There’s a Small Bathroom Design Revolution and You’ll Love These Rule-breaking Trends

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Tired of your small, dark and uninspiring bathroom? Are you ready to finally give it an overhaul? Well, there’s no better time to give your small bathroom a fresh look. Small bathroom design is finally stepping out of the cookie-cutter bathtub, sink cabinet, mirror and toilet combination.

The latest small bathroom design ideas are fresh and revolutionary, rethinking what we all expect a bathroom design to look like. Wall-mounted toilets and sinks defy gravity. Cabinet doors are gone. Bold texture and patterns take over a small bathroom space. Get ready to break some rules and open your mind to what your small bathroom should look like with the following nine concepts.

1. You don’t need as much bathroom storage as you think

A minimalist bathroom in France features floating cabinetry. Image: For House

The first small bathroom design idea for 2017 is a big one: you really don’t need more storage, just a more minimalist attitude! Think about this one for a minute. Those large vanities with the deep cabinet space under the sink are really an inefficient use of space. Things get lost at the back of the cabinet. And the scale takes up so much real estate in your small bathroom design that your bathroom ends up looking smaller. So how do you solve the issue?

• Get rid of clutter and unnecessary items. How many towels, cosmetics and hotel toiletries do you really need?
• Replace the clunky bathroom vanity with a floating sink or cabinet or narrow open shelves. You’ll be less tempted to clutter your bathroom when the stuff is on display. And you’ll open a lot more visual space in your bathroom. Like this bathroom image:

A New York farmhouse gets a space-savvy update. Image: House Designers

Here are some of our favorite floating vanities:

1. | 2. | 3.

2. Instead of adding storage, add function

This Paris apartment converts a small bathroom into a multipurpose space that includes a washing machine. Image: Bertrand Fompeyrine

Once you clear clutter and replace the oversized bathroom vanity with something more minimalist, think of all the useful things you can do with the space. Like adding an all-in-one washer and dryer. Or creating a vanity space.

Here are more ideas on how to add more utility to your small bathroom:

Images: Philip McCann, Sean Litchfield

3. Small bathrooms mean you can splurge on finishes

High-end stone and tile, a chrome towel warmer and exotic wood create a luxurious small bathroom experience in Rome. Image: Francesco Todaro

Brushed chrome accents and a combination of tile featuring inexpensive white subway tiles and expensive glass and marble chevron tiles create a visually interesting small bathroom. Image: Robert Frank Interiors

Some of the most expensive items in a bathroom design are the fixtures, tile and finishes. Since you’re working with a smaller space, you need less. It’s time to break out of thinking that a small bathroom isn’t worth the money. It’s time to splurge on making your small bathroom design look like a million bucks! Some ways to add more luxury on a little less budget include:

• Choosing quality accent lighting fixtures
• Tiling a stripe (or the upper half of your bathroom) in a more expensive tile or marble
• Adding a towel warmer that doubles as a towel rack
• Swapping your toilet for a new floating style
• Upgrading to a glass shower door, which is the next small bathroom design idea

Here are some of our favorite luxurious updates for your small bathroom:

1.| 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. | 6.

4. Add a seamless glass shower door to your small bathroom

A minimalist yet earthy small bathroom in Barcelona, thanks to the reclaimed oak floors. Image: Roca

Images: At Studio, L’Essenziale, Jodie Rosen

Here’s a small bathroom design tip that may not sit well with traditionalists: tear out the bathtub and add a modern walk-in shower surrounded by seamless glass. It’s a great way to save tons of space in your small bathroom. A seamless glass door may be more expensive than a shower curtain, but will definitely be more durable. Not to mention, it will open up the space and add value to your home.

Not ready to give up on the bathtub? You can still add a seamless glass shower or tub enclosure.

5. Go crazy with texture and pattern in your small bathroom

Three-dimensional white tile adds depth to a small bathroom space. Image: Jasmine McClelland

A Scandinavian tile in a repeating pattern creates the feel of a larger room. Image: Poopuu Design

The floors provide a great surface to create a bold and richly patterned design. Image: Pinar Miro

Most designers tell you that dark colors or busy patterns are not a good idea in a small space. Think again. Strong patterns and textures add depth and play to a space, creating the illusion of more size and life.

Here are some of our favorite tile patterns and textures for your small bathroom:

1.| 2. | 3. | 4.

