Each year brings a fresh wave of design inspiration for bathrooms and tells us something about ourselves. As we slide into 2025, we’re a little bolder and more playful, yet still enamoured with using our bathrooms for retreat and respite.
Two designers share the trends we’ll see more of in 2025.
Colour is in.
“Everything was very beige for a while there,” says interior designer Anna Wood from Picchio Interiors. “I feel like that might be starting to come to an end and that people are moving back to embracing colour in their bathrooms.”
Lachlan McArdle from Lande Architects agrees.
“We saw a big period there where people were playing it quite safe and neutral to protect resale.”
This doesn’t have to mean drenching your bathroom in one solid hue, or that cool or warm tones in particular are in vogue: it’s more about what resonates with you and your home. Both designers suggest drawing from reference points such as natural stone or existing leadlight windows to inspire your bathroom’s colour palette.
In 2025 we’ll see more boldness. McArdle says we are trending towards “more adventure, more personalisation … more texture, definitely moving away from minimalism.”
This might mean combining prints or textures and adding touches such as wallpaper or small artworks, or incorporating vintage or custom wall lights. Wood adds that people are being more adventurous with edge profiles – for example, installing benchtops with half bullnose or bevel edges.
Our collective fascination with wellness is showing no sign of slowing down. In fact, it’s making its way into our bathrooms and enhancing the “day spa” aesthetic we’ve been enjoying the past couple of years.
Wood points to the rise of steam showers, which bring a sauna-like experience to bathing, as one example of this. “And lots and lots of bathtubs,” she says. “Really beautiful stone baths that are specially designed to retain the heat … so that people can just soak away their worries.”
Thanks in part to the changes in the engineered stone industry, natural stone is having a glorious moment. “We love our natural stones,” swoons McArdle, who goes to slab viewings to stay up-to-date with the latest exciting stones coming from places such as Italy. “Often that can be the catalyst for the whole room.”
“There are so many beautiful stones around at the moment,” says Wood. “People are loving the uniqueness of natural stones. And it’s no longer just your marbles or your granites, there are so many amazing quartzites or dolomites around in all manner of patterns or colours.” Wood also says that natural stone is a safe bet since it’s always in fashion, and adds that terrazzo and larger format tiles are still going strong.
Wood says makeup stations are increasingly popular for all genders. One of her recent clients requested a skincare niche “so he can sit there and apply his skincare in a non-hurried, relaxed way and make it almost part of his morning ritual.” McArdle says the bathroom “can be a lot more than a place for ablution.”
“We’re spending a bit more time in there,” he says, and explains that he recently sourced an armchair for a client’s bathroom so the husband can sit and chat with his wife while she finishes getting ready.
Often, the toilet is one of the first things we see when we walk into a bathroom – but McArdle and his team are moving towards concealing toilets with clever solutions that provide more separation between the toilet and the basin or shower.
“Concealing it behind a little nook or in its own little annex of the bathroom or something like that is something we’re doing more and more,” he says.
Coloured yet understated tapware options such as aged brasses and bronzes and satin nickels are on the rise and offer “a little bit softer, more luxurious take on the chrome or bright yellow brass or black,” according to Wood.
She says this helps create an aesthetic of beautiful textured finishes that is “luxe but organic”, where nothing is shiny.
As part of the move towards embracing a home’s unique personality, designers are helping their clients create bathrooms that harmonise with the place’s heritage. This might involve looking to features such as original door handles and windows for design cues.
McArdle gives the example of a recent project where the Hippocratic Oath was inscribed in the foyer of a very old home, which was used as inspiration for the design.
“People are wanting to pay respect to the history and the age of the architecture a bit more than sort of plonking an uber minimalist or uber modern bathroom in their homes,” says Wood.
Of course, this also helps insure your bathroom against dating too quickly.
“It’s really just about finding what resonates well with the client and is appropriate to the house and the function that you’re trying to achieve. And I think when you nail that, you’re inherently timeless,” says McArdle.
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