Got your heart set on a white and wood bathroom colour scheme?
We recently transformed our family bathroom into a tranquil airy space. We learned a few things along the way.
Discover the bathroom styling tips you need to create your perfect dreamy white bathroom with wood accents with these pointers.
To design a detailed bathroom project, you can use tools like Interior Design 3D. It allows you to visualize your renovation to understand how it will look in reality.
Focus on texture
The best way to avoid a clinical white tile look is to focus on texture!
In a white and wood bathroom, beautiful texture can be achieved by the wood accents. But adding white textured tiles can help to further increase the luxurious feel of your white and wood bathroom.
The white subway tiles we used in our last bathroom renovation created a huge clean white space, but I always felt it lacked the wow factor of textured white tiles.
Once I realised that a lot of my favourite wood and white bathroom ideas featured textured tiles, I knew this was the route I would need to go down in order to create the relaxing, natural space I was lusting after.
The white wall tiles we settled on are Equipe Artisan White. Typical of zellige tiles, they have a glossy uneven surface and a huge variation in colour, which adds a lot of texture to our white and wood bathroom.
Consider not white tiles
Did you know that a lot of white and wood bathroom designs actually don’t feature white tiles? Look closely, and you will notice that many of the tiles chosen are shades of off-white or even cream.
Crisp whites can sometimes make tiles look a bit too stark.
Warm off-white tile shades work in harmony with the wood accents in a white and wood bathroom colour scheme.
Using marble tiles or other natural stone in your white and wood bathroom will add a dose of interest and classic style to your design.
Warmth is key
As well as selecting the right shade of off-white tiles for your bathroom, you also need to consider paint colours.
Crisp white walls may look cold in a white and wood bathroom.
Anything from a warm neutral white to a light beige or pink shade will work really well with your white and wood bathroom design.
Our chosen paint colour is Farrow and Ball Dimity. In certain lights and south-facing rooms, Dimity can look a very pale pink. But in our north-facing bathroom, most of the time Dimity by Farrow and Ball looks more like a light taupe.
Choosing a wood bathroom vanity
The sink is very much the focal point of any white and wood bathroom. Especially if you are choosing a statement-piece wooden vanity sink.
From vintage wooden sinks to modern light oak wood bathroom vanities, there are so many different options of wooden bathroom sink to suit every budget.
Real wood comes with that fantastic texture coveted in a white and wood bathroom. Whereas a wood veneer sink can be more cost-effective, and more water-resistant. A marble countertop works very nicely alongside a white and wood bathroom colour scheme.
The super nice real wood vanities that I loved were out of budget. Nor did we have the time or inclination to turn a cabinet into a sink. At that point in our house renovation, we just wanted a working bathroom ASAP!
Tikamoon has some lovely wooden bathroom sinks, which we deliberated over for a while. But in the end, the sizes just weren’t right for our bathroom proportions.
We decided on a budget-friendly white oak vanity sink. It’s clean lines work well with our overall bathroom design. The two drawers give us a valuable amount of storage space in our master bathroom.
Brass, chrome, or black plumbing fixtures in a white and wood bathroom?
When it came to our taps, shower head, and valves, I was conscious of choosing a warm finish to complement our contemporary white and wood bathroom style.
I love the look of the brushed brass products we chose. But I have seen white and wood bathrooms with chrome fixtures, black fixtures, and gold fixtures that all look awesome. It all depends if you are going for a modern touch or timeless simplicity.
The beauty of white and wood bathroom designs is that the neutral palette looks great with whatever fixtures finish you choose to pair it with.
Our brushed brass fixtures are from Crosswater.
We wanted our overhead shower, bath filler, and handheld shower to run off the same valve control. Crosswater was one of the only brands we could find with a 3 outlet brass valve that also allowed you to control flow on all three outlets.
Shop around for products
After gathering way more textured white tile samples than was necessary, we noticed that the tiles we’d coveted from a local store had the same imprinted watermark on the back as the sample we liked from the big online tile store.
It was a lightbulb moment when we discovered that some of the bigger brands had given generic tiles a fancy name and were selling them at an increased price.
Googling the companies printed on the back of the tiles, we eventually found both our floor tiles and wall tiles at massively reduced prices online.
I used Google’s shopping comparison feature to find our Crosswater products at the best value rate. There was a big difference in prices for the same thing.
Functionality over style
Sometimes, you have to prioritse purpose over style when it comes to choosing the right products for your bathroom.
For instance, wood mirrors are a great way to bring the wood into a white and wood bathroom style.
But being a small space, we desperately needed a storage mirror in our family bathroom. I couldn’t find a wood storage mirror that I really liked, so in the end I sacrificed the wood aesthetic for a mirrored cabinet that fitted our needs the most.
For me, functionality will win out over style every time. Even if it comes at the expense of your dream white and wood bathroom design, you have to live in it as an everyday space after all.
Maximize your natural light
If you are planning a wood and white palette, you most probably love a light and tranquil bathroom style.