6. Wall-mount everything and throw away the doors

Wall mounted or floating elements and a wood-look tile add a modern look to this basement small bathroom. Image: Rozonova

Images: Rethink Design Studio, Ar-Ka Studios, Philip McCann

Porcelain tile in the look of plank wood and floating bathroom design elements create a new, modern small bathroom space. Image: Inne

The small bathroom design keyword for 2017 and beyond is: floating. Float everything, including the toilet, from your walls. It’s a great way to make cleaning easier, when you can access the floor below. Not to mention the space looks bigger, because our eye tends to judge space by analyzing the floor area. You also maximize valuable wall space, which is often left bare. And let’s be honest, it looks pretty fresh and cool!

7. Cubbies aren’t only for toddlers

Bathroom cubby ideas that add storage without taking up space. Images: Color Theory, Catlin Stothers Design, Roca.

A built-in wall nook with open shelves houses essential bath items. Image: Catlin Stothers Design

It’s time to tear up the walls (or add new ones) for cubbies. The inset wall cubby is an ingenious way to add integrated storage to a small bathroom without sacrificing space. It’s also known as an alcove, niche or recessed niche.

Behind bathroom walls, between the studs, is just enough of a gap to create a useful cubby. And nowadays, you can even buy a DIY tile-ready niche at Lowe’s.

Don’t want to tear up the walls? Find new ways to add cubbies to your small bathroom, by adding a shelf, wall mounting a floating cubby shelf or choosing a cabinet with open shelves to store extra items, like the bathroom below.

A wall-mounted storage cubby coordinates with the floating cubby sink base. Image: Reliance Design & Build

8. Mirrors instead of walls

When creating a bathroom mirror wall, choose mirror that is treated to withstand moisture to avoid dark spots from developing. Image: Optimise Design

A long wall of storage mirrors reflect light from the windows. Image: Elanandez

Images: Interior Solutions Design Group, Maya Parkhani Interior Design 

Mirrors do an incredible job at creating the illusion of more space. Want to add more space to your small bathroom design? Then add more mirrors, like the inspiration images above.

Check out our favorite bathroom mirrors:

1.| 2. | 3. | 4.

9. Add more black to your white

Images: Optimise Design, SF Design Build, Marcelle Guilbeau

An all-white bathroom does feel brighter and lighter, but it can look a little cold or lack the depth your eye registers as space. Adding black to your bathroom, in the form of black walls or a black-and-white tile design or a black ceiling adds the “POW!” your small bathroom is begging for.

Which one of these new small bathroom design trends are you ready to try?

The post There’s a Small Bathroom Design Revolution and You’ll Love These Rule-breaking Trends appeared first on Freshome.com.

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Our Visit to Vitra in Switzerland with Be Original Americas

Now that summer is officially over, I can officially declare that the best part about this past season was my visit to Vitra with Be Original Americas, an organization we’ve shared before whose mission is dedicated to educating and promoting the importance of original design. (You might have caught the whole trip on Instagram Story if you’re following us over on @designmilk!) Vitra is a tremendous supporter of the program so I got to tag along with the 2017 Be Original Americas Fellows, Tom Groom and Irene Lee, to learn firsthand from Vitra about what it means to be an original design and how do fakes and copies measure up to the originals (spoiler alert: they don’t and never will).

It was hard narrowing down my 700+ photos but read on to see a small snapshot of what we saw, where we visited, and what we learned…

View of the Rhine River in Basel, Germany

There’s a corner in Switzerland where, in 10 miles in each direction, you can be in France, Germany or Switzerland. During our trip, we visited the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany and the Vitra headquarters in Birsfelden, Switzerland.

If you didn’t already know, the Vitra Campus is home to some of most incredible architecture and design: the VitraHaus designed by Herzod & de Meuron, the Vitra Design Museum designed by Frank Gehry, the Fire Station designed by Zaha Hadid, and so much more. An interesting take away I got from the trip is that Vitra is not just as a brand but a continuing project, like that of Apple or Google, in that it is constantly looking for new, innovative ways to spotlight good design, discover emerging talent, celebrate design with the community, and create conversation about the significance of originality.

Project Vitra installation

Inside Project Vitra

Inside the Fire Station designed by Zaha Hadid

Architecture tour with Be Original Americas Fellow, Irene Lee and Tom Groom

Inside the Conference Pavilion designed by Tadao Ando

Like Be Original Americas, Vitra holds steadfast to the belief that good design can only be celebrated through the original, which is why counterfeits can never stand up next the originals. Counterfeits lack the story and soul behind the design and while they may be cheaper, it’s because they lack the quality materials and innovative production techniques that make the originals superior for decades. An imitation is, and always will be, a stolen idea and that is something that’s not worth displaying in your home.

