The way you decorate your home is often an expression of your sense of style as well as your personality. So when you have friends and relatives pop over for a visit, it’s natural to want to be proud of how your home looks.

One room in your house that can present an exciting opportunity to showcase your design prowess is the guest bathroom. If you’re one for wanting a welcoming and well-decorated house, your guest bathroom needs some special attention and thought.

If you’re designing a new guest bathroom, or renovating your existing one, here are some tips for you to keep in mind.

Give it the ‘wow’ factor

The main bathroom in your home should be all about functionality whilst also catering to your personal sense of style. But your guest bathroom is your chance to be more creative and to show off a bit.

Our overall advice for designing a guest bathroom is that you want to make it look like an interior designer did everything, even if it was actually you who did all the work!

To achieve the wow factor we’re talking about, you need to think bold and incorporate long lasting styles and trends. The great thing about going all out with such designs in a guest bathroom is that when trends do ultimately change, it will be much less expensive for you to make alterations compared to re-doing your entire master bathroom, as your guest bathroom will no doubt be a smaller space.

Here are some features and fixtures which will help give your guest bathroom the wow factor:

• Vessel Basin: This type of basin is guaranteed to create a real style statement. They look great with either a basin mixer or wall mounted tapware. For something really visually stunning, go with a coloured or two-tone coloured basin.
• Coloured Tapware: Despite being small in size, coloured tapware can pack a really powerful design punch in your guest bathroom. Matte black tapware in particular has become a must-have, but other colours like gunmetal, brushed gold, and brushed nickel are being seen more and more too.
• Smart Toilet: There’s no better way to impress your guests than by having a smart toilet (also known as a Japanese toilet) in the guest bathroom. These toilets are fast becoming a must-have item in household bathrooms and commonly feature adjustable controls for water temperature, water pressure, air drying temperature, water pulsating settings and much more.  
• Heated Towel Rail: There’s nothing better than wrapping yourself up in a big, fluffy warm towel after an invigorating shower or a relaxing bath. Your guests will feel like they are staying at a day spa!
• Shower System: To add another touch of luxury to your guest bathroom, opt for a shower system. These showers incorporate an overhead shower fitting on an adjustable rail with a separate, removable hand-held shower head. The overhead fitting allows for a more refreshingly full spray and gives your guests the experience of ‘showering in the rain’.

Experiment with colour

Guest bathrooms are often fairly small in size, so getting the colour scheme right is important to make the space feel open and welcoming. As we mentioned above, guest bathrooms are a great place to experiment with colours that you may feel apprehensive to use in your main bathroom.

Alternatively, choosing a monochrome colour scheme always helps to create a striking finish. To achieve this look, you could opt for white wall tiles, a white free-standing bath, a black vanity and finish it all off with matte black tapware. A black and white patterned floor would help to marry the shades and add further character to the scheme.

If you’re looking for something a bit more reserved, why not go with an accent wall. Accent walls can be used to inject colour and make a small guest bathroom appear larger when paired with neutral tones such as white and grey.

Sufficient storage space

Something many of us overlook when designing a guest bathroom is ensuring there’s enough storage space for long-staying guests to use. You want to make sure they feel at home when staying with you, so there needs to be enough space and room for them to keep their things.

A vanity with a drawer at the bottom is a nifty idea to consider. If space is tight and you need to look for ‘hidden’ storage ideas, a deep recessed storage cabinet hidden behind a vanity mirror with sliding or hinged doors could be the way to go.

Floating shelves are also a fantastic solution if you’re lacking space. Having baskets on shelves and in drawers will help keep everything tidy and organised. Storage ladders and carts can be used to best utilise any remaining space.

Don’t forget the finishing touches

Sometimes it’s the smallest things that have the biggest impact. Here’s some must-haves to complete your gorgeous guest bathroom design:

• Aesop hand soap - everyone loves Aesop and it’s a lovely treat to use.
• A resin tray for placing decorative items such as candles, packaged soap and lotions. Create a stylish arrangement by placing 3, 5, 7 or any other odd number of items on a tray as these numbers always look better to the eye.
• Decorative plants - orchids are a good choice as they like indirect, filtered light. Zanzibars are also great as they are incredibly easy to grow indoors and look super lush. Fresh flowers are always lovely too.
• Splurge on thick, 100% cotton high thread count bath towels, washcloths and hand towels for your guests to enjoy.
• Stock up - if you’re going to have long-staying guests, they will certainly appreciate it if you stock your bathroom vanity with the little amenities that they may have forgotten to pack, such as cotton balls, toothpaste, a toothbrush and a razor.
• Bin - seems like a no-brainer, however, you might be surprised at the number of guest bathrooms that have nowhere to put used tissues, wrappers etc. Make sure your bin matches your colour scheme so it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb.

Need help designing your guest bathroom? Talk to the team at Argent

Our bathroom experts have all the right know-how to recommend the right products for your needs so that you can make that final decision with confidence.

Click here to get in touch with us today. We have Resource Centres in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Or give our Customer Support team a call on 1300 364 748.