20 Tips for Decorating Your Bathroom in Vintage Style

Pedestal Sinks with a Purpose

Pedestal sinks come in all shapes and sizes, but this petite version proves that a compact fixture can still deliver plenty of style. A tapered base and a crystal-like support give the round basin a fresh, modern feel. Around it, a metal chandelier and an antique mirror with timeworn lines and finishes add age and character. Wooden floors, woven baskets, and airy drapery bring relaxed texture into the otherwise luxurious mix.

Layered Textures

Textiles are one of the most effective ways to bring a vintage sensibility into a bathroom. In this space, a shaggy rug, fluffy white towels, and a flirtatious ruffled shower curtain around the claw-foot tub add pattern and softness. They also warm up the crisp white fixtures and serve as a comfortable counterpoint to the straight lines of the beadboard walls.

Old Objects, New Use

Furnish a bathroom with old pieces given a new purpose. Here, a handcrafted ladder works as a towel rack. A rusty table and a worn bench provide both display space and a place to set bathroom essentials. Notice the wooden tray stretched across the bathtub; it keeps lotions and scrubs close at hand and makes the room feel practical as well as charming.

Vintage Tile

To heighten the period character of a bathroom, install tile treatments inspired by early washrooms. In this example, the homeowners created a fresh look by using green penny tiles in black-and-white borders on the shower and bath floor. Retro daisy motifs on the floor and horizontal black accent tiles in the shower energize the otherwise mostly white room.

Elegant Shower Tile Ideas

Simple shower tile choices can still make a strong design statement when the materials and layout are thoughtfully planned. A limited palette, repeated borders, or a small decorative motif can be enough to give the whole room a distinct personality without overwhelming the space.

Architectural Details

Marble tile floors and finely paneled wainscoting give this charismatic bathroom a more formal presence. Classic details anchor the room in the past, as do the columns rising like sculptural frames around the windows. A pedestal tub and a capiz-shell light fixture echo that sense of refinement, combining graceful silhouettes with modern materials.

More Personality

Bright colors and quirky collectibles can make a vintage bathroom feel as though it has been assembled over many decades. Here, tall beadboard nods to early 20th-century beach houses and provides a backdrop for green and gold accents. Above the vanity, a wall often left empty becomes a display space for art, foliage, and a shelf edged with shells and fitted with a towel bar.

Beautiful in Blue

Vintage bathrooms often take on the cheerful spirit of a cottage. This one features a charming sink built from a repurposed dresser, a surf-and-sky color palette, and crisp white surfaces. Touches of gold add a polished shimmer that enhances the room’s collected, layered appeal.

Dramatic Flair

An eclectic attitude and retro influences combine here to create a bathroom that feels cohesive while drawing from several design eras. Using the same color scheme throughout helps the room feel intentional, while vintage-style tile, a claw-foot tub, textiles, and wallpaper work together as a unified whole. Bright green accents and sparkling silver details break up the field of black and white.

Retro Reflections

Why settle for a standard double vanity when expansive pedestal sinks can offer period-appropriate profiles and generous counter space? Sea-glass green paint on horizontally laid planks creates a coastal backdrop, setting off mirrored sconces and faucets with retro silhouettes. A prism chandelier adds extra sparkle and keeps the room from feeling too restrained.

Trendy Accessories

Salvage yards, secondhand shops, and specialty retailers offer a wide range of vintage and reproduction accessories. Some pieces are ready to use, while others can be adapted to bring a sense of the past into a bathroom. With a slightly industrial edge, this space uses a porthole-style mirror frame and a pendant lamp to light the shower area. A wide wall-mounted sink accommodates two faucets, while a factory chair with an aged patina has been repurposed for seating.

Airy Elegance

Vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors, white-painted rafters, and blue-gray walls trimmed in molding create a clean-lined backdrop that quietly references a barn interior. A custom vanity with a marble top and a partner dressing table pairs with a plush vanity bench, sheer curtains, and a claw-foot tub to create a beautifully furnished space. The look is polished, but still comfortable and lived in.

Striking Accents

Everyone needs more storage in a bathroom, and an antique cabinet like the one shown here offers a nostalgic solution for towels, toilet paper, and extra toiletries. Charming relics, such as framed ceiling tiles on the opposite wall and an industrial shower seat, reinforce the room’s vintage spirit and keep the design from feeling overly polished.

Chic Construction

A dresser cleverly converted into a vanity can give almost any bathroom a vintage look. Cutouts in the top make room for undermount sinks, while light sanding removes enough of the surface finish to distinguish the countertop from the dresser frame. Beadboard, a small wall cabinet, and a timeworn mirror carry the room back to another era without making it feel staged.

Warm and Welcoming

Blue walls create a calm boundary that highlights the vintage elements in this bathroom. The soothing color frames glossy white woodwork, classic black-and-white tile, and a claw-foot tub accented in silver. A leaf-patterned fabric is repeated in café curtains, stool upholstery, and the inserts in French doors, tying the blue-and-white scheme together throughout the room.

Modern Revival

Look to salvage sales for antique pieces with beautiful shapes and hardworking functions. An old cottage cabinet on the upper wood-clad walls, a painted table, and a dining chair complete the storage arrangement in this vintage bathroom. Another smart storage solution is a shallow shelf above the tile backsplash, deep enough to display colorful towels and keep toiletries within easy reach of the sink.

Defined Style

Penny tile, substantial wood, and a subway-tile backsplash are classic vintage-bathroom choices. A vintage-style light fixture and a mirror mounted above the pedestal sink reinforce the look. A battered metal table takes the place of a vanity countertop, while a wooden crate below adds age and texture.

Pedestal Sink

As in old-fashioned washrooms, a small bathroom makes the most of every inch. A pedestal sink placed beneath a pair of multi-pane windows establishes a vintage mood, reinforced by a bamboo table, a weathered chair, and a dresser. Old-fashioned furnishings provide storage and display space that increase the room’s usefulness, while marble tile and subway tile in the tub and shower area keep the design honest and timeless.

Chic and Shiny

Every bathroom can benefit from a little extra sparkle. This silver claw-foot tub brings a lively vintage note, as do the silver-framed mirror and chandelier-style pendant light. Molding with a ledge-like profile and a shelf running halfway up the wall provide places to display sea-inspired collectibles. Mirrors set behind the shelf amplify the light, make glass containers gleam, and help the room feel larger.