The easy way to transform the bathroom in your holiday home

The bathroom in your holiday home holds the potential to enhance the overall impression of your holiday home, or to drag it down. In this article you’ll learn how you, with a few simple steps, can transform your bathroom into a space that invites your guests to slow down and enjoy a moment of self-care – without having to spend more money than necessary on the upgrade.

If renovating the bathroom in your holiday home is something you keep postponing because the task feels too daunting, or you simply want some tips and tricks on how to best approach it, this article is for you. Our renovation of the three holiday homes in Skovsgaard is a great example of three different, yet similarly impactful approaches and in this article you’ll find our very best tips on how to get your transformation started with confidence.

The three bathrooms in our transformation at Skovsgaard offers a look into three different approaches:

Kågården: Painting the bathroom module and furniture.

Påøgård: Painting the walls and the ceiling.

Lundstedet: Painting the walls.

Creating an atmosphere through colour

Colour is one of the easiest ways to quickly transform the atmosphere in a room. Choosing the right colour can be daunting, so in our transformations you’ll see three very different takes on this, so that you can see the effect a given colour can have and inspire your own transformation. Explore Landfolk and find inspiration in the many beautiful holiday homes.

We used this paint donated by File Under Pop for the three transformations:

Kågården: ‘Bean, potato, tomato’

Påøgård: ‘Grass ain’t greener’

Lundstedet: ‘Everybody loves nuts’

Different colours can inspire different moods and temperaments, so think about what you want to feel when you are in the bathroom in your holiday home. Maybe a warm tone for ‘hygge’, blue for calm or a vibrant green for energy.

Approaching paint in a bathroom setting

Choosing paint for your bathroom is not as straightforward as choosing paint for any other room. The damp environment and different textures of the materials in a bathroom need to be taken into consideration to make sure you’ll get a beautiful and long lasting result. Choosing the appropriate paint for this environment is the first step.

Let’s use Kårgåden as an example. Here, painting the bathroom furniture was the most time consuming, but gave a very rewarding result even though most of the bathroom was left untouched.

Here are our best tips:

Identify the material of the surface you want to paint (ours was a mix of plastic and lacquered MDF) – ask your local paint store if you need help finding the correct paint for your surface.
Sand the surface you want to paint to make sure the primer sticks.
Use a mild chemical soap specifically created for this purpose (you can ask for help to find this in your local store) to clean the surface you want to paint and remove any dust that might get stuck in the paint later.
Paint the surface with a primer (note that this is a specific kind of paint, and that a normal white paint won’t work as a replacement).
Paint the first coat of colour when the primer is dry (check the paint can for the correct time to wait).
Allow the first coat of paint to dry and add a second coat as needed.

Visit Kågård and enjoy the gorgeous surroundings in Skovsgaard.

A slightly different approach

Painting the walls and ceiling of a bathroom is another impactful way to implement colour in your transformation. This is also less time consuming than what we did in the first example, but you still need to choose the correct paint to get the best result.

Here are our best tips:

Choose a wet room paint. This is essential if you want a long-lasting result.
Painting tiles might be tempting, but is both difficult to do well and rarely a sustainable solution in a bathroom setting.
At Påøgård we painted the wall and ceiling in a luscious green. The dark colour really brought out the warm wood elements and created an inviting contrast to the overall aesthetic.
At Lundstedet we also painted the wall and left the tiles bare. The darker, more moody yellow colour created personality and gave off a warm and inviting atmosphere.

Explore Lundstedet and find inspiration in the transformation.

Don’t underestimate the choice of textiles

Textiles are an essential part of any room, and the bathroom is no exception – if anything the textiles in your bathroom are even more impactful because you have a more tactile experience of them.

Some of your most important choices will be the following:

Choosing the perfect shower curtain for your bathroom can make a world of difference. Both the colour, material and texture can add a lot to the atmosphere of the room. We replaced the printed shower curtain with a calm beige tone to complement the colours in the rest of the room.
Choosing a great bath mat is an underestimated way to add to both the tactile and visual impression of the bathroom in your holiday home. Choosing the right colour can really elevate the room. Just imagine having a soft surface to stand on with bare feet in the morning. A jute rug can also be a good choice, especially if durability is at the top of your list of priorities.
High quality towels can only be described as a quiet luxury that not only looks beautiful in the room, but also adds that feeling of wellness and self-care that can really tie the experience of your bathroom together. It’s also something that feels especially luxurious to your guests. Choose colours and textures that suit the overall aesthetic of the room for a quick upgrade.

Visit Påøgård and experience the beauty of Skovsgaard.

Details all the way

When renovating the bathroom in your holiday home, the details play a big part in the overall impression of the room.

Here are some of our favourite ways to elevate a bathroom:

Hand soap is essential. Choose a soap dispenser that is both beautiful and easy to clean. We opted for a simple dark brown dispenser that is easy to refill and added a dymo label with the word “hand soap”.
Storage is one of the best ways to combine functionality and aesthetics. Think beautiful baskets in different sizes to hold things like toilet paper, products or simply as decoration. Baskets like this bring warmth and texture to a space and are a great option, especially if the bathroom doesn’t have any built-in storage. Adding a shelf (and painting it the same colour as the wall), a little stool to place toiletries on and other small things can really add to the experience of a space.
Decor is often overlooked in a functional space like a bathroom, but even the smallest decor elements like a beautiful vase, paintings or other forms of art or a diffuser can elevate the room.
Make sure there is a place to hang everyone's towels. This is especially important if your holiday home can house a lot of people. Include a hook for a hand towel by the sink, as well as a towel or coat rack to hang shower towels in the most convenient place for when you step out of the shower.
It’s important for your guests to be able to have somewhere to put their toiletries when they visit your holiday home, so think storage into your transformation. This could be a shelf, a little stool, or something completely different.
Not all old bathrooms have mirrors, so add one if you don’t already have one.
Stock up on toilet paper and make it easy for your guests to find.

Feeling inspired?
Read more about how to transform the bedroom, children's room and kitchen in your holiday home and apply to become a part of Landfolk.

Denmark's Nature Foundation x Landfolk

This renovation series is a part of the collaboration between Denmark's Nature Foundation and Landfolk. Landfolk has formed a non-profit partnership with Denmark's Nature Foundation to rent out their three holiday homes located at Nature Destination Skovsgaard with the purpose to preserve Danish nature and donate all income from bookings of the holiday homes to Denmark's Nature Foundation.