11 Things That Make Your Bathroom Look Dated

These outdated bathroom trends are hardly spring chickens.

Let’s set one thing straight: Old doesn’t mean bad. We love antique, vintage, and second hand home goods and in our opinion, our favorite timeless heirlooms have aged like fine wine. However, where you get into tricky territory, is with outdated trends. When a home decorating trend booms into popularity, it can crumble into obscurity just as quickly. If you buy into the wrong trend, in just a few years time, it can serve as an unfortunate, outdated remnant of styles past.

“In a charming historic home from the turn of the 20th century or a mid century home, there may be beautiful original tile that if it's in good condition, it's worth keeping,” explains interior designer Whitney Romanoff. “Those things we love to keep, but it's when people do something that's too trendy that makes you think ‘Oh, this was definitely from 2016.’”

In fact, Romanoff says that the “most heartbreaking” perpetrators of adversely aging a bathroom aren't styles from Grandma’s house. Instead, she says that the “biggest offenders” are the generic builder-grade styles from the '90s and early 2000s—especially when they’re out of place, like in a historic 1920s home with a distinctly 2005 bathroom.

To prevent your bathroom from prematurely aging, designers recommend using materials that can withstand the test of time and relying on timeless styles. While trends often cycle back into fashion, some bathroom decorating fads haven’t aged so favorably since they hit their peak. Having these dated trends in your bathroom may send it reeling tragically back to the 80s, 90s, early 2000s, or even just a few years ago. And not in a good way.

Alison Gootee; Styling: Page Mullins

When Romanoff thinks of a dated bathroom, monochrome white and gray washrooms are what come to mind. These were all the rage from 2015 to 2018 especially among builders and house-flippers, she says. These days however, an all-white or all-gray bathroom can act as an unpleasant symbol of an outdated trend, and may seem seriously lacking in pizazz. Romanoff recommends sprinkling in color and texture to make your bathroom more unique, interesting, and modern.

When working on a client’s home, if the bathroom has a glass block window or wall, interior designer Zoe Feldman knows that those have to go immediately. These barriers of thick, distorted glass are not only dead ringers for the '80s and '90s, but are also prone to cracking. Both their style and wear and tear may render glass blocks into fossils.

LAUREY W. GLENN; STYLING BY KENDRA SURFACE

A laminate countertop on the vanity can catapult your bathroom all the way back to the 1940s-60s. In fact, Romanoff says that aside from your porcelain and metal, any “too glossy” material may date the room. These days, when Feldman encounters a laminate countertop, she goes ahead and replaces it with marble.

Romanoff’s eagle eyes can’t help but zero-in disapprovingly on matte black finishings and accents—especially in a stark white bathroom. She will then immediately get to work on removing that matte black to prevent it from further dating the room.

“That's the first thing that we like to remove,” Romanoff says. “Let's replace that matte black with a classic finish like unlacquered brass or a polished nickel that's just going to be beautiful and timeless no matter your style.”

“Vanity height always catches my eye,” says interior designer Missy Steffens. “They used to be lower and now, the norm is higher. Now the standard is the same height as a kitchen counter—about 34.5- to 36-inches.”

Brie Williams

Sliding glass shower doors with heavy hardware all show their age, but Steffens reveals that frosted glass shower doors are especially geriatric. Now, she prefers a frameless glass shower door, which she says feels more clean and modern.

You’ll be hard pressed to find chrome in many new bathrooms. Instead, interior designers like Feldman, Steffens, and Romanoff are partial these days to living metals like polished nickel and unlacquered brass. Not only is chrome out of fashion, but it also scratches and wears easily, making chrome finishings appear older than they are.

Laurey W. Glenn; Styling: Buffy Hargett Miller

While some tiles prove timeless, others have faded into outdated trends. Glass tiles fall firmly into the dated category, according to Feldman. For future reference, she recommends upgrading to ceramic tiles which are easier to paint and refresh with the times.

The lights and camera may still be on, but this style is out of action. Feldman reports that the over-the-top drama of big bulbs framing a mirror has made way in modern design for pleasant and timeless sconces that won’t fade out of fashion so quickly.

Another mirror lighting fad that may date your bathroom is overhead lighting. Rather than one fixture on top of the mirror, designers are now installing twin sconces on either side of the mirror. Not only is this a stylish choice, but it’s also a trend that’s here to stay because of its functionality.

“Sconces that flank the mirror provide the best light for your face,” says Feldman. “It's better looking and it’s also the best light for putting on makeup.”

When she enters a bathroom, tile baseboards are red flags for Steffens that a bathroom is in need of an update. The only exception, she says, is if you’re doing tile wainscoting. Rather than tile, Steffens prefers that a more modern approach is a crown molding with a wood baseboard in the bathroom.