaving it kind of empty and very impersonal. On the contrary, the furniture and accessories are going to be very elegant and classy, giving off the feeling of a very comfortable and well thought look.
A key element of the urban style is also being able to mix new elements with old elements, for example using a very modern light such as the neon light while having elements such as old movie posters that give off a 1980s kind of feeling.
Now that we have covered the basis of what the urban style is, we can now move on to the types of materials you should consider for your urban style bathroom. There is no ‘must’ or ‘must not’, however you might want to go for materials that are easy to clean and eco-friendly.
Remember that you are trying to go for a mix of new and old but also for a nice combination of industrial and eco styles. Metal should be one of the first choices you look at, but also brick walls look extremely good for urban style as well as exposed wooden beams if you have the possibility to use that characteristic for the ceiling of your bathroom. Very big windows are also a key element of urban style, not only for the bathroom, but also for the rest of your house.
You don’t need a lot of different furniture or materials to create your bathroom, in an urban style, we are looking for something that is comfortable, beautiful and also easy to clean and maintain. For example, you could make good use of materials such as cement, this material is very common, therefore easy to find, it’s resistant and durable and it can also be shaped in many different ways, it even works if you want to create a cement sink or bathtub! Let’s not forget that it’s also waterproof, a characteristic that’s very useful in a highly humid room such as the bathroom, and easy to clean.
If you are looking for different materials, other options could be porcelain stoneware, artificial resins which you can apply to surfaces you already have, and wallpaper. In case you did not know, you can apply wallpaper even in the shower since it can be made waterproof! For your walls, using very small bricks coloured in your favourite shade of grey can be an alternative to all the aforementioned materials.
Very valid options for your floor could either be wood, such as a hardwood floor, or, even better for a bathroom, white tiles that are going to give a lot more light to you room. Using materials such as cement could make your bathroom look a little too dark and that’s another reason to have a big window, if you have the opportunity, or maybe choose white coloured toilets and sinks.
When you are choosing the furniture to put in your urban style bathroom you are going to find a lot of options but, something that cannot be missing is items made of metal or steel. Those are probably universally considered the key materials of anything that wants to be urban style, therefore I’d suggest trying to prioritize those material rather than wood and acrylic.
Steel bathtubs are one of the most recommended items when talking about urban style bathrooms, not only they are not overly expensive, but they also have a lot of very good characteristics such as their durability and their ability to maintain the temperature of the water for a longer time than other kinds of bathtubs. Not to mention they come in different shapes, so you can be sure you’re going to find the right one for you. In case you already own a cast iron bathtub, or you want to look for one made of that material then you should know that’s very good for urban style too. If you have a lot of space, you should consider going for a freestanding bathtub which is going to give a unique and peculiar look to the whole bathroom.
I’d recommend staying away from a bathtub-shower unit but rather pick only one of the two if you do not have enough space for both of them.
If you are trying to decide on what type of shower you should have, then don’t worry too much, as long as the shower head is made of metal, then any kind of shower will most likely look good in your bathroom. Try to pick a glass wall instead of a shower curtain, it looks way more elegant in an urban bathroom and it also makes your room look bigger and more spacious than it is.
As for vanity units and cabinets, if you want to nail your urban style look then you should go for some black metal furniture, maybe even combined with some wood or wooded drawers. Remember that nothing needs to be too peculiar or traditional looking so don’t focus too much on frivolous details!
The most important thing when choosing your urban furniture is paying attention to picking things that are classy but not too rich, you want to maintain the ‘old American warehouse’ look that is typical of the urban style, but also you need to make sure your bathroom looks stylish and everything in it is designed just the way you wanted it to be. In other words, stay away from random or unnecessary stuff!