This Is the Latest ‘It’ Color for Bathrooms (Hint: It’s Not White)

White bathrooms have reigned supreme for many years now, but there’s a new color trend that’s taking off—wood hues. Houzz just released its 2023 U.S. Bathroom Trends Study and found that wood is now the color of choice for bathroom vanities with 33% of renovating homeowners opting for it. Wood takes the top spot from white, which wasn’t the only color to see a decline; the third most popular color, gray, also declined 2 percentage points year over year with 13% of homeowners going gray.

While a white-hued vanity is not as favored anymore, the Houzz study found that the color is still relevant in other parts of the bathroom. It’s is still the top choice when it comes to countertops, shower walls (although it dropped 6 points from last year), and non-shower walls.

Thomas J. Story

Aside from color choices, there were other interesting findings from the report. The Houzz team found that primary bathrooms were getting bigger and many homeowners were drawing extra square footage from their closets, bedrooms, and hallways to renovate. Two-thirds of homeowners were also addressing special needs during their bathroom renovations, specifically the needs of an aging household, which remain the top priority for many people. Some features added for those needs include grab bars, nonslip flooring, and curbless showers. 

When it comes to bathroom features and updates, the study found that upgrading systems was the most popular major bathroom improvement: ventilation fans, radiant heating, and a tankless water heating were the most common systems added. Many homeowners also increase their shower size (51%), change the layout (43%), and modify the walls (41%).

Thomas J. Story

And given inflation prices, it’s no surprise that the cost of a bathroom remodel has gone up, too. The median spend on all bathroom remodels has grown 50%—it was $9,000 in 2021 and $13,500 in 2022. 

To compile the results for the trend report, Houzz sent a 60-question online survey about bathroom renovation projects to registered Houzz users between July 19 and July 17, 2023—respondents had to be homeowners and have completed a bathroom remodel or addition project in the past 12 months, be currently working on one, or planning to start one in the next three months. Take a look at the entire report here.