Stone and walnut bathroom

To update your bathroom and bring a touch of nature to the space, why not try a stone and walnut bathroom? These two materials are really complementary and you can go for the real thing or, thanks to modern manufacturing technology, fake it in style.

Let’s take a look at walnut bathroom furniture first.

Available in all kinds of styles to suit both a contemporary or traditional room scheme, dark wood bathroom furniture can bring a real sense of luxury to your bathing space. The subtle yet striking grain of walnut adds a touch of detail while its dark colour brings sophistication to your overall decor.

Your wooden bathroom furniture can be either fitted, wall hung or freestanding and a selection of sizes can be purchased to suit almost any bathroom. The range can include anything from a fully fitted set of vanity units, storage units, medicine cabinets, tall cabinets and WC units to simple, standalone pieces such as washstands. And then you can choose from solid, natural walnut pieces to units with a walnut veneer – the latter are usually less expensive, but can look really effective in a contemporary setting.

You can complement walnut bathroom cabinets with pale, contrasting decor and white sanitaryware, or go for darker decor for some real impact. Either way, stone is a good material to use elsewhere in the room.

For a splash of boutique hotel style, you could think about adding a freestanding stone bath or countertop basin. Solid stone is not only incredibly heavy but also very expensive; a more manageable addition to your bathroom might be a bath and basin in stone resin. These pieces still have a very natural, beautiful appearance, but are lighter and consequently safer to move and install; they’re cheaper too. Tones range from a pale beige to darker, walnut hues, so you can almost match your basin and bath to your bathroom cabinets, or go a few shades paler for some contrast.

You may already be thinking about using stone tiles in this room scheme. While they are undoubtedly lovely, they can be hard work as they’ll need sealing (and resealing at intervals throughout their lifetime) and they’ll need to be cleaned with a specialist cleaning agent, too. Stone-look tiles made from porcelain or ceramic are increasingly realistic in appearance and have none of these drawbacks.

Depending on your personal taste, you may like to fully or partially tile the walls; if you opt for the latter option, you could choose a bathroom friendly vinyl wallpaper with a design that adds drama, or use a shade of bathroom paint which either emphasises or contrasts with your dark bathroom furniture.