Tips to decorate your bathroom with Mary, Inside Owner

Mary McBain, owner of Inside, talks bathroom decoration tips and the importance of details. 

Mary, what are the main tips to decorate a bathroom?

1. Choose your colour scheme

To begin with, choose a colour scheme for your bathroom. Typically, choose no more than 3 colours. This colour scheme will be a good base to select objects and accessories that best fit your interior. 

The first objects that can give a gorgeous aesthetic while coordinating your chosen colour scheme are towels. They don't all have to match: the patterns and hues can be different. For example, if your colour scheme is blue, you can have a dark blue-striped towel on your towel holder, with a plain light blue towel underneath it.  

Then, use some colour-coordinated wash bags to enhance the chosen colour and general mood. 


2. Give attention to the little details 

Never underestimate the use of glass containers! A bathroom will instantly look more appealing with beautiful storage containers, in which you can put your cotton pads for example. 




Enhance the decorative aspect of your bathroom (and the fragrance) with a candle and a matchbox. 

Try to keep your tissues in a tissue box and use a colour-coordinated soap holder! 




Last but not least, why not add a nice hook for your colour-coordinated dressing gown?


3. Easily decorate with curtains, paintings and rugs

Bathrooms tend to be the most unloved rooms, especially in Hong Kong. 
People worry the humidity of a bathroom will spoil paintings or pictures on the wall. In fact, I've had this set of prints from London for 20-30 years already without any damage! Prints can also give an amusing touch to the bathroom. 



People tend to dislike using curtains in the bathroom for the same reason. Most bathrooms have very small windows - the advantage is that you can take an expensive fabric and use it as a window cover affordably. 

This fabric has been in the bathroom for 10 years without any special treatment and has never had mould. The green represents my favourite colour and the setting outside. 




An easy way to soften up a bathroom floor is to use a rug: another thing that people will tend to shy away from. This Weavergreen rug that I use in the bathroom is made from recyclable bottles: they are extremely durable and versatile, as you can use them anywhere indoors or outdoors. They are very easy to wash!