The toilet is one of the smallest rooms in the home, but it is used several times a day. That's why it's important to decorate your toilet with care.
We've collected 11 ideas on how to make your toilet look and feel like home without compromising on practicality and ease of use.
The 2020s have kicked off with the emergence of ecological surfaces. Sustainable choices and interest in domestic products are becoming more and more visible in consumers' purchasing behaviour every year. The values behind wood furnishing are linked to environmentally friendly and sustainable values, and real wood is now being used boldly on all surfaces in the home.
Wood is a familiar interior design element for Finns, which is calming and has been proven to support well-being. Wooden surfaces used in interiors have restorative effects on the body and mind, and the acoustic properties of wood are also effective in softening the soundscape of the home.
The popular terrace material is getting an even better substitute
The toilet is such a small room that it is often decorated with just scraps. If you've redecorated your kitchen, bedroom or living room, for example, use the extra panels to decorate your toilet! With just a few small details, your toilet can take on a whole new and fresh look.
Here are 11 ideas for decorating your toilet with wood:
1. Natural colours replace white and grey
In the interior trends of the early 2020s, natural tones have taken over from the cold shades of white and grey. Interior colours are now leaning more towards beige and sandy tones. The range of wood panels is wide, with light tones already being joined by dark spicy tones and honeyed warm wood finishes. Trends for the coming years are expected to bring a bolder variety of wood tones to Finnish interiors.
What if, in the morning dream, you stomped into a warm and atmospheric bathroom instead of an echoing white, fluorescent-lit toilet?
2. Surprise your toilet with a wooden effect wall
Instead of wallpaper and paint, the eye-catchers of the 2020s will be beautiful, wooden panels. Panels are already widely used to enhance living areas or kitchens, but they are equally suitable for toilets.
The many colour and width options of the panels give you a wide range of possibilities to create a personalised toilet space. With a wide, dark-coloured horizontal panel, you can create a completely different atmosphere than with a vertical, narrow panel. However, when considering toilet renovation ideas, it's comforting to know that a pre-tinted panel requires no laborious treatment and is easy to install.
A particularly handy wooden panel for a small toilet space is Siparila's PALA™ decorative panel, available in half-metre and metre lengths. The PALA™ panel is also easy to install, as it is glued directly to a stone or concrete surface, or to clean wood or plasterboard. The short panel is an excellent material for a variety of barn designs: how about a beautiful herringbone barn or graphic panel squares on your toilet wall?
3. Choose the right wood panel for your toilet ceiling too
It's easy to add space and a sense of space to a small toilet with a light ceiling panel. A light-coloured ceiling seems to rise higher, while a dark ceiling seems naturally heavier.
The roof itself rarely gets much attention unless it has been given special attention. Break with tradition and play freely with the roofing material of your toilet - a wider, white plank creates a link to a rustic-romantic setting, but is a black panel resembling thin strips the most natural way for you to add personality to your toilet interior?
4. Plants, grasses and straw go well with wood
Natural materials and colours are complemented by a variety of green plants, grasses and straws. While it is sensible to keep toilet and bathroom interiors simple in terms of cleaning, plants add freshness and colour. Delicate green eucalypts and delicate air plants are particularly well suited to Scandinavian light homes.
Finnish homes have also recently seen more and more different types of straw and hay. Natural materials can easily be used in toilet decoration with baskets of different sizes or even jute or hemp matting.
5. Repeat warm tones on taps and pulls
If warm colours are now seen in the interior anyway, warm metallic tones have also taken over alongside chrome water fixtures. Brass, rose gold and copper are popular colours for both taps and pulls, and decoratively they line up beautifully with warm wood surfaces.
6. The direction of the panelling emphasises the dimensions of the room
Especially when panelling a small room, it is good to note that the direction of the panelling has a significant impact on the spatial impact of the toilet. If you install the panels horizontally, the toilet will appear wider and shallower, while a vertically panelled toilet will feel taller and narrower. The bold decorator chooses the PALA™ interior panel and sets it in a herringbone pattern!
