Blue Bathtub Ideas

Blue Everywhere

• Bejewel your bathroom with sapphire paint. Cover the sides of a clawfoot tub in the same deep blue shade as the walls and trim the room with plenty of white. An antique tub gets a new life when you prime the sides with oxide primer that allows the color to adhere. Be sure the tub’s interior is sparkling white enamel and paint the show-off feet white to highlight the blue sides.

Stencil the Sides

• Stencil a stand-alone tub in blue – either a slipper tub or a clawfoot model. Choose a nautical theme like sailboats for a beach house. Design a botanical retreat with bluebells and other wildflowers in a country home. Use a single color of blue paint for the design against a white enamel finish. Add extra interest with two shades of blue design. Run a single line of stenciled images around the whole tub or dot the sides with isolated stenciled images. A sea-theme tub could use a crisp blue stripe around the sides near the rim and a flowered tub might finish off nicely with a blue ribbon design.

Blue Tile

• Tile the sides and surround of the tub with geometric glazed tiles in slate blue and white. Coordinate the tile pattern with the décor of the room. A tub framed in patterned blue and white tile could look like a Greek vacation cottage, a Byzantine fantasy or an ornate French provincial retreat. An ordinary tub set into a tiled frame goes from boring to high style. Keeping the blue tone in the gray hues allows for greater latitude in choosing the rest of the bathroom and furnishing colors.

Mid-Century Blues

• A 1950s blue corner tub calls for some theatrics. The tub is definitely the elephant in the room so don’t try to fight it. Instead install a ceiling-mounted shower curtain that can surround the tub for showers but is typically pulled back. Take your design theme from the curtain. If you use black and white line drawings of herds on the African veldt, stick to bamboo accessories and more black and white for bathroom tile. If the tub gets a plaid or tattersall curtain, pick up colors from the curtain like maroons, greens, grays or reds for bath mats, towels and wastebasket. Avoid anything too pretty or ruffly so the odd tub looks like a museum piece rather than a throwback to inelegant design.