As someone currently planning their own project, I've been conscious I need to curate this list of bathroom trends objectively, rather than using it as a opportunity to moodboard my plans. Thankfully, what 2026 is asking of our bathrooms is that we bring an individual sense of 'taste' to them.
That is, the fixtures and finishes that make up the majority of interior design trends for the bathroom are about creating a space that feels custom. Built-ins reign over freestanding pieces, tiles that you can play with and transform are preferred over patterns and textures that do all that work for you, even the colors we're choosing are asking you to match your bathroom the emotion you want to feel.
For some, that'll be your standard light, bright, and white — but there's a wider movement in modern bathrooms right now to spaces that feel more like the rest of your house. Not just places to clean and refresh, but that welcome you and hold your attention, that feel comforting, and that are a canvas for your wilder ideas.
1. The Mood: Contrast Is King
The sleek lines of this Ofuro tub make an interesting contrast against the traditional paneled room.
There's something about being too concerned with cohesiveness that feels a little too 'try-hard' in interiors right now. Instead, the delight and surprise are found in the tension of contrast in interior design. The old with the new, the sleek with the fussy, the maximalist with the minimalist.
For example, designer Jessica Summer took inspiration from Japanese bathing tubs for this otherwise classic London bathroom. "It’s a different experience to a traditionally sloped bath, as you sit in it more like a Jacuzzi, with a little step inside," she says. "I was excited by the idea of using this in a paneled room — this heritage-laden backdrop would give a surprising and unusual juxtaposition with the Japanese tub."
Contrast is a world of self-expression for the bathroom, extending your options in designing this space almost infinitely. The art of this bathroom trend is honing where to draw from to help your ideas hold together.
2. The Tile Trend: Stripes
Using single color tiles in arrangements gives control over the width of each stripe.
Stripes are a timeless pattern for interiors, but in bathrooms, they're certainly having a moment. In place of the style of patterned encaustic tiles that had bathroom design in a chokehold for some years, designers are turning to simple metro-style tiles in different colors to create stripes that they can control better, turning this design feature into something that feels custom.
For example, in this bathroom by interior designer Henry Prideaux, a two-to-one color ratio in the stripes offers a more sophisticated take on stripes than a one-to-one might have. "I wanted to accentuate greater height in this bathroom by adding vertical stripes," Henry explains, "but had these been alternating yellow and white, it might have felt overpowering. So the single yellow stripe creates the impact, and the double white stripe softens it." The designer added a thick horizontal band around the bottom and a narrower one at the top to help frame this striped tile bathroom.
Interior designers are doing the same thing with patterns like checkerboards, using single-color tiles to get creative, turning this classic layout into broken checker designs that have a lot more personality and a more bespoke feel.
3. The Color Trend: Red
The unexpected nature of red in a bathroom is what makes it standout as a design trend for 2026.
If there was ever an overcorrection to the bland white bathroom, it might be the red color trend. I say overcorrection, as you sort of get the sense that red was never meant for the bathroom. It can be overstimulating, emotional — not the characteristics you want for your relaxing retreat. And yet, why does it feel so right for now?
The flip side is that this trend offers things we don't, traditionally, get from our bathrooms — warmth, intimacy, that sense of cocooning yourself. And with just the right shade, it feels luxurious and romantic in the evenings, and starts your day with energy in the morning.
"The most important thing with red as the color is the tone,’ says interior designer Roisin Lafferty. "Red can be too loud, and given it is within a home, the warmer tones are better at creating a more inviting atmosphere."
The fact that it's unusual to find red in a bathroom is perhaps why it translates as a bathroom color trend. That unexpectedness does have a design currency, which is hard to overlook.
4. The Shower Trend: Cave-Like Interiors
Wrapping showers in darker colors and dramatic finishes create a different sensorial experience.
That cocooning element is something we want to experience in our showers now, too. You might have the vision of showering in a light, bright, and airy space, but consider one that wraps you in dark and dramatic materials for a different appeal to your senses. Given you might be a nighttime showerer anyway, why waste this space on that demand for natural daylight?
This shower design by interior designer Jenny Luck, clad in Wanderlust Labradorite tiles by Minoli, feels almost cave-like, or like you're showering under a midnight sky.
"I wanted my clients to feel a sense of escapism in their main suite," says Jenny. "The wraparound tiling creates a cocooning effect, and the specific blue tones took us away to the skies and sea of the Côte d’Azur. I couldn’t think of a better place to emulate in this frequently used pocket of the home."
