How to Create an Art Deco Bathroom on a Budget

If you love the look and glamour of an Art Deco bathroom, but don’t have a huge budget to spend, don’t despair. In this blog post, we'll show you how to create a sophisticated Art Deco style bathroom on a budget.

Whether you just want to add a few Art Deco touches or totally revamp your bathroom to reflect the era, with creativity and careful shopping, you can turn your space into one that reflects a golden period in interior design.

The glamorous art deco era of the 1920s and 1930s, with its bold geometric shapes and strong colours, works brilliantly in bathroom design. In fact, whether you prefer contemporary or traditional, you can style your Art Deco bathroom to be as modern or retro as you desire. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Colour schemes for an Art Deco bathroom

The monochrome look, with contrasting colours of black and white, is a popular choice for an Art Deco style bathroom. Despite being classic colours, they’re still very much regarded as contemporary today, and with the majority of bathroom furniture being white, are easy to apply.

Handy hint: Apply colour accents to the walls, floor or through bathroom accessories and towels.

However, Art Deco doesn’t just have to be black and white—any combination of bold colours could work, such as dark blue and white, green and gold or red and silver.

Art Deco style bathroom furniture and fittings

If you’re replacing or updating your whole bathroom suite, then the angular shapes of art deco styles are often represented in modern bathroom furniture and fittings.

Look for pedestal basins, toilets or bathroom suites that are square or angular in shape.

Pay attention to the style of taps you choose too – look for angular or rectangular designs, which add a glam, luxury feel.

Handy hint: If you can’t change all your bathroom furniture, why not just update the fittings?

Art Deco style tiles, walls and flooring

At the heart of the art deco style are geometric designs and bold patterns and both of these are widely available and ideal for tiles, walls and flooring.

Classic black and white tiles, used either on the floor or wall, can be simple and relatively inexpensive. Vinyl floors have developed in leaps and bounds over the years, and tile effect designs can look as good as the real thing.

Sticking to wall tiles in essential areas, such as around the basin, bath or shower, is an economical way of adding tiled finishes to your bathroom. For a bit of glitz, add a few metallic or shiny mosaic tiles. With a small budget in mind, paint the remaining walls.

If you love geometric designs, look out for bathroom wallpapers. There are lots of gorgeous geometric wallpapers available; just remember to pick a design suitable for use in a bathroom. For a stunning feature, paper one wall only.

Handy hint: To save money, look for end of line or discontinued tiles and wallpapers.

Finishing touches: Bathroom accessories

Bring your art deco bathroom together by adding finishing touches in the form of bathroom accessories.

A wall mirror or two are essential in a bathroom and can help add light in a small room or a bathroom without natural light. Look for bevelled mirrors with a luxury, glitzy finish or a simple angular mirror.

In terms of materials, items including frosted glass and chrome were popular in the Art Deco period. Choose chrome or frosted glass accessories, such as a toothbrush, soap holder, towel hook or robe hook.

If you’ve got room for a chair in your bathroom, add a lively cushion with a suitable geometric pattern.

Handy hint: Look for accessories in sales, featuring geometric motifs or patterns such as zigzags, hexagons or chevron designs.