by Anthony Lee
Planning to transform your bathroom into a beach paradise? You only need to know a few simple rules as well as remember your fondest tropical objects to create the look you've always wanted. You may choose to make drastic changes or gradually add a few things at a time until you attain the perfect ambiance. Here's how to design a beach bathroom.
Wildness and silence disappeared from the countryside, sweetness fell from the air, not because anyone wished them to vanish or fall but because throughways had to floor the meadows with cement to carry the automobiles which advancing technology produced.... tropical beaches turned into high-priced slums where thousand-room hotels elbowed each other for glimpses of once-famous surf not because those who loved the beaches wanted them there but because enormous jets could bring a million tourists every year—and therefore did.
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982)
You can choose between a restful tropical environment and a fun and lively one. If you're aiming for some peace and relaxation, aim for colors like ivory, pale gold, tan and green. Earth colors help provide a more calm background. You can then add in accents like white window and shower curtains. Shower curtains should have tribal or tropical patterns as well. If you have translucent glass doors that lead to the shower area, you may want to add more designs on it like seashells and fishes. Tropical plants and some flowers will provide colorful tones. If you have enough room, a palm or banana leaf is great as corner decors.
As for texture, wicker, bamboo, grass cloth and rattan will create a stimulating effect. You can place bamboo mats on the floor, cut bamboo trunks to be used as toothbrush and razor holders or line the window screen with split bamboo. Seashells, small wooden totems and hibiscus are great decoration items. You may want to add starfish and gecko designs on shower curtains, cabinets and the vanity. You may also take out the vanity and cabinet doors and have tribal patterns carved. Tiles can be grainy or unpolished to provide a sandy effect.
Physical force has no value, where there is nothing else. Snow in snow-banks, fire in volcanoes and solfataras is cheap. The luxury of ice is in tropical countries, and midsummer days. The luxury of fire is, to have a little on our hearth; and of electricity, not the volleys of the charged cloud, but the manageable stream on the battery-wires. So of spirit, or energy; the rests or remains of it in the civil and moral man, are worth all the cannibals in the Pacific.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
For a beach effect, the bathroom should have lots of light preferably coming from natural sources. You can have bigger windows compared to traditional bathrooms. Simply cover windows with white drapes or hanging beads. A skylight is a unique idea since it brings in a lot of sunlight during the day.
There are hand-painted ceramic sinks available too which are perfect for your tropical design. Some toilet bowls have customized flush handles with fish or shell shapes. Bamboo mirrors are ideal over the sinks. Find a large shell and use it as a soap dish. Other items in the room if possible should present a beach feel as well like the trash can, towel hanger and toilet seat cover. Wicker baskets are excellent storage bins. You may place white stones and tropical plants like birds of paradise in it. For more bathroom design ideas, visit http://www.bathroomdesignideas101.com