The Top 60+ Best Powder Room Ideas – Bathroom Design

The right powder room style creates a touch of class to an otherwise plain guest bathroom.

Whether you call it the powder room, restroom, or bathroom, it’s still the room where people go to freshen up and do their business. How you decorate yours should be an expression of your personal style. If it’s a room for guests, you’ll want it to be beautiful and welcoming. If it’s a room for your personal use, it should be a mini oasis that you can escape to.

By changing out the wall treatment, laying new flooring, and updating the hardware, you can completely change the look of your bathroom. These simple changes make a big impact in a small space.

Get inspired by these powder room ideas and breathe life into your home’s bathrooms. Maybe you add an accent wall, gold finishes, or a statement piece.

1. Gold Accent Powder Room Ideas

Modern interior design trends embrace gold. It’s making an appearance in cabinet hardware for bathroom vanities, light fixtures or sconces, faucets, and towel bars. You could even use it to create a statement piece, such as a gold sink or tub. For smaller, easier to accomplish touches of gold, try a gold-framed mirror, a floating wall shelf with gold supports, or gold canisters for storing items on the countertop.

To keep your gold looking modern, opt for brushed or satin finishes as shiny gold will date your accents. Then look for pieces that will fit the styling of your bathroom. Pieces with clean lines and minimal details will look minimalist and modern. In contrast, pieces with intricate details and retro styling will lend a nod to traditionalism and vintage design.

You can pair your gold with almost any color scheme, from all white or black to pastels or jewel tones. If you find that gold isn’t quite your style, try copper or brass accents as an alternative. These other warm-toned metals will also update your bathroom and give your powder room warmth.

2. White Powder Room Ideas

An all-white color scheme in a bathroom looks bright and fresh. It works in a half bath, a small powder room, or even a large master bath. The trick to creating the perfect white bathroom is to add texture and detail. This breaks up the white so that your bathroom doesn’t become too uniform and sterile.

Start by choosing your white materials. You could use a subway tile in the shower and as a backsplash. Then for the walls, you could consider white shiplap for a rustic or farmhouse style. Or you could use white wainscoting for a more elegant look.

A white pedestal sink is perfect for a small bathroom. But if you have more space, a white marble countertop with a vessel sink will look elegant. The varying colors in the stone will add detail and interest. The marble helps to elevate the look of the bathroom so that it has a higher perceived value.

The floor is another opportunity to add warmth to the space. You can choose a tile that’s grey and white or use a warm wood. Don’t be afraid to choose a smaller tile for a mosaic look. This will add texture and a pattern to the white color pallet.

The final touch is the hardware. Do not use white. Use black hardware to break up the white. This stark contrast will break up the uniform color and provide people with focal points that also happen to be usable features.

3. Accent Wall Bathroom Design Ideas

Just because a bathroom is a small space doesn’t mean you can’t have an accent wall. Just choose the wall strategically, and you can have a stunning focal point. Look for a wall bordered by two inside corners that draws the eye naturally when entering the bathroom.

The wall in the shower or the one behind a vanity are both excellent options. To create your accent wall, paint it a different color. Or you could take the design up a level by using stone, mosaic tile, or statement wallpaper.

If your bathroom is rectangle-shaped with the shower at the far end, the wall inside the shower is the perfect place for an accent wall. But to make it worth it, you’ll need to have either a clear shower curtain or glass so that you can see through it. Stick with stone or tile if you choose this wall.

This is your chance to choose a unique tile. It could have an intricate pattern, be an odd shape, or be a bright color. It’s also a chance to choose a smaller tile that would be too small to use throughout the entire bathroom.

4. Flooring Ideas Powder Room Ideas

Tile is the ideal flooring material for bathrooms. It’s durable and impervious to water. But another popular option is wood flooring. If you opt for wood, you’ll want to protect it in a wet environment. A popular modern trend is to use a combination of wood and tile together. You’ll lay wood flooring from the entrance and through the vanity area. Then create a gradual transition to the tile for the flooring around the toilet and shower/tub area.

If your bathroom walls are a plain color, then this is your opportunity to use a boldly patterned floor. Choose a tile that can create a pattern and is a bold color. A classic option is a white and black check. But you could create any kind of mosaic inspired pattern with your floor tile.

Ripping up and laying new tiles can be expensive. If you aren’t ready to make this financial investment, then try tile decals. These are vinyl decals that you stick to your tile. They come in a wide range of colors and designs. With a much smaller investment and a bit of time, you can completely transform and update the look of your powder room’s flooring.

5. Dark Interior Powder Room Ideas

For a stunning powder room design, try going dark. While darker colors typically close in a room, your bathroom is already small, and super dark colors can make the room feel larger. Try to embrace black, charcoal grey, deep navy, dark plum, or rich teal colors.

