Striped towels are an easy way to bring a little more colour, pattern and personality into your bathroom without making any permanent changes. From subtle pinstripes in soft neutral shades to colourful chunky stripes designed to stand out, there’s a stripe to suit almost every bathroom style.
The beauty of stripes is just how versatile they can be. They can complement the colours already in your bathroom, introduce a completely new shade or deliberately clash with your décor for a bolder, more playful look. Whether you’re refreshing your entire bathroom or simply swapping out a hand towel to provided a more decorative touch, and better visual appeal, here’s how to find the right striped towels for your space.
Start With Your Bathroom Style
Before choosing your towels, take a look at the bathroom you already have. Think about the colours, patterns, textures and finishes that dominate the room.
If your bathroom has a fairly understated colour scheme, neutral striped towels are a simple way to introduce interest without committing to patterned tiles or colourful walls. Beige, cream and off-white bathrooms work beautifully with earthy shades such as sage green, soft brown or muted blue, while a grey or white bathroom gives you a blank canvas to introduce almost any colour.
Pattern can offer practical benefits too, as patterned towels can disguise stains and wear, helping everyday marks appear less noticeable than they might on a completely plain design.
There doesn't have to be a perfect match, either. In fact, mixing slightly different shades, patterns and textures can often make a bathroom feel more relaxed and considered than having every accessory in exactly the same colour.
Keep Things Subtle With Pinstripe Towels
If you usually gravitate towards plain towels, as they offer timeless elegance and versatility, a subtle pinstripe towel is a great way to introduce a little pattern, without being too brave.
Pinstripes feature fine, narrow lines, creating a softer and more understated look than wider, chunky stripe designs. The delicate pattern adds just enough detail to make your bathroom towels stand out without becoming the main focus of the bathroom, making them particularly easy to style in minimalist and neutral spaces.
For a coordinated look, choose a colour that already appears elsewhere in your bathroom. This could be picked up from your tiles, painted walls, bath mat or decorative items.
Alternatively, use your towels as an opportunity to introduce a completely new shade. A subtle blue striped towel can add a fresh touch, while warmer neutral stripes can bring softness to a simple white or beige bathroom while keeping the overall look calm and considered.
Make More of a Statement With Chunky Stripes
At the other end of the scale, chunky striped towels are made to be noticed.
Wider stripes and contrasting colours instantly bring more energy to a bathroom and work particularly well if the rest of your décor is relatively simple. Against white tiles, neutral walls and plain bathroom furniture, a colourful striped towel can become a feature in its own right.
Bright stripes are also a great opportunity to have a little more fun. Rather than trying to find an exact match for your bathroom, choose one or two colours within the towel and repeat them elsewhere in the room. This gives a nice pop of interest, in a striking yet intentionally stylish way.
A green striped towel, for example, doesn’t mean you need to carry the same shade throughout the entire bathroom. Instead, introduce subtle touches of green through a bath mat, plant pot or smaller pieces to tie the look together and create a space that feels naturally coordinated.
Complement Your Colours – Or Deliberately Clash
There are really two ways to approach striped towels: coordinate or contrast.
For a coordinated bathroom, choose stripes featuring colours already found within the space. Blue tiles could be complemented by blue striped towels, while warm beige, cream and brown bathrooms work beautifully with chocolate brown stripes.
If you prefer something with more personality, forget about matching altogether.
Contrasting hues can make even a fairly simple bathroom feel much more interesting. Try blue towels against warmer terracotta tones, green stripes alongside pink details, or colourful stripes in an otherwise monochrome bathroom.
The trick with clashing colours is to make them look intentional. Repeating one of your contrasting shades somewhere else in the room - even in a small accessory - can help bring everything together.
Create a Full Set With Matching Striped Towels
Sometimes matching really does work.
Choosing a matching hand towel, bath towel and bath sheet creates a coordinated look throughout the bathroom while still giving you more visual interest than a completely plain towel set.
Hang your hand towel beside the basin, keep bath towels stacked on shelves showcasing their colours, or roll your towels and store in a basket for a different look. Repeating the same stripe around different areas of the room helps the pattern feel like part of the overall design rather than an afterthought.
You can also mix striped and plain towels within the same colour family. A striped hand towel alongside plain bath towels, for example, gives you the best of both worlds.
Give the Bathroom a Bigger Refresh With a Bath Mat
If you're ready for more than a simple towel swap, bring your bath mat into the equation.
Pairing new striped towels with a coordinating bath mat can completely change the feel of your bathroom without needing to redecorate. Or, choose a plain bath mat that picks out one of the colours within your towels for an easy, cohesive look.
For something bolder, introduce another complementary or contrasting tone underfoot. A neutral bathroom could combine colourful striped towels with a bright bath mat, while a bathroom that's already full of colour might benefit from a simple white, cream or grey mat to balance everything out.
You don't necessarily need an exact matching set. Coordinating colours rather than matching them precisely can make the finished bathroom feel much more naturally styled.
Don't Forget the Downstairs Loo
Striped towels aren't only for your main bathroom.
A downstairs toilet or small cloakroom is one of the easiest places to experiment with a little more colour and pattern. Because you only need a hand towel, you can afford to be bolder with your choice.
Our Striped Recycled Cotton Towels are a great option for bringing colour, texture and character into the room while making a more considered choice. Crafted from recycled cotton, they give existing fibres a new purpose while still offering the softness, absorbency and everyday practicality you want from a bathroom towel. Their distinctive striped design adds plenty of personality too, making the hand towel an easy way to turn an everyday essential into part of your décor.
In a compact downstairs loo, a single striped hand towel can give immediate impact, by introducing colour, pattern and texture without the need to completely redecorate.
Let Your Striped Towels Do the Styling
There isn't one correct way to introduce striped towels into a bathroom.
Keep things understated with delicate pinstripes and complementary neutrals, make chunky stripes the focus of a simple bathroom, or throw out the rulebook and clash your colours and patterns. You can coordinate an entire set of hand towels, bath towels and bath sheets, pair them with a matching bath mat, or simply introduce one statement hand towel for a quick splash of pattern.
The key is choosing a stripe that feels right for your space - and for you.
Whether you prefer calm and coordinated or colourful and clashing, stripe patterned towels make it easy to experiment with your bathroom style without reaching for the paintbrush.