Bathrooms are usually the barest rooms in a house: tile, a mirror and a towel rail. A picture makes a great difference to one. The trouble is that a bathroom does everything that paper, wood and canvas dislike. It fills with steam, cools, and fills again, every day.
Art can live in a bathroom. You need to know which kind of bathroom you have, choose the right format and pick the right wall.
What a bathroom does to art
- Humidity. A hot shower takes the air close to saturation. Paper absorbs moisture and ripples. Wood swells. Canvas slackens.
- Condensation. Steam turns to water on cool surfaces, including the cover of a frame, and can run down inside it.
- Cycling. Wet, then dry, then wet. Materials swell and shrink each time, which loosens joints and warps frames.
- Mould. Damp paper and backing board in a closed frame are a good home for it.
- Splashes. Water, soap, toothpaste, hairspray.
First: which kind of bathroom?
A powder room or guest toilet
No bath or shower. Humidity is no higher than in the rest of the house. Treat it as an ordinary room and hang what you like. It is one of the best places in a home for a bold or funny picture, because people see it alone and close up.
A large, well-ventilated bathroom
A window that opens, or a good extractor fan, and space between the shower and the walls. Art will do well here with a little care.
A small bathroom with a shower and poor ventilation
The mirror stays fogged for twenty minutes and the walls feel damp. This is hard on anything. Hang only what you are happy to replace, and improve the ventilation first.
A simple test: after a shower, how long does the mirror take to clear? Under ten minutes with the fan on is fine. Half an hour means the room is too damp for art you care about.
Which formats cope
- Framed prints. The best general choice. The cover keeps splashes and steam off the print and can be wiped. A frame isn't airtight, so moisture can still get in round the edges over time. Suitable for a ventilated bathroom, on a wall away from the shower.
- Canvas. It has no glass to fog and nothing to trap water against the print. The wooden frame can warp and the fabric can slacken in a very damp room. Fine in a powder room or a well-ventilated bathroom, away from splashes.
- Unframed posters. Not suitable. Bare paper ripples within days.
- Tapestries. Polyester fabric doesn't mind damp air, and it can be washed. It will hold moisture and smells if it never dries, so use it only in a room that airs well, and keep it away from the shower and from heaters.
- Metal prints. Prints on aluminium cope with humidity better than anything on paper or wood. We sell metal posters through Displate. See our other stores page.
See canvas vs poster vs framed poster.
Where to hang it
- As far from the shower or bath as you can. The wall opposite, or the wall by the door.
- Above the toilet. The classic place. It is usually clear of splashes and at a good height.
- Above the towel rail, if it isn't a heated one.
- Beside the mirror, clear of the basin.
- On an inside wall. Outside walls are colder and collect more condensation.
Places to avoid:
- Inside or beside the shower enclosure.
- Directly above the bath, in a room where the bath is used for showers.
- Directly above the basin, in the splash zone.
- Above a radiator or a heated towel rail. See art near radiators, vents and fireplaces.
- In the path of the steam as it rises to the fan.
How to help it last
- Ventilate. Run the fan during the shower and for twenty minutes afterwards. Open the window. Leave the door open when the room isn't in use. This matters more than anything else.
- Leave an air gap. Small bumpers at the back corners hold a picture slightly off the wall, so that air moves behind it and damp doesn't sit there. Our canvases come with rubber bumpers.
- Wipe the cover if it fogs. See how to clean a framed poster.
- Check the back every few months for spots, a musty smell or warping. Move the piece at the first sign.
- Use fixings that don't rust: stainless or brass screws and hooks. Adhesive strips often fail in damp rooms.
- Rotate. Swap bathroom pictures with ones from elsewhere each year, so that none spends too long in the damp.
And the plain rule: don't hang anything in a bathroom that you couldn't bear to lose. A print that is affordable to replace is the right thing for the room.
What to hang
Calm and watery
Bathrooms suit water, mist and sky. Cool blues and greens go with tile and chrome.
- Blue Mountain Fog. Pines in pale teal cloud. It looks like the room after a shower.
- Serene Blue Sunrise. A teal sky of cloud and stars over a dark shoreline. See the framed poster.
- Liquid Metal Mist Pink. A soft violet and blue abstract, like light on water.
- Cosmic Deer. A pale stag in snow. Clean and bright.
See fog and mist in art and cool blue wall art for a calm room.
Bold or funny, in a powder room
A small room that people visit briefly can take a strong picture. Nobody spends long enough there to tire of it. Laser Cat on a mint green ground is made for a cloakroom. A neon piece or a dark, dramatic one works too.
Size and height
- Small to medium. Bathroom walls are short and broken up. 11 × 14, 12 × 16 or 16 × 20 inches suits most.
- Above the toilet: the bottom of the frame 8 to 12 inches above the cistern, and the picture no wider than the cistern. A stack of two small prints works well in this tall, narrow space.
- Elsewhere: centre at about 57 inches. See the 57-inch rule.
- A pair or a row of three small prints in matching frames suits a longer wall.
Frames and colour
- White frames suit white tile and keep the room light.
- Black frames give a sharp accent, and pick up black taps or fittings.
- Match the metal. A picture near chrome or brass fittings looks considered if its frame or its colours relate to them.
- Take one colour from the picture into the towels. See pulling accent colours from art into the room.
See black frame or white frame.
A note on damage
Warping, rippling or mould caused by a damp room is wear from the conditions, and it isn't a manufacturing fault. It isn't covered by our policy on damaged or defective items. That is the reason to choose the wall with care.
The short version
- A powder room is safe for anything.
- In a bathroom with a shower, use a framed print or a canvas, well away from the water, and ventilate.
- No bare paper.
- Leave an air gap and check the back now and then.
- Hang only what you could replace.
For other rooms, see hallway and entryway wall art and guest room art. Browse the framed posters collection.