Summer 2021 is a time for new beginnings, so the same should be said for your house.
Over the last year, the role of the home has changed fundamentally. Lately, it’s been fulfilling a range of different functions: as a workspace, a school, a gym floor and a place of repose.
This makes the role of the bathroom even more important. If it’s getting harder and harder to escape the stresses of work, and parenting has been a lot more intense, then the bathroom space has to step it up a gear to bring you the respite you crave.
The necessity of creating a sanctuary is emphasised further still by the lack of holidays and spa experiences on offer.
This has all influenced the way home décor is shaping up.
Stark minimalism is taking a back seat in favour of warmer, cosier vibes. Our hitherto beloved Scandi is merging with Eastern nature to form Japandi.
Our need to feel cocooned in our four walls has given rise to cottagecore, a modern take on granny chic, and our colour palette is picking up more and more inspiration from warmer natural hues such as brave ground, sage green and pale pastels.
In this article, we take you on a whistle-stop tour of what’s getting our bathroom designers’ attention for this summer and beyond.
Celebrating Biophilic Design
Biophilic design embraces nature in ways we’re not normally used to, such as living walls. It blurs the lines between indoors and outdoors, creating more space for our plants to express themselves within our homes.
Plants and greenery are not only beneficial for purifying the air around us but can also boost productivity and creativity.
Green is the easiest colour for our eyes to process and is associated with wealth, health and abundance. Making space for foliage can do much to improve our happiness, so we’re glad to see it at the forefront of bathroom design.
Embracing Nature-Inspired Colours and Materials
Brave Ground is the current colour of the year for Dulux, while Sherwin Williams has gone down the metallic root with Urbane Bronze, a dark hue that makes a perfect backdrop for brighter accents.
Other colours to look out for are rusts, greens and reds, the colour palette shared by our cave-dwelling forbears who knew intimately the sense of hibernation we’ve all become accustomed to. There’s also an appetite for biscuit and caramel – natural yet satisfying to our senses.
Our Star collection features units in Ottawa, a woody, earthy brown that retains sophistication while making us feel enveloped and protected.
This love of the outdoor world hasn’t escaped our materials, with rattan and cork continuing to make an appearance, and an eco-friendly philosophy means we’re welcoming vintage treasures and found objects and repurposing them for our bathrooms.
Staying Ahead with the Curves
Organic forms have taken on a newness and a freshness that eschews the perfectly straight lines that usually dominate our interiors.
Curves suggest a flow that is both tactile and alluring and means there’s no end to the possibilities for new forms.
Take Joya, a moulded worktop and basin in SMO™ lite: a deceptively robust material that includes natural stone powders that fortify this smooth delicate shape.
Daring to Be Different with Colours
If you’re a winter or autumn personality, you can breathe a sigh of relief.
We haven’t been completely taken over by browns and greens!
While earth tones may be in, the design world wouldn’t feel right without some contradictions, which means we haven’t forgotten bold colours altogether.
Benjamin Moores have given their seal of approval to Aegean Teal, a naturally vibrant shade that would make Van Gogh beam with pride.
You can also rest easy with some burnt oranges and peacock blues.
The bathroom space in particular, out of all the rooms, is flexing its colour muscles, asserting: “If you want to tone it down out there, you do you! We’ll do our own thing in here!”
And so, brightness still reigns supreme with loud pops and definitely makes its face known on our vanities and walls.
We’ve featured our new Boss collection in Astral – a textured blue reminiscent of the ocean waves that draw the eye from an otherwise monochrome background.
Richard Paul of Sovereign Bathrooms rightly called this one, predicting an end to monochrome and an influx of pastel colours to brighten up the space.
A Pop of Glamour with Metal Accents
While we may be feeling more modest in our style choices these days, there’s still room for a touch of glamour, and who are we to refuse?
That’s where Aviso has really come into its own, showing off its sophisticated gold trim that laces these beautifully curved units with luxe.
The theme is continued with the taps and shower fixtures, making it a cohesive design and one that fully supports our right to a little opulence despite the heartache of the past year.
Leanne Marsh from Cheshire Bathrooms has been hoping for more navy and gold brassware, so we think she’d approve of this design.
We’ve said this before, but your beautiful surroundings needn’t come at the cost of your favourite items. We all have possessions, and to pretend we don’t is like insisting we don’t sleep…
We want to help you enjoy your bathroom space as well as find joy in the aesthetic. In fact, design without storage is bad design – There’s more to Ambiance Bain than our sensational looks – We want to be appreciated for our intelligence too.
That’s why we offer storage in the form of floating vanities, tall units and WC units so you can love all your mod cons at a distance – i.e., concealed away safely.
Wake Yourself Up with a Walk-In Shower
What are the bathroom design trends you’re enjoying and what would you like to see more of in autumn? Tweet us your bathroom trend preferences and tag us in: @AmbianceBainUK
