10 unique bathroom ideas to steal

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Designer Angela Free installed tiles to form wide, horizontal stripes in a 37-square-foot guest bathroom in a San Francisco, California house. "Stripes are a nice, graphic design element that can bring movement and pattern to a room, but not in a busy way," she says. By wrapping the pattern around the space, she opened it up and created "flow, a borderless space."

The medicine cabinets in this Michigan lake house bathroom are hidden behind the mirrors, a trick that works because they're so overscale.

Bing: Hidden medicine cabinets

Want to do something similar? "Be sure the frame projects just enough off the wall so you can open it with one hand," architect Bill Ingram says.

Designer Peter Dunham added an unexpected twist to this bathroom in a Los Angeles home: a fireplace.

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"I flipped the positions of the bedroom and bath, which is why the bath now has the fireplace," he says. "It's extremely sexy and luxe, isn't it?" The photo, by Miguel Flores-Vianna, is from Nathan Turner. The Chinese tabouret and Caucasian carpet ottoman are from Hollywood at Home.

Editor Zim Loy painted a vintage dresser black, added Creations ring pulls from Alno for a campaign-chest look, and turned it into a master bath vanity for her Italianate house in Kansas Ciy, Missouri.

Bing: Vintage dresser bathroom vanities

She also fitted the piece with shallow Cheviot Estoril drop-in sinks, so even the top drawers are usable.

To create a spa-like feel in a Charlotte, North Carolina, bathroom, designer Barrie Benson added a pebble floor.

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"Feet have the most pressure points in the body, and standing on smooth cobbled stones is very relaxing, even therapeutic," she says. "I had a good laugh with my client when she told me that stepping on those pebbles 'rocks her chakras.'"

An Amanda Weil photo on glass creates a window where there is none in a Park Avenue master bathroom designed by homeowner Royce Pinkwater. The rest of the bathroom is done in pure white Thassos marble. "I like harmony and consistency in a home," she says.

The small size of powder rooms means you'll spend less on materials, so they're great places to experiment. "I don't believe in very many rules, but I do love the idea that a powder room should always have loads of personality," designer Mona Ross Berman says of a bathroom in a New Jersey beach house. "And we took turquoise as far as it could go in this one." Wallpaper is Recessed from Studio Printworks.

In this 42-square-foot bathroom in Dallas, Texas, designer Amanda Reilly didn't skimp on lighting. She even lit below the vanity, which is a great trick for the small room. "It highlights the open space underneath," she says. Cube tub by Wet Style. CaesarStone counter in Lagos Blue.

In a Santa Ynez, California house, designer Mary Watkins Wood used a rug instead of a bath mat. Rugs are made to withstand a lot more wear than the occasional wet foot! A Waterworks Candide tub is painted Dunn-Edwards Slate. Chair covered in Scalamandre Feng Shui. Mecox ceramic garden seat.

A small attic room in Tewksbury, New Jersey was transformed into a bathroom by designer Dan Ruhland. Since there was no wall space, Ruhland had to hang the medicine cabinet above the sink. "We found a way to use the shower rod system to hang it," he says. "Then we glued a mirror to the back, so it's mirrored on both sides."