The Vitra Schaudepot designed by Herzog & de Meuron

Inside the Schaudepot

“Every Vitra product is an original, and every original has a story.” Vitra is committed to telling those stories because it gives us a tangible reason why the originals are important. The reason why classic designs like the Eames Lounge Chair or the Panton Chair are still revered is because they broke new ground at the time of their creation. Years later, these designs are able to sustain their allure because their revolutionary ideas and techniques still influence design today, more than 60 years later. I learned that over the years, Vitra worked (and still works) closely with original designers or their descendants to enhance these original designs (for example, to incorporate new color schemes or modify dimensions because people have gotten taller since the 1950s).

Eames through the years

Inside the Factory Building designed by Nicholas Grimshaw

L-R: Irene and Tom with Vitra’s Head of Marketing, Adrian Parra, and Chief Design Officer, Eckart Maise, at Vitra headquarters

Office of Vitra’s CEO Nora Fehlbaum

Design at every corner (and corner office)

Slide Tower designed by Carsten Höller

Inside the VitraHaus

India Mahdavi’s Alice in Wonderland installation inside the VitraHaus

The visit to Vitra reignited my appreciation for good design because it gave me a deeper understanding of the creative thinking, process, innovative production, manufacturing, and stories that are instilled in each Vitra product. If you ever find yourself in this part of Germany, I highly recommend a visit to the Vitra Campus and clear your entire day (or even weekend!) for it.

If you’re interested in applying to be the next Be Original Americas fellows, be sure to follow Be Original Americas on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram to find out when the next round of application opens. You can also get a recap of the 2017 program through Tom and Irene’s own words on the Be Original Americas website or Tom’s website.

All photos by Vy Yang.

from Design MilkDesign Milk http://design-milk.com/visit-vitra-switzerland-original-americas/

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The New Work Project by The New Design Project

We’ve seen a lot of co-working spaces pop up in the last few years. While some are designed solely for getting work done and are equipped with the bare essentials (desks, chairs, wifi), others like The New Work Project in Brooklyn, New York are more design-led, with an interior design approach that its creative members would appreciate.

Designed by Brooklyn-based interior design studio, The New Design Project, The New Work Project is a members-only workspace for those in the creative industries including: advertising, PR, marketing, architecture and design, TV, film and media, fashion, and publishing. Husband and wife duo James Davison and Fanny Abbes wanted to create a place where its members can live, work and play. The result for The New Work Project is a black and white interior design (as in, black and white chairs, wallpaper, wall art, and books). This classic theme is accented by brass fixtures, marble counters, woven textures, and pops of foliage. The furniture is all custom designed by The New Design Project, as well as other local Brooklyn designers such as J.M. Szymanski and Eskayel.

from Design MilkDesign Milk http://design-milk.com/new-work-project-new-design-project/

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Things Are What You Make Of Them by Adam JK

The writers that we’ve gotten to work with over the years here at D*S are some of the most talented and creative people on the planet. And one of those amazing people, Adam JK, has a brand new book that is going to bring a lot of good into the world.

Things Are What You Make Of Them is Adam’s rallying cry for not just creative people, but for all people who feel emotionally connected to the world and the creative community. Each page of this cheerful, colorful, and heartfelt book provides wisdom, advice, empathy and connection for those who are dealing with the sorts of ups and downs that come with creative careers. From reminders about setting goals and letting yourself off the hook for comparing yourself to others, Things Are What You Make Of Them is full of moments that we all need to hear and be reminded of. And the fact that it’s in a bite-size package (4×6″) makes all of those supportive moments easy to literally carry with you any time you need a pick-me-up.

This book was inspired by Adam’s series of hand-written essays here at DS, so our community already knows just how special and helpful Adam’s brand of encouragement is. His posts are not about false hope or blind optimism; they’re about a sense of really understanding what it’s like to live life as a creative person and to find a way to make it all work — the highs and the lows.

Things Are What You Make Of Them will be in stores everywhere on October 3rd, but I wanted to share this today because through October 8th, $2 of every book sold will go directly to the Tegan and Sara Foundation, which does work for economic justice, health, and representation for LGBTQ girls and women. (Penguin Books is donating $1 and Adam decided to match that donation himself!) So if you’d like to pick up a copy and support Adam’s work and the TSF, click here to find a store (online or in person) near you carrying the book.