A white and wood bathroom looks best when bathed in natural light, but there are tricks you can use when it’s not always possible.
If you are short on natural light in your bathroom, wood and white bathroom designs can help emphasis the feeling of a light airy space. Make the most of mirrors, glossy white tiles, and warm off-white paint colours. These tactics will maximise your bathroom’s brightness and help light to bounce around the room.
Our white and wood bathroom was being built as part of a whole new space, so we got to choose the window size and placement during the design process.
With our bathroom having a north-facing orientation, I knew we needed to think carefully about how to best capture the natural light if I wanted a bright bathroom.
Initially, we were going to have one big centred window above the bath. Then we got the idea to move it to the side of that wall, to create more privacy for the shower bath on the other side.
A smaller off-centre window did worry me that the room would end up not being as light as it needed to be. But because of our white and wood bathroom choices, the room makes the best use of the light as it bounces off white-tiled walls and reflective surfaces.
I do still think I could have designed the window slightly wider and taller than it is. But even though it’s the one thing I’d change about our bathroom design, we do get plenty of lovely light in our white and wood bathroom.
Use a bathroom designer
If you have no clue what you are doing, a bathroom designer could be something to consider!
Previous bathroom renovations were straightforward. We had picked out tiles and fittings, but kept layouts the same. Our white and wood bathroom was built as part of a new house extension. We not only had the design to consider, but the entire bathroom layout to plan.
We sought the advice of a bathroom planner, who gave us some tips on the best bathroom layout for useability. A good bathroom designer will help you with the things you hadn’t even thought about, and will also have the right interior designer skills to help you plan your ideal white and wood bathroom style.
Look at samples in the flesh
One thing I’ve learnt from our recent renovations, is that nothing looks quite the same in your own space as it does online.
That paint colour you’ve been eyeing up on your favourite interiors site might look a completely different tone on your own walls.
Some photos will have been edited or posted with a filter. Some rooms just work differently with the same colours, especially when it comes to off-whites and neutral shades.
Whether tiles or paint, you need to get samples of everything.
Paint samples onto paper, not directly onto the walls, so you can move your samples around to different walls. Make sure to check the colour at various times of day when the light quality is different.
Consider an accent feature
Whether bold or subtle, accent features add so much interest to a room.
There are so many ways to add an accent feature in your white and wood bathroom: Wood paneling, an accent wall, shower niches or bathtub panel tiled in a statement tile pattern.
White marble tiles sit really well with the natural materials aesthetic of a white and wood bathroom design. Or consider taking the floor tiles 2/3rds up the wall to create an extra point of interest whilst making the room feel more spacious.
Accessorise your neutral bathroom space
Neutral bathrooms provide a great backdrop for accessories to take centre stage.
Rustic wooden shelves and wicker baskets are a good way to capitalise on the wood in a white and wood bathroom.
Plants provide texture and a natural feel to the room.
You can easily change up the look of a neutral bathroom just by swapping out the style of your accessories. A new colour scheme for your towels, or perhaps a different style for your soap set?
Futureproof your bathroom style
One thing that really appeals to me about a wood and white bathroom interior, is that it can easily be updated to suit changing tastes as time goes on.
Sticking to a neutral palette, with no bold patterns or statement tiles, means you can easily update the wall colour to something more striking. Or perhaps add statement wallpaper to give your bathroom a completely new look…just in case the trend-setting white and wood bathroom doesn’t stand the test of time.
Now you have all the tips you need to start planning your dream white and wood bathroom
Whether you love Scandi style modern bathrooms or have set your sights on a beach house look full of rustic wood and natural stone, there are so many ways to make your own unique white and wood bathroom design.
A white and wood bathroom is classic and versatile. It suits both bathrooms with a lot of windows and bathrooms with little natural light.
No wonder white and wood bathrooms are one of the latest trends!
The rest of the details on our white and wood bathroom design
The bath
Our beast of a bathtub is from Omnitub. A Japanese sitting bath was the perfect solution for our desire to have a deep bath without the space for a freestanding bathtub.
We also needed an over-bath shower. Most shower baths aren’t that deep. Omnitub were one of the only bathtub suppliers I could find that stocked a rectangular shower bath that is also a deep soaking tub.
Our Omnitub is 1800 x 80 x 80cm high. You can fit two of me in there! A shorter bath would have been plenty big enough, and would take less time to fill. But the 1800 length Omnitub fits our space best. I can sit up in the bath with my shoulders still fully submerged. A fun luxury to have!
The shower curtain
A glass shower screen would add a lot more light into our natural look bathroom. I am still searching for the perfect shower screen that folds and isn’t too high for our tall bath. For now we are using a shower curtain.
Products used in our bathroom:
- White Towel Radiator
- Taps and shower accessories
- Stone look floor tiles
- White zellige wall tiles
- Omnitub 1800 x 80 Bath
- Wood vanity sink
- Dimity wall paint
- Ceiling light fixture
- Harbor Mirror cabinet
Bathroom renovation total cost:
£4,150 not including labour costs
