The Primary Bathroom Redesign: What Clients Actually Want in 2026

The single most impactful thing I do in a primary bathroom redesign is rethink the layout. Most existing primary bathrooms in Los Angeles homes, particularly those built in the 1990s and early 2000s, have layouts that were designed around convention rather than how people actually use the space. The tub is there because a tub was required. The double vanity is back to back with the toilet. The shower is undersized because the remaining square footage after the tub went in was insufficient.

In renovation projects where the plumbing can be moved, which is a structural and cost question worth investigating early, I will typically expand the shower at the expense of the tub. Most clients use their freestanding tub rarely. Their shower is used daily. Sizing the shower appropriately, adding a bench, including a rain head plus a separate body spray or handheld, and specifying a large-format stone or tile that does not look like a bathroom from a chain hotel, produces a room that is actually used the way it was designed to be.

In the current luxury bathroom market in Los Angeles, the most prevalent combinations are: natural stone in warm tones (travertine, crema marfil, book-matched marble) paired with warm metal fixtures (unlacquered or satin brass, aged bronze); and contrast combinations with darker stone (black marble, verde, deep-veined quartzite) against white or off-white walls with matte black or unlacquered brass fixtures.

The all-white bathroom that dominated high-end residential design for the better part of two decades is largely over. Clients are asking for color, warmth, and material depth. Green tile, terracotta tones, deep navy vanities, and warm wood vanity bases are all showing up regularly in primary bathrooms that would have been entirely white marble five years ago.