7 Simple Details That Add Luxury to a Bathroom and 7 Touches of Bad Taste

The contemporary bathroom, no matter how tiny, is no longer just utilitarian. Now, it can be a showcase where you can splurge on truly sumptuous materials, such as gold plated fixtures, real stone and iridescent glass wall tiles without busting your budget. Here are seven details that make a bathroom luxurious and seven touches that scream of truly bad taste.

Nothing says luxury more than big, clean, fluffy bath towels taken off a heated rack and used to dry you off after a bath or shower. Heated towel racks are the luxury you didn’t know you needed.

Even if they’re not preheated, plushy, thick cotton or bamboo towels are just the thing for that feeling of coziness, warmth and safety. The best ones are pricey, but worth it.

Fresh flowers welcome you into the space, add a touch of cheer and should have a delicious smell. You’ll need to replace them every couple of days, but they’re so worth it.

Who said you can’t have a crystal chandelier in your bathroom? You not only can have a crystal chandelier, but you can have any other kind of lighting fixture that will make a guest take notice. However, if you’re going to put the light in your shower stall, make sure it’s waterproof.

Interior designer Nate Berkus says he puts his dishwashing liquid in a decanter, so why should you not splurge on elegant dispensers to wash your body? Toiletries such as a perfectly clean, perfectly round sponge set on a soapstone dish are also things of beauty.

Stepping out of the bath or shower onto a thick, dry and luxurious bath mat is one of life’s pleasures. A mat with a deep, springy pile or a faux flokati bathmat made to resemble sheep’s wool is just the thing. It’s even better if radiant heat warms your bathroom floor.

Real, pale marble is prized not only for its beauty but for its ability to draw in and reflect the light. Marble comes in a rainbow of colors, and one shade is just right for your bathroom. It’s true that real marble is expensive, but you can place it judiciously around the room. For example, you may have marble squares or diamonds set among the ceramic tiles in your walls or floor. You can also spring for a less expensive imitation such as engineered stone.

If you don’t want guests or even members of your household to linger in your bathroom, just put up a shower curtain with a pattern that clashes with everything else. If you can’t bear to part with the shower curtain because it belonged to your grandma, change the rest of the decor to complement it.

There’s really no excuse for a crowded, messy vanity. This is especially true if the vanity has storage space. If your vanity lacks storage, buy inexpensive but tasteful caddies or glass jars at the dollar store, and put the items in them according to type. For example, your makeup brushes go in one caddy, and your lotions go in another.

Even a high-end soap dish shouldn't cost that much. There's really no excuse to have an ugly, cheap soap dish in the bathroom.

Wallpaper made for a bathroom or other wet room needs to be resilient and water resistant. There’s really no excuse for it to be ugly after so much work has gone into creating it in the first place. Remove it, and replace it with something tasteful.

Artificial plants have become so realistic that they may fool the eye for a moment, but after a while you and your guests will know that they're fake. Because they're fake, it's easy to forget them, and they'll accumulate dust and soap scum and bugs. Just avoid putting artificial plants in your bathroom.

You love parrots, so you put them everywhere in your bathroom. You have parrot-themed wallpaper, a parrot-themed shower curtain and paintings of parrots. Your bath mat and toilet bowl lid cover are the scarlet of a macaw’s feathers. You even have parrot-shaped soap. It’s appalling. Keep one or two parrot-themed items, and put the rest somewhere else.

Absolutely no one wants to wake up in the morning, walk into their bathroom and feel sticky bathroom tiles beneath their bare feet. This is a question of proper maintenance. Swab the floor every night, and give it a good scrubbing once a week or so. Wall decals have no place in your bathroom. They are tacky, and eventually the steam makes them peel away from the walls.