At Parker Howley, we help hundreds of people a year make their dream bathrooms a reality, and as such, we know a hundred things or two about creating the ultimate bathroom.
In our guide to modern bathroom design, we distil down a huge number of design tips into 5 key elements, to help you create the perfect modern bathroom in your home.
Essential Factors & Features of Modern Bathroom Design
1. Spa Vibes and Quiet Luxury
Whether you call it spa-like design, or quiet luxury, modern bathroom design centres around creating an elegant, minimalist sanctuary of calm and relaxation, where every element is of the highest possible quality, and is carefully considered for its aesthetic impact.
The features of a spa-like luxury modern bathroom are:
- Spa-like fixtures, like floating vanity units with luxury basins, freestanding baths, and statement showers.
- Refined, high-quality hardware and accessories, such as bath and basin taps, showerheads, mirrors, door knobs, towel rails and hooks.
- Luxury materials, such as high-quality timber, marble, granite, stone and ceramic/porcelain.
- Relaxing lighting, specifically 3-tier ambient, task, and accent lighting, to achieve a spa-like aesthetic and feel.
- Luxury final touches, such as bathroom toiletries, scented candles, snow white cotton robes (on display via vanity unit shelves, floating shelves, or open shelving solutions), and even bluetooth speakers, can help to elevate your bathroom
2. Focal Points
Focal points create drama. They’re the ultimate way to create a strong visual identity, and ensure aesthetic impact each time the door is opened.
From confident colour pallets and decorative choices, to architectural arches, statement showers and baths, and vanity units, there are multiple options to choose from and implement together.
As manufacturers of bespoke vanity units, we see all year round how a vanity unit, and specifically floating models, which create an airy, spacious look and feel, bring a bathroom to life. They’re a modern bathroom design essential.
Explore our full range, or dive into our contemporary collection. Every model is available as floating or freestanding models, in the colour of your choosing. Your perfect focal point is a few clicks away.
3. Muted Tones, Statement Wallpaper & Statement Tiling
Whether you’re into cool pallets, neutrals, or like to embrace a splash of colour, muted tones are a popular feature of modern bathroom design in 2025, helping to create a serene and calming aesthetic.
Similarly, accent walls complete with panelling or statement wallpaper like these designs, are a popular choice to contrast the room’s muted tones, and introduce a dramatic focal point.
Statement tiling is another increasingly popular addition to modern bathrooms, whether it’s a beautifully accented vanity unit splash back, a strong shower tiling choice that lifts the whole room, or marble and stone floor titling, there’s lots of tiling options to explore to create the ultimate modern space.
4. Natural Materials & Fluted Finishes
Natural materials are key to creating a modern sanctuary of peace and relaxation, and can help to create the spa-like aesthetic we explored in the previous point.
Consider a high-quality wooden vanity unit and bathroom furniture, nickel and copper basins, beadboard wall panelling, concrete flooring, stone or concrete freestanding statement baths, woven rugs, and bamboo, ceramic or stone decorative accessories.
Fluted finishes on vanity units and other furniture is an increasingly popular feature of modern bathroom design, and help to create a depth and texture which is often very difficult to achieve in bathrooms without the use of bathroom-inappropriate textiles used across the rest of the home.
We use only the highest quality Prime European oak, American tulipwood, and Quartz Stone, to make our vanity units and tallboy storage units, and offer a range of vanity unit models with fluted finishes, like The Gabe, The Italian Combinato, The Italian, Harewood, and more.
5. BIG Fixtures & Features
If space allows, going big on your floating vanity by opting for a double unit, and choosing large mirrors and lighting fittings, can help you to capture the essence of modern bathroom design.
Large mirrors create visual impact and drama, but also reflect more light around the room, creating a brighter, roomier feel, and when positioned across from a window, door or transitional area, reflect the large room outside, into your bathroom.
At Parker Howley, we offer mirrors from leading brands like Crosswater and Origins Living, as well as our own Curated by PH range. Explore the City Mirror and Ravenna Light mirror to max out on size, or the less enormous, Cambridge, Artist Illuminated, and Tate models.
Contact our team today to begin piecing together the ultimate modern bathroom design. At Parker Howley, we manufacture bespoke vanity units, storage units and accessories, in Yorkshire UK, offer basins, taps and accessories from the market’s leading luxury bathroom brands, and even source baths and showers to offer a one-stop-shop tailored solution.
