Six simple ways to add character, style, drama and warmth to your bathroom
If you're looking for ways to spruce up your home, the bathroom is a great place to start — and Amelia Thorpe has some ideas.


Coloured tiles for character
Add character to the simplest showering space with an interesting mix of softly coloured tiles: Gelato gloss ceramic wall tiles in Azura, left, and Marine, £47.47 per sq m, with Melrose Grey porcelain floor tiles, £43.13 per sq m. Mandarin Stone — 01600 715444; www.mandarinstone.com
Arts-and-Crafts style
Taking its inspiration from the Arts-and-Crafts era, the Edwin bobbin trolley is made from English oak and stained in a choice of three shades or painted. It is made to order and costs from £1,600. Balineum — 020–7431 9364; www.balineum.co.uk

Copper-bottomed baths for a dramatic touch
Drummonds baths are available in a variety of beautiful finishes, now including Burnished Copper. Created by wrapping the cast-iron tub in sheet copper, which is then burnished and polished by hand to create a luminous lustre, the effect is shown here on the Wye bateau bath, £10,740. Drummonds — 020–7376 4499; www.drummonds-uk.com
Wood for natural warmth
Wood adds warmth to a bathroom design and is ideal if your space is feeling a touch cool and clinical. This £1,435 Edinburgh wash-stand is made of treated oak, with a Carrara marble top and ceramic basin, plus open shelves for useful storage. Neptune — 01793 427450; www.neptune.com
For a bit of fresh appeal, think about mosaics
These Confiserie recycled-glass mosaics add subtle interest to a wall; £79.88 per sq m. Claybrook — 020–7052 1555; www.claybrookstudio.co.uk)
Light touch for delicate charm
The scattered pattern of faded roses on concrete-effect background gives these porcelain floor and wall tiles a delicate charm. Available with a co-ordinating range of plain concrete-effect tiles; £118.80 per sq m. Lapicida — 01423 400100; www.lapicida.com
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Credit: Joanna Wood
Beautiful bathrooms: How to design your lighting, draw the eye and make the most of your space
Bathrooms are typically the smallest room in the house - interior designer Joanna Wood shares her top tips and tricks
11 steps to creating a perfect bathroom for your house
When the interior designer Joanna Wood moved to an 18th-century manor house in the Cotswolds, she had an opportunity to
Credit: Harry Lowther/Lewis & Wood
How large-scale wallpaper can transform a space beyond recognition
Fortune favours the bold – in actions and interiors. Giles Kime explains how big and bold can make a small room
Credit: Designer Susie Atkinson
Designer secrets: Susie Atkinson on the keys to perfect lighting
Susie Atkinson, a designer whose projects include Soho House, shared her best lighting tips with Country Life.
Amelia Thorpe is a design and interiors journalist and regular contributor to Country Life. She spent the first half of her career book publishing, before jumping the fence to become a writer — a role that she adores. Amelia lives in London with her husband and two roguish dogs.
-
Designer's Room: A solid oak French kitchen that's been cleverly engineered to last
Kitchen and joinery specialist Artichoke had several clever tricks to deal with the fact that natural wood expands and contracts.
By Amelia Thorpe
-
Chocolate eggs, bunnies and the Resurrection: Country Life Quiz of the Day, April 18, 2025
Friday's quiz is an Easter special.
By James Fisher
-
The key to a great bathroom? Make it feel more like your sitting room — even to the point of having an armchair next to the bath
Flora Soames is on a mission to encourage more and more of us to embrace the concept of the decorated bathroom.
By Country Life
-
The £27,600 wooden bathtub and other modern day marvels to create an unforgettable bathroom
When is a bath not a bath? When it's a work of art.
By Toby Keel
-
Soaking it up: Five brilliant bathubs
Make a bath an event, with these extraordinary bathrooms and bathtubs selected by Amelia Thorpe.
By Amelia Thorpe
-
Best free-standing baths from £4,000 to £14,000 — for people who really want to splash out
Free-standing baths for making a statement — not to mention causing havoc with your bank statement.
By Amelia Thorpe
-
How a chance discovery of a wallpaper fragment inspired the look of this country house bathroom
A fragment of hand-painted chinoiserie set the scene for the decoration of this bathroom at Keythorpe Hall, Leicestershire.
By Arabella Youens
-
10 things I wish I'd known about doing up old houses before I started, by Country Life's interiors guru Giles Kime
Country Life’s executive editor and resident interiors expert Giles Kime shares the lessons he’s learnt from the experience of dragging a succession of houses into the 21st-century.
By Giles Kime
-
Breathtaking new looks for bathrooms, from linen and lights to a truly spectacular nickel bathtub
Elegant baths, vanities and accessories to add a touch of luxury to your bathroom, selected by Amelia Thorpe.
By Amelia Thorpe
-
Everything you need to transform your bathroom into a stylish oasis, from patterned walls to elegant marble washstands
Ideas and inspiration as selected by Amelia Thorpe.
By Amelia Thorpe