Bathroom design is evolving, and concrete is an excellent alternative finish for a modern bathroom.
I am Jorge Fontan, an architect in New York and owner of Fontan Architecture, an NYC-based architecture and design firm. In this post, we will review a concrete-look bathroom we completed a few years ago and discuss some of its design features.
Concrete Bathroom Walls
Concrete bathroom walls offer a unique blend of modernity, minimalism, and industrial aesthetics. In the bathroom, and especially the shower, we use a smooth texture for enhanced comfort. Furthermore, you can complement the overall design by incorporating other modern and industrial elements accentuating the concrete textures.
In this bathroom, you can see the smooth concrete texture on the walls. This finish was applied to the bathroom walls by hand, and these types of finishes rely heavily on craftsmanship.
This bathroom with concrete-look walls becomes monochromatic, as it only has gray, black, and white throughout.
Concrete Bathroom Walls
Concrete Shower
This shower is unique and modern, with a concrete finish for the walls and floor. The bathroom only has a few materials, with a concrete texture being the primary. As you can see in the picture below, concrete can be very modern and textured but still minimalistic.
This bathroom has no grout lines since we did not use any tiles. It is one continuous surface. The monolithic nature of the material makes this bathroom really special.
We have another blog post if you want to see some designs of Gray Bathrooms.
Concrete Shower
Concrete Bathroom Floor
If you make a concrete floor in a bathroom, you want it to be smooth enough to ensure it is comfortable to walk on. There are many details to consider when making a bathroom, especially when doing something a bit less common, like a concrete bathroom.
The picture below shows a close-up look at the bathroom floor. This bathroom has a curbless shower with a continuous floor without a step or curb. We installed a linear drain with a concrete finish top to make it more monolithic. The bathroom floors and walls are seamless. A curbless shower is a very modern detail. We have another post if you would like to read more about Curbless Showers.
Concrete Bathroom Floor
Modern and Industrial Details
We also placed a custom ceiling-mounted towel bar made of black tube metal in this bathroom. The black metal went very well with the bathroom’s concrete look. The most important thing about a bathroom is to design it as one entity. It is best if you make everything work together. Be consistent.
Custom Ceiling Mounted Towel Bar
Concrete and Wood
Concrete and wood are a good combination for having fun with creative freedom. The picture below shows the door to this bathroom. The orange-stained wood door pops out and brings life to this concrete apartment.
Concrete and Wood Interior Design
Industrial Hardware and Accessories
You can easily compliment your concrete walls and floors with industrial hardware and accessories. Since concrete already has an industrial feel, keeping the motif consistent is a great look.
Industrial Bathroom Door Hardware
Modern Concrete Bathroom Design
In my opinion, there is only one real reason to make your bathroom with concrete: it looks awesome. Concrete has an inherent modern look and gives a bathroom design a custom architectural feel. The seamless nature of concrete is a significant factor in its contemporary and minimalist look, which sets concrete bathrooms apart from other bathroom designs.
We have another blog post you can check out filled with Bathroom Design Ideas for all different types of bathrooms.
Good design is consistent, and the entire bathroom should be one coherent space. All details need to be meticulously thought out.
Thank you for reading our blog post on Concrete Bathroom Design
I hope this was helpful. If you want to speak with an architect about a project you are planning, contact us at Fontan Architecture directly.
This post was written by Jorge Fontan AIA a Registered Architect and owner of New York City architecture firm Fontan Architecture. Jorge Fontan has earned 3 degrees in the study of architecture including two degrees from the City University of New York and a Masters Degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University. Jorge has a background in construction and has been practicing architecture for 20 years where he has designed renovations and new developments of various building types.