To add lighting, without sacrificing this enveloping feel, designers are also adding artificial light wells above, doubling down on this shower trend's almost subterranean feel.
5. The Bath Trend: Platform Baths
When it came to choosing a trend for bathtubs, I'd narrowed it down to two options. Built-in baths are, in most respects, the bigger bathroom trend than freestanding ones right now, but perhaps more interesting are the ways baths are being incorporated into the architecture. The choice, then, comes between sunken baths and platform baths.
The ease of installing the latter is one reason it wins out, but also for the variety in its design applications, and how it changes the dynamic of the room. In a project like the bathroom designed by Nash Baker Architects, pictured, the raised platform offers a practical solution. "The clients had a clear vision: they wanted both a large bath and a generous walk-in shower — features that typically demand a large amount of space," explains design director Ahmed Shawky. "By elevating the bath on a plinth within the shower area, we maximized spatial efficiency while creating a striking visual feature."
Another take on the trend, the 'step-up' bathtub, better integrates the bathroom into the space like a piece of furniture. It becomes less absolute: you're not just out of or in the bath, you can be around it. "Incorporating steps into a bath design is not just about accessibility — it’s about enhancing the overall experience of relaxation and indulgence," Louise Ashdown, head of design at West One Bathrooms, says.
6. The Layout: Alcoves
This retro design feature has had a return to popularity for its practical good looks.
Once abhorred and ripped out of 'dated' bathrooms, the idea of the alcove bath has had quite the comeback as a bathroom layout idea, both for its functional and its aesthetic value.
"Bath nooks and built-in baths are a favorite of mine, as they make the most awkward spaces become the most special," says Tiffany Duggan, founder of Studio Duggan, who designed the bathroom above. "This humbug-striped example was a smart solution to a spatial challenge. There wasn’t room for a separate bath and shower, so we created an alcove, then hung a shower curtain internally."
Aesthetically, this layout moves away from the bathroom as a series of 'placed' objects, instead looking to built-ins to make things feel both bespoke and intentional, reading as part of the architecture, rather than just something you picked out of a showroom's lookbook.
7. The Mirror Trend: Function First
Storage, lighting, and adjustable mirrors make this custom design a bathroom workhorse.
What you'll notice about the bathroom trends in this list so far is that they, by and large, aren't as obsessed with simple aesthetics as they are with how a bathroom feels to use. And that's the same for the bathroom mirror, arguably, I'd say, the most important part of the room to get right.
Form follows function when it comes to the mirror trends for 2026, and a set-up that means you're well-illuminated, whether naturally or artificially, and that allows you to get ready easily. Whether you can go custom with your bathroom mirror, or just incorporate a design that can flex, the perfect mirror really needs to meet its setting.
In this pretty pink bathroom, Alicia Meireles, creative director of Own London, designed a mirror that does it all. "There’s always the issue of how to light the face properly if you have a mirror cabinet,’ Alicia says. "So we created two recessed slots for lighting sandwiched by three openable cabinets." Extra storage, extra lighting, extra clever.
8. The Tap Trend: Living Finishes
"The client’s brief was to make the space feel 'less clinical, less hotel-like'," says designer Rachael Gowbridge. "It was all about softening things up from there."
Authenticity and story are ideas that have cropped up time and time again in our interior design and kitchen trend reports for 2026, so it's no surprise that so-called 'living finishes' are my choice for specifying bathroom taps and showers.
These are materials that are less treated, meaning they show wear, age gracefully, and have character that changes from when they're first installed. It can be hard to necessarily tell what you're signing up for, without spotting the exact material you've chosen in a real home, but part of the joy of these materials is that you get to witness them change.
If you're too much of a control freak for that, there are already antiqued finishes that, while not as authentic as the real thing, give you that lived-in look immediately and consistently.
2026's bathroom trends are interesting in that, really, they call for more self-expression and less following cookie-cutter design ideas. Whether it's your choice of tile, a color, or even a layout for your bathroom, each of these recommendations for your next project wants you to ask the question before you begin: how can I adapt this idea to make it work for me and my space?
Small bathroom or big bathroom, ensuite or powder room, these trends need to speak to the mood you want to create and how you want to feel, more so than just a decorating trend for the sake of it.
