Whimsical Green Bathrooms

When décoristas discuss green bathrooms these days, are they talking about color or sustainability?

The answer is: green bathrooms can be either or both. As the creator of a soothing Seafoam Bathroom, I naturally gravitate to soft watery and minty green hues. But I also enjoy a bit of brashness in the bathroom — so many are beautiful but bland.

The playfulness of a blue-green bath [top], designed for a young girl, caught my immediate attention.  With its green mosaic-tile floor, seaspray walls and zany green glass pulls on the cream-colored vanity, it has a toothpaste-fresh look. And I truly covet that quirky pair of mirrors with painted arabesque frames.

A more suburban style bath relies on variegated green mosaic tile on the shower walls to set the color scheme. For me, the mix is a bit difficult here since the shower says Mid-Century modern, the mirrored vanity front with its chain motif feels more 1960s Hollywood Regency, planked walls say country and the shield-shape mirror speaks its own language. Plus, there’s a very science lab faucet. In a way, this bath has too many good things but the menthol green is unexpected and lets the other elements breathe. As shower walls go, these are comforting on the worst day. And the knee wall in the shower extends just far enough to snuggle the vanity into a small bathroom space.

As renovations go, it doesn’t get better than this all-white subway tile bath that is so smart because it lets the retro jadeite pedestal sink and matching tub dominate. Setting colorful fixtures off this way points up their sculptural qualities and lets details like the paneled sides and ends of the tub become the focal points. It’s inspiring that a large-scale marble tile floor straight from a big box makes vintage look so great.

Chippy painted furniture is part of the cottage/farmhouse language, especially when it’s Easter Egg green, a color common during the middle of the 20th century. A two-drawer table turned vanity gives this bath in an instant sense of history. That’s the point since the bath was installed in a 1830 farm house designed by Historical Concepts, a Georgia architectural firm, in collaboration with Southern Living magazine. The house, in Senoia, Georgia, was intended to be a historic renovation Idea House with materials partly salvaged from the original building. For me, this green bath is a star feature.

I did save the most eccentric, double-green bath for last. The living wall behind the tub makes it green literally, offers an indoor-outdoor effect all year long, and contributes a dominant herb and fern color — whimsical to say the least.

(Source: LDA Architecture & Interiors, BH&G, remodelista, Historical Concepts, freshome)

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