I ordered 5 copies of Adam’s book to give away here at DS, so if YOU’d like to win a copy, leave a comment below telling us about a moment when you learned something meaningful in life or work and what that lesson was. Adam’s work has always inspired me to listen and learn more from small moments in life, and I can’t wait to hear some of yours. xo, Grace

from Design*Sponge http://www.designsponge.com/2017/09/things-are-what-you-make-of-them-by-adam-jk.html

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LDF17: designjunction2017 Expands to Five Sites

2017 saw designjunction return to King’s Cross with five locations: Cubitt House and Cubitt Park, the Canopy, Granary Square and The Crossing. 200 furniture, lighting, accessory, material, and technology brands exhibited alongside pop-up shops, installations, and interactive features. These are a few of our favorite finds – first up, Ham’s mural on the side of the Canopy featuring newly launched designs from the brand, whose founder we interviewed back in August.

Grace Souky’s Domestic Collectables is a series of 12 tableware objects that explore the connections between users and everyday objects, the different ways people interact with things around the ritual of food. “Each element fits in more than one place and serves more than one purpose,” says Grace, “resulting in a fun and playful experience that seeks to engage while exploring all possible combinations.”

Inspired by a Thomas Hardy poem entitled Old Furniture, David Irwin’s oak and ash collection for Another Country references 19th-century British classics such as the Windsor chair with the intention of creating pieces that will last for decades and be handed down for generations.

Ted Jefferis, the craftsman behind TedWood, hand makes bespoke furniture to order. The son of a classic boat builder, he studied furniture design and continues to explore the relationship between furniture and its surrounding interior space.

Victoria is a marble tea set – teapot, a milk jug, sugar bowl, cake stand, teacup and saucer and dessert plate – designed by Bethan Grey for Editions Milano. The collection’s relief pattern is hand-carved from Arrabescato marble by Italian craftsmen and paired with brushed brass.

The latest addition to David Irwin’s Working Girl collection for Deadgood is the Lounge Chair and Sofa, which, according to Deadgood, “adhere to the honest construction methods used throughout this collection and feature a soft seat and back pads supported by exposed webbing over a durable powder coated steel frame.”

Textiles designer Eleanor Pritchard worked with Matt Cockrem to solve the dilemma of how to display fabrics on a trade show stand with this elegant construction. “We were playing with ideas of perception, depth, and composition; with simple fabric shapes suspended in a series of steel frames,” she says. “From the sweet spot, marked with an X the viewer could ‘catch’ a perfect 1 x 1 meter square ‘flat’ composition – then as soon as their viewpoint changed the whole composition splintered into layered disparate geometric shapes. It was great fun to make and wonderful to see how it caught the imagination.”

Granby Workshop’s experiments in homeware continue with the launch of Splatware – born out of a desire to mass-produce one-offs. By combining colored clay sprayed with ceramic oxides, and pressing it into an industrial RAM Press, the designers are able to create consistent forms with unique patterns.

London-based Hampson Woods design and make wooden products made from local trees, often from arborists in and around London who specialize in clearing the fallen trees that would otherwise be chipped.

Loved by stylists the world over, Japanese brand MT Masking Tape made their designjunction debut, with a stand that made it very clear what they were selling.

And last but not least, this stunning installation by Adam Nathaniel Furman was made in collaboration with Turkishceramics. “Ceramics have always been, and continue to be, both the most historic, resonant and traditional, as well as the most fresh, perpetually surprising, delightful and exciting of architectural materials,” says Furman. “There is no other architectural treatment that has remained as fresh and relevant and cool as ceramics has from a thousand years BC, right through into the 21st Century.”

from Design MilkDesign Milk http://design-milk.com/ldf17-designjunction-expands-five-sites/

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Practice Practice Practice: Graphic 3D Ceramic Tiles by Zaven

Zaven, a multidisciplinary studio located in Venice, Italy, ventured into ceramic as a medium after discovering the work of Italian artist Nino Caruso a few years ago. In this project, entitled Practice Practice Practice, the pair gives nod to Caruso’s work by exploring scale and repetition in three-dimensional tiles that aim to “animate interiors”.

Using clay, Zaven was able to bring a bold, graphic element to a product that’s often got a flat exterior. The tiles play with positive and negative space through the mix of concave and convex surfaces. The result is three different modules that can be installed in different variations for a curated look.

Zaven debuted the Practice Practice Practice tiles at the London Design Fair as part of Brompton Design District.

Process photos:

Ceramics realized by Stylnove.

from Design MilkDesign Milk http://design-milk.com/practice-practice-practice-graphic-3d-ceramic-tiles-by-zaven/

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