Bathrooms can often be an afterthought for builders. After spending hours contemplating which wall covering looks best in your Sim’s brand-new bedroom, or endlessly deliberating over which vase should go on the dining room table, it can be too easy to simply throw together a basic white suite and call it a day. Although bathrooms may seem uninspiring, there’s actually a lot of variety available in your game and tons of scope for creating a whole host of different bathroom styles.
With a little bit of thought, and some inspiration, there’s nothing to stop your bathrooms from portraying just as much personality as any other room in the house! I have created 4 different bathrooms, in 4 different styles, to show you just how easy it is to create a space that looks distinctive, attractive, and holds its own next to the well-decorated rooms in the rest of the house.
Family Bathroom
Although family bathrooms can come in many different styles, I wanted this room to be modern, and to have a suburban feel. Family bathrooms are great because no matter how simple your fixtures are, the addition of kids toys never fails to brighten up the space. Despite deciding on a classic combination of wood flooring and white tiles, the kids’ elephant bath mat and chalk drawing stop the space from feeling too plain, and help to inject a little colour!
Like any other room in the house, decoration is everything. Bathrooms are, more often than not, full to the brim with clutter items, and your Sims’ houses should be no different. For this reason, when building bathrooms, I tend to use a heavy amount of MoveObjects (bb.moveobjects). By selecting the item, and pressing the Right Bracket key, I was able to enlarge a small basket with a few shampoo bottles in it. After I had done this, I used MoveObjects to place a few toys into the basket. The best way to make this look effective is by using the 9 and 0 keys to move the toys up and down. A combination of this, and the use of the Alt key, which allows you to place objects off grid, creates something that looks realistic, fashionably untidy, and perfect for a family space. I used the same method when placing the toothbrush holder on the side of the sink, and when adding items to the shelves in the Classic Bathroom (see below).
Retro Bathroom
This room is a great example of how quirky and individual a bathroom can be. Since the release of The Sims 4 Vampires, I’ve been loving using this floor tile to create a Vintage look in all kinds of spaces, bathrooms included! I carried the gold of the flooring throughout the room, complementing it with pops of blue, purple and green.
Don’t be afraid to add in items that aren’t traditionally seen as belonging in the bathroom. Liberate yourself from the bathroom section of the catalogue and see what you can find! This large wall print from Vintage Glamour Stuff and the chair from City Living are probably my favourite items in the room and really help to create a distinctive style!
Ultra-Modern Bathroom
For an ultra-modern style, The Sims 4 Spa Day is going to be your best friend. You can never go wrong with the soft blues, greys, and browns that came with this pack, they complement each other perfectly and look great in any bathroom. Using Spa Day items is also a great way to guarantee you won’t have any problems finding matching swatches when it comes to choosing your fixtures, as the pack also came with a full bathroom suite.
Using MoveObjects, I blended together a dining table and sink. I really like the look of this, and, as the table is so big, it can help to fill out a space nicely. This trick also meant I had lots more space available for clutter items which is always a good thing!
A big problem when building in The Sims 4 is finding enough items to properly fill out a space. This can be even more difficult with bathrooms as most of the essential items only take up one grid square. Dividing walls can be great way to make a large space look less bare without simultaneously making it too cluttered. By separating the bath and shower from the rest of the room I was able to create three distinct spaces, all of which feel slightly different. The bath has a more relaxed vibe, whilst the shower room feels bright and clean.
Classic Bedroom and Matching En-suite
Most of the time your bathroom will want, at least in part, to match the rest of your house. This is never truer than when furnishing an en-suite, where cohesiveness is a necessity.
I started by building the bedroom. I went for a classic style with large bookshelves and a globe drinks dispenser. The addition of wood panelling and ornate furniture helped make the room feel elegant and refined. Because the aesthetic of the bedroom was so clear, the en-suite furnishings came very naturally. I used the eyedropper tool to copy across the wallpaper and flooring and went from there. Not everything is exactly the same in both rooms, however, there are some subtle differences that help create diversity. In the bathroom, for example, I used the same curtains as the bedroom but changed their colour from black to white. This made the build look consistent but still gave the spaces a sense of individuality.
Shelves are a great addition to any bathroom, not only do they help fill up any empty spaces on your walls, but they provide space for your Sims to keep their clutter. The 9 and 0 keys were really helpful again here, enabling me to lift items up and onto the shelves. Although some clutter items will automatically sit on a shelf, the majority won’t (especially those suitable for a bathroom) and so this trick can be really handy for all sorts of rooms!
Bathrooms don’t have to be boring and repetitive, with just a little bit of inspiration your bathroom will be just as exciting and interesting as any other room in your house! Add some clutter, experiment with colour, and try your hand at new styles. Happy Building!
All of the rooms from this article are available to download at the links below!
Classic Bedroom and En-suite – In order for me to upload this to the gallery I had to delete one of the walls connecting the bathroom to the bedroom, all you need to do is add the wall back in and copy over the wall covering!