To keep the room from feeling like a void, highlight the dark color with lighter accents. Try using a metal or light wood for the shelves. Use a white marble or white porcelain sink. You can also use metal for the lighting fixtures and plumbing hardware.

It’s smart to balance the dark colors of the walls and other features with a lighter colored floor. This will keep the bathroom from feeling too dark and moody. Another way to keep the bathroom from looking too dark is the lighting. You can get creative with it by hanging pendant lights, a chandelier, or sconces. For a modern look, hide LED lights behind the vanity mirror or under the countertop for a soft surrounding glow.

6. Simple Interior Powder Room Ideas

If you have a small room, like a guest or half bathroom, you need to maximize square footage and embrace a simple interior. You can do this by choosing the right pieces for the space. Try using a floating vanity or pedestal sink. The simple interior keeps the space from feeling crowded and cluttered.

Hang a round mirror on the wall above the sink. Then mount floating shelves to give yourself some storage space in the small bath. Choose a smaller toilet that’s still functional but will also fit the space.

Don’t be afraid to use high-quality materials. A marble vanity is both elegant and simple. You could splurge and hang a single sleek chandelier. The centralized light will illuminate the entire bathroom.

Keep the detailing of the elements to a minimum. The vanity, mirror, and shelving should all have straight, clean lines. Keep the wall decor to a minimum. A single well-placed plant or candle can look lovely as decor for a simple interior.

7. Wallpaper Powder Room Ideas

A bold patterned wallpaper can look stunning in your bathroom. It can take your drab and dated bathroom and turn it into a contemporary powder room. Despite the bath being the smallest room in your house, it can support a colorful and bold print. Don’t be afraid to make a statement and choose bright floral wallpaper for the walls.

If a floor to ceiling pattern sounds like too much, then consider doing only half of the wall. You could keep the wallpaper to the upper half of the wall. Then on the bottom half, you could use shiplap, wainscoting, tile, or even another wallpaper with a toned-down design.

The key to making a bold wallpaper work is to keep everything else simple and clean in design. That way, you don’t have too many things competing for attention. You don’t want the bathroom to become overwhelming by having too much going on.

When choosing your wallpaper, you have a couple of options. There are wallpapers with a repeating pattern. Then there are wallpapers with a large design that takes up the entire size of the wall. A third option is to choose a wallpaper with a scene. These papers look more like a mural or even a wall-sized photograph.

8. Statement Pieces Powder Room Ideas

An easy way to approach your powder room’s interior design is to start with a statement piece. You’ll pick one feature of the bathroom to splurge on and create a focal point. Then everything else in the bathroom will be more toned down and complimentary.

You can turn anything into the statement piece, including the vanity, sink, mirror, lighting, or tub. There’s one element where you should skip making it the statement piece however; the toilet. Unless you’ve invested in a high-end toilet with a control panel that enables it to do hundreds of tasks. 

To make the vanity the focal point, try using a vintage piece of furniture, a custom-cut piece of stone or wood, or crafted from sliced agate. You’ll then want the sink built into the vanity or a simple sink that won’t compete with it. 

A statement mirror is large. It’ll have a unique shape beyond round, oval, or square. Then it’ll have a large frame that compliments the style of the bathroom. It could have large nautical rope, a baroque gold gilded frame, or be ultra-modern and geometric. 

Instead of making the vanity of the focal point, you could splurge on a statement sink. A handmade copper hammered sink will catch the light and provide a beautiful warm glow. You could use a piece of stone carved into the shape of a sink. Just be sure to provide extra support for the increased weight.

Powder Room FAQs

What’s the difference between a powder room and a bathroom?

Traditionally, there’s no difference. The term powder room is from the 1920s to refer to the women’s restroom. It was a daintier and more feminine term. Today, it’s interchangeable with the bathroom or restroom. Some people will refer to their half bath as a powder bathroom because it lacks a tub or shower.

Can I DIY a powder room makeover?

Yes, you can! You can give your room a makeover without making major structural changes. Try swapping out the faucets and lighting fixtures. Then change out the shelving. You could paint the cabinets. Then consider painting the walls or hanging wallpaper. Finish with a new vanity mirror and decorative accent pieces.

How do I make my small powder room look bigger?

Stick with either a light and bright color or commit and go full dark. The extreme ends of the spectrum trick the eye into thinking the bathroom is larger than it really is. Hang a mirror at eye level. The reflection of the room in the mirror will help the room feel larger. Finally, have a glass shower door, remove it altogether, or keep the curtain open. This allows you to see the entire length of the room.