Shelley Ferguson hosted The Block NZ and is an award winning magazine editor. Using her love of interiors she now has her own interior design business. Together with Newshub Shelley is running a six part online series called Your Place – where you’ll discover the latest styling trends and tips.
As the most used and looked at rooms in the house kitchens and bathrooms deserve attention to detail with design. But how do you create a current look while also achieving a timelessness that lasts? The answer is prioritising your personal style and the lifestyle you want to live at your place. Here are five trends based on personalised spaces.
Seamless spaces
The biggest current bathroom trend is a feat of technology. Large sheets of tile up to three metres high are being produced in stunning designs to mimic stone like marble and granite. These sheets are made from hardwearing porcelain with a thin profile to make cutting them to fit different bathroom spaces possible. The result is less lines, less interruptions of pattern and therefore less visual clutter, creating a calming effect of being surrounded by nature.
Alternatively, using the same tile on the floor and walls and extending it into the shower is a great way to keep the surface going, teamed with a frameless custom glass door. If you’ve got little spaces, tiling floor to ceiling in small tiles can actually make the room look bigger than one wall of small feature tiles. A popular option is beautiful mosaics like the Bisazza range from Tile Space that surround you in beautiful colour and texture. Go light for a more open feel, however many designers are choosing to embrace the enveloping feel of a little room by cladding it in dark tiles.
If you’ve got a large bathroom take a wet room approach and ditch the glass door altogether! Feature tiles in geometrics, metallics and dusky colours are still a popular option, especially in one key area like the bathroom floor teamed with a larger more neutral tile on the wall.
Pro tip: Installing a cavity slider in a small bathroom saves space and makes spatial planning easier.
Healthy havens
Bathroom design is being used to create havens to get away from the pressures of everyday life, and natural light is one way to create that calm, relaxing, healthy feel. If privacy isn’t an issue keep your windows unobstructed, if not louvres or clouded glass provide privacy while still letting light in.
If you don’t have windows, consider adding a skylight that can be opened for ventilation and allows you to look up to the stars. You don’t need many accessories in a well-designed bathroom but a couple of interesting natural details like a carved wooden stool or woven baskets add that natural feel. A simple grouping of hand wash and body lotion in beautiful bottles adds a bespoke feel, and plump towels in a quality thread count ups the pamper factor. Bring the outdoors in by positioning trailing plants on high ledges in your bathroom to create that rainforest feel.
Choose plants that are easy to maintain and like moist environments, and trailing or crawling plants that create that lush tropical feel. A favourite is Devil’s Ivy, a great plant for beginners that’s tough, will tolerate low light levels, is easy to look after and has a stunning cascading effect. Other Devil’s Ivy varieties are available with mottled yellow or cream colours to go with different colour schemes. Another crawler is the Chain Of Hearts with its delicate heart-shaped leaves – the chains can reach several metres long creating a calming effect perched high in a bathroom. During the warmer months when plants are actively growing feed them regularly with Yates Thrive Indoor Liquid Plant Food to supply nutrients, support healthy growth and green up leaves. Succulents require a slightly different type of feeding with Yates Thrive Plant Food Spikes for Cacti and Succulents – check out yates.co.nz/plants/indoor/ for everything you need to know about which plants will be happiest in the bathroom and how to care for them.
Pro tip: For a bushier more compact Devil’s Ivy plant, trim the tips and plant these cuttings into moist Yates Indoor Potting Mix or a glass of water to create freebie new baby plants!