Today, let’s discuss creating a low maintenance bathroom. When you have a bathroom that will get used frequently and by small children in particular, you want a bathroom that looks good, but is also easy to maintain.
As a mom of three kids, I think about design that is beautiful and practical. I do not enjoy cleaning and I especially don’t enjoy cleaning bathrooms. I am going to share tips for choosing materials and selections that will look beautiful, but won’t leave you constantly cleaning and wondering why you spent so much money on something you need to clean so often.
Select Large Format Tile for Your Floor
In a bathroom that gets a lot of traffic, consider large format tiles. I would recommend porcelain or ceramic over a slate or marble as those will require more upkeep and sealing every so often.
Large format tiles are primarily beneficial for keeping grout lines minimal. Anything 12 x 12 or larger is considered a large format tile. Larger tiles will involve less grout, less grout means less scrubbing on your hands and knees!
I also think you will enjoy larger tile from a design perspective if you want a design that doesn’t feel busy (unless you pick a pattern tile). Smaller tiles will inherently result in a busier feel. Meanwhile, larger tiles allow your eyes to rest when looking at them. You can perhaps have the eyes focus on a feature wall rather than the floors when you use larger format tile.
Which segues nicely into my second suggestion.
Match the Grout Color to Your Tile
This will allow the floor to blend nicely with the grout and once again keep things from feeling busy, but also easy to clean! However, the exception here is if you select a light tile like an off white marble look because I would then suggest avoiding white color grout and going darker. You can go with a gray colored grout and still make the floors feel lighter if that is your goal.
If you have ever had white grout, you know it takes a lot more work to keep it looking clean and if you have kids or pets… you definitely know white grout is perhaps the bane of your existence. You don’t have to match grout exactly to your tile, just keep the grout darker (not white) so you are not left scrubbing grout a bunch. Believe me this is not something to take lightly… ha!
Use Tile Instead of Baseboards
If you have ever had a leak or just a very splash happy toddler, you know water will end up in places you don’t want it, and more often than not, that means on the floor and even on walls.
Bathrooms are usually made to be more resilient, but truthfully the water sealing and reinforcements are going to be used for the tub/shower and not the entire bathroom. Knowing your bathroom is unlikely to have red guard on every wall, consider a simple solution that will help protect your bathroom from water damage.
Using a tile border instead of a MDF or wood baseboard will serve as a barrier should water ever leak or get to your walls, but it is also really beautiful!
Use Tile Slabs for the Shower Area
Once again this brings us back to large format tile. I will say that this may cost you a little more money upfront, but the end result is you can also get a very nice high-end look that is relatively easy to clean!
You can also avoid spending big bucks to get entire slabs like you see in multi-million dollar homes. However, if you do want a slab, you will find porcelain slabs provide a value add and instantly upgrade your design. It will probably cost you about $2,500 to go with porcelain slab for a standard shower enclosure.
When tiling the shower, you should consider matching the grout color so, you can also have a seamless transition between the designs or pattern that may be on your tiles. This will further enhance the look of your shower area.
Use the Right Sheen of Paint
Paint is one of those choices that can really make people feel stuck during the design process. Honestly, paint is best to select towards the end once you have tile, lighting, vanity, etc. selected. However, you will probably need to paint before a lot of the other things can be installed.
I am here to say that not only does the color you select matter, but the sheen is just as crucial! As a quick PSA, sheen names will sometimes vary depending on the brand of paint, but as a general rule, they are all going to offer a range that varies between flat and high-gloss. Now if you don’t know, the closer you get to high gloss the more reflective your paint will appear. Paints that are flat or matte are going to be more saturated even when choosing the same color, but are not reflective.
This all matters for two major reasons, higher gloss finishes are easier to clean, but they will reveal every imperfection on the surface you painted. Your paint reflectiveness will either soak up any light or bounce it around the room. So depending on what you are painting, keep in mind that you will want to make sure you don’t skip out on preparing your surfaces.
In a high traffic kids’ bathroom, consider using semi-gloss for walls and maybe even high gloss if painting cabinets. I would also use semi-gloss for trim if you are going to do any application of wall treatments or trim that will be easy to touch. This look has been used by many interior designers for years, but I think many of us are afraid to use these shiny sheens.
Home builders typically use satin on your bathroom walls. While there is nothing wrong with that, it is definitely not your only option.
I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how one switch like semi-gloss on your bathroom walls will transform your bathroom. By using a glossy finish on bathroom surfaces, wiping away dirt and grime will be easier and you won’t worry about ruining the paint.
A flat paint, while it doesn’t require very much prep work on your walls or cabinets, is going to come off with your dirt when you go to clean or leave a terrible shiny spot. Flat paint is something you want to use sparingly and in areas of your home that get very little traffic.
Moral of the story, avoid the headache and consider the paint sheen not just the color when you go to paint walls, trim, cabinets and more in a kids’ bathroom.
Tile is for Floors and Walls
Do you get the sense I am a fan of tile? Now if you want to elevate a space but also make it easy to clean consider tile on your walls! You don’t have to stop at tiling around the perimeter if you use my tip about swapping baseboards for tile.
Use a Floating or One-Piece Toilet
You know those nooks and crannies behind your toilet or where the toilet screws to the floor? In my house, that is quite literally a black hole when it comes to cleaning.
If I am doing any general cleaning I never bother to go behind the toilet or pay attention to those crevices, until it’s time for a much needed deep clean. By the time I get to it, it is gross and well overdue and discourages me from wanting to clean more.
So, if you are going to remodel or have a bathroom made, consider a one-piece toilet or a wall mounted toilet.
Install a Wall Ledge in the Shower
This is perhaps my favorite bathroom solution and one that I can’t wait to implement myself. While a wall niche is fine, if you really think about it, a niche is just impractical. Not only are you confined to the height and width of your niche for shower products, but they are so easy to accumulate soap scum and grime.
The better option in my opinion is an entire ledge, a shelf really, where there is no limit to the products you place here. Think about a high traffic bathroom and the people using it. It is probably very reasonable to assume you will have an average of two products per person.
My husband and I alone have six products ranging from shampoo to body scrub in our shower, not to mention my razor and a bar of soap!
Can you imagine if you have a bathroom that needs to serve more than two people? My children are young, but think of three teenagers, ooof!
So future proof your bathroom and do a wall ledge. I would also suggest when you go to put the ledge in, put it against the opposite wall of the shower head, this should minimize the amount of water that shelf sees and make your life easier when it comes to cleaning.
If you have a larger shower area then placing it on the same wall as your shower head is fine, but make sure your fixture comes off the wall enough so you don’t keep your ledge constantly wet when you turn on the water.
There you have it. My personal tips and thoughts on creating a bathroom that is beautiful and low maintenance.
From the time I was a young child, I have loved interior design and beautiful things. Ten-year-old me would create “floor plans” on notebook paper and design the dream homes of my siblings. We would have an initial meeting and after jotting down their wish list, I got to work creating the home of their dreams.
After designing the layout, I would take the Sunday newspaper ads (are those still a thing?) and cut out pictures of furniture, lamps, and accessories to create mood boards for each room in the home. When I was all done, weeks and weeks later, I would showcase my work and pitch my design ideas to a sibling.
If you too enjoy beautiful things and the process of turning a vision into a reality, welcome! If you love watching homes transform, but just don’t know how to start or have the resources to buy everything you like, stick around. I love finding affordable and practical design solutions to give YOU a gorgeous home you can be proud of.
Together, let’s reveal what’s possible.
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