The powder room should be your home’s most visually exciting space. It’s where you and your decorator can go absolutely bananas (or banana leaf wallpaper, if you’re truly strapped for ideas). Along with graphic wallpaper—which is fair game since you’re not dealing with moisture from a bathtub, shower, or steam room—you can spend most of your budget on something wild, maybe even hand-painted or antique. It’s also the perfect opportunity to experiment with bold paint colors as well as stylish mirrors, lighting, and unexpected flourishes. So are you ready to go for broke? These 37 statement powder rooms have all the inspiration you’ll need.
1
Color-Blocked Powder Room
ELLE DECOR A-List designer Patrick Mele really went for it in this Upper East Side powder room. The walls and ceiling are a Crayola fever dream in the best possible way, which, if you own a paint roller, you can easily mimic.
2
“Real Housewives” Intensity
What did you expect Andy Cohen’s powder room vibe to be? This one in his Greenwich Village apartment—designed by ELLE DECOR A-Lister Eric Hughes and covered in Flavor Paper’s shining gold Cherry Forever mylar wallpaper and electric pink accents—is the interior embodiment of a Real Housewives reunion.
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3
Zigzag Powder Room
In Eric Egan’s 1890s Milan apartment, Grace Jones stands as a striking presence, adding flair to the powder room. The designer’s adept fusion of chevron-patterned wallpaper with Moroccan floor tiles adds a trippy contrast.
4
Multimarble Powder Room
Designer Augusta Hoffman chose distinct stones for the powder room of her Manhattan apartment. The floor and wainscoting are in travertine and Calacatta Viola marble.
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5
Desert-Inspired Powder Room
Mind the glochids! In San Antonio, Lake | Flato designed this poolside powder room enveloped in bespoke cacti-themed wallpaper.
6
Moiré Powder Room
In the powder room of a Brooklyn home designed by Jett Projects, an ovular mirror by Fontana Arte screams for attention against a backdrop of burgundy moiré wallpaper by Dedar.
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7
Statement Pendant Powder Room
In this neutral-toned bathroom designed by Chad Dorsey, the mouth of a hungry bronze pendant light sourced from Fuse Lighting stays open above a Strike Malibu vanity crafted from Danby marble.
8
Botanical Bomb Powder Room
In this quaint Australian house with interiors by Powell & Glenn, thanks to a very deliberate wallpaper choice, botanicals are the message—and that message is reading loud and clear. It’s even monopolized the reflection in the statement Gubi mirror. These vines have you trapped, but you should consider yourself lucky.
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9
Timber and Concrete Powder Room
“I really wanted it to be a place where you didn’t want to leave,” designer Sara Oswalt says of this Lake Tahoe retreat. With a power coupling of timber and concrete, this bathroom accomplished that mission in style.
10
Honeycomb-Print Powder Room
In a prewar apartment on the Upper East Side of New York City, designer Lucy Doswell let this Robert Kime honeycomb-patterned wallpaper and 19th-century Dutch mirror set a tenebrous northern European mood in the powder room.
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11
Hand-Painted Powder Room
Hand-painted Porter Teleo floral wallpaper and a complementary ink-blue ceiling give this powder room in a loft in TriBeCa an ineffable charm that transcends the space’s modest dimensions.
12
Pretty in Pink Powder Room
Accessories designer Christina Wang went with a cocoon of muted pink—from the walls to the hand towels—in the powder room of her New York City apartment.
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13
Checked-Out Powder Room
Victoria Sass evidently has a penchant for checker patterns (or two). In designing the powder room for a lakeside hideaway on Lac Courte Oreilles in northern Wisconsin, she teamed up with Clay Squared to Infinity to create custom black glazed tiles that beautifully complement the Pierre Frey square-motif wallpaper.
14
Bronze Luxe Powder Room
Gilded is a look that doesn’t appeal to everyone. It’s territory where only eagles dare. But when Poonam Khanna offsets the bling with black ceramic tiles, all doubt dissipates. The mirror is by Studio Matter Made, tiles by Heath Ceramics, a sink and fittings by Piet Boon, and a hand towel by Coyuchi.
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15
Palette Cleanser Powder Room
When your walls are covered in multicolored ikat wallpaper framed in green paint, the powder room might need to go against type. In this Manhattan example, designer Augusta Hoffman opted to maintain a clean and timeless aesthetic by incorporating traditional subway tiles in crisp white.
16
Cork-Covered Powder Room
This powder room by architect Gil Schafer sets a mood—a good one, though. The Venetian blinds on the tall windows allow for precise control over the abundant sunlight, creating a peaceful cork-covered sanctuary. It’s a perfect place to catch one’s breath when the demands of domestic life become overwhelming.
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17
Grotto-Inspired Powder Room
Montana Labelle turned the powder room of a Toronto house into a cave-chic stone showstopper. But it's not the custom sink by Kit King that is most arresting, but the sculptural sculptural vintage mirror which is giving B.N.P.E. (big neo-plasticism energy).
18
Sherbert Powder Room
As Sally and Michel Perrin’s Mexico Shangri-la designed by Diego Villaseñor proves, subtlety belongs nowhere near a powder room. The hand-carved wood mirror is by David Hurwitz, and the sconces are custom.
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19
Statement Sconce Powder Room
In an apartment in a New York City designed by Richard Mishaan, the powder room’s sink fittings are by Sherle Wagner International, and the sconce is by Rosie Li for Roll & Hill.
20
Dramatic Marble Powder Room
When you choose a hunk of high-drama Cassiopeia marble for your vanity, like this one by Michael K. Chen, it’s advisable to take it down a notch when accessorizing. The custom mirror is by Kin & Company, the sconces are by Lindsey Adelman, and the walls are sheathed in Venetian plaster.
Charles Curkin
Articles Editor, ELLE Decor
Charles Curkin is ELLE Decor's Articles Editor, covering everything related to luxury watches, design, and travel, and has previously written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Paris Review.