The width of the panel and the pattern of the wood also play a role in the atmosphere of the room. The clinical, monochromatic, knotless panel surface is giving way to a real wood surface, where knots and heartwood nuances emphasise the naturalness of the wood. An excellent example of a beautiful living wood surface is the JALO interior panel made of ash, which, when splash-proofed, is ideal for toilet interiors. Real wood also emphasises the personality and humanity of the chosen material.
7. Layer your interior by combining tile, stone, wood and textiles
You can create an atmospheric toilet interior by combining different surfaces. Tiles are often used in damp rooms, and their hardness makes the room resonate. The warm, acoustically softening wood is a good counterpart to hard tile or stone surfaces. White tiles, particularly popular in the 2010s, can create a rather sterile impression in damp rooms, but similar white tiles combined with warm wood tones can make a room feel much cosier.
Various micro-cements and natural stone surfaces also provide an excellent contrast to wood panels. When you add textiles to the wood and tiles, you'll find that a layered interior is much more interesting than a traditional, tiled bathroom. The trend-conscious decorator will choose trendy fabrics that match the tone of the wood, such as linen, cotton, silk, jute or multi-coloured knits.
8. Ensure adequate lighting
Lighting plays an important role in toilets and bathrooms, where most of the beauty and make-up work takes place. Toilets often have only a small window, if any, so the amount of natural light in the room is limited. So make sure that there are enough light sources, at least some of which are as close as possible to the toilet mirror and illuminate the face well.
The surface of the wood panel naturally reflects light, and choosing light wood in particular will create a bright but soft ambience in your toilet.
If you're looking for a solution that combines paneling and linear lighting, check out our VALO interior panels. The VALO interior panel is shaped like a cornice with deep open seams, and the groove between the panels allows for the installation of an LED strip that is hidden from view. VALO can be used both on the wall and on the ceiling.
9. The atmosphere in the toilet is influenced by the treatment of the wooden surface
As our idealist has already pointed out, the range of wood panels is varied. Is the most natural-coloured panel best suited to your toilet interior, or are you looking for a gleaming wood surface in a pearlescent shade?
You can find translucent white birch panels in our range, for example, in KOO interior panels and VIRE interior panels in hardwood. The pearlescent shades of USVA add a sparkle to the wood surface. The STRUKTUURI decorative panel comes in a range of colours, including a black wood option with a translucent.
10. Also consider toilet fixtures when choosing wood panels
With the growing popularity of wooden interior panels, wood has also raised its profile in toilet furniture surfaces. If your toilet has a wooden worktop, the colour options for the wall and ceiling panels will naturally blend in with it. So you can choose to have a table top and wall panels in the same colour, or combine light and dark wood tones in a more relaxed way.
11. Wooden panels can also be used in damp rooms
Although combining wooden surfaces with water sounds risky, many interior panels have been treated to resist moisture. Our range of interior panels, such as KASTE, KOO, RAILO, VALO, JALO and VIRE, are suitable for use in damp environments.
Often, toilets do not require a wall or ceiling panel to be particularly water-resistant, as the room is not used for showering or bathing. If you want to place a wooden panel behind a hand basin, you can protect it with a glass panel if necessary, so that splashes from dirty hands do not stain the wooden surface.
Genuine wood surfaces also store and release moisture, which has a positive effect on indoor air quality, especially during the dry, frosty months of winter. The storage of moisture in wood in this context is not in any way a negative phenomenon, nor is it detrimental to the building, but is a natural and necessary phenomenon in the context of wood cladding.
Toilet decoration - summary
In the 2020s, toilets will be decorated with natural materials and layering.
Here's another checklist to help you create a cosy toilet room interior:
- an effect wall made of real wood panels is now more topical than effect wallpaper or paint
- use wooden surfaces with personality: choose a table top, hardwood furniture and wall panels in the same colour, or create contrast by mixing dark and light in a relaxed way
- add layering with plants and textiles
If you have any questions regarding the decoration of your toilet, please contact us. We are wood furnishing professionals and work with dozens of interior designers and architects!
