Surprise!! Yet another “dark & moody” post this week. According to my Google analytics data, y’all have really been enjoying these posts so I figured I’d touch on some other spaces to provide you with even more inspiration for your own projects. Next week, I’ll wrap up this series with dark & moody laundry rooms.
If you’ve been following my “dark & moody” posts, you’ll notice either one (or both!) of these two talented interior designers keep popping up: Jean Stoffer and Heidi Caillier.
I feel that both designers masterfully create moody, warm, unique, and inviting rooms by mixing materials, textures, and deep, saturated hues. I can only imagine how delightful it would be to stand in any of their designed rooms, letting my eyeballs joyfully dance around while soaking up the hundreds of tiny details that collectively created such a captivating space!
Heidi’s spaces, specifically, are incredibly magical and imaginative. I love how she’s unafraid to mix patterns and colors and incorporates many vintage pieces of decor and furniture to ensure her clients’ spaces truly feel one-of-a-kind. And in turn, those spaces are timeless because you can’t really nail down what the hell style they are, and I, for one, LOVE THAT.
I typically select textured flooring that feels timeless – like wood, stone, or brick – as my foundational element. I personally do not like using tiles with patterned designs on them because I feel they look dated after a couple of years and then it’s so costly to rip them out and replace them with something else. You’ll create more of a timeless look by selecting simple foundational materials and then you can incorporate certain trends through paint color, wallpaper, and other “un-permanent” elements.
If you’ve been thinking about remodeling/refreshing any of your bathrooms and you want to do something other than the clinic-white bathrooms you see plastered all over Instagram and Pinterest, try incorporating some dark elements into your design to make it interesting.
If you’re afraid to go all dark, just pick out one element such as flooring, cabinetry, wall tiles, wall color, or wallpaper, and combine that element with lighter to mid-tones throughout the space to create a nice balance without high contrast (like black and white which can be jarring to the eyes). Or, limit the dark and moody look to a powder bath where it’s easier to take design risks due to their small footprints.
You’ll notice some of the bathrooms below incorporate both light/medium tones with dark tones, such as the stunning Studio McGee bathroom, or by mixing mid-toned colors with textures like the brick wall in the charming space designed by Leah Phillips Interiors. These spaces will look just as beautiful 10 to 20 years from now because the designs are so classic.
When you’re planning a design project, a great exercise is to create a Pinterest board for that space and pin away! Then, look at all the pins together (it makes more of a visual impact on a desktop or laptop versus a smartphone) and see what common elements they share and that helps determine in which direction you should go with your design.
And please try not to copy someone else’s design exactly – it will never look or feel the same and you’ll end up disappointed because it’s reflecting someone else’s personality instead of yours. Rather, study their photos and break down which elements you really love in order to create something truly unique and special for you and your family.
I hope these 18 beautifully-designed dark and moody bathrooms provide you with a lot of inspiration. Drop a comment below and let me know which of these bathrooms convinced you to create your own dark and moody space!
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