16 Min Read
Bathrooms are shifting away from the cold, white, matte-black look that took over the last decade, and 2027 is where that shift really lands. Warmer colors, real materials, showers you step into instead of climb over.
Most bathroom projects around Greater Lansing don't start with a mood board. They start with a leak, a cracked tile, a soft spot in the floor, or a tub that's getting harder to step over every year. We know that because we read every message that comes through our door.
Every trend below gets three things: what the industry is predicting, what we're actually seeing in Greater Lansing bathrooms, and what it costs. We'll also show you projects that match trends we mention.
In this blog, you'll learn the 2027 bathroom trends worth your money, what Greater Lansing homeowners are really asking us for, how each trend holds up in a Michigan home, what tier and cost range it lands in, and how to find your own top three trends with our two-minute quiz.
Take the 2-minute quiz to find your top 3 trends (or keep reading for the full breakdown first).
Table of Contents
- What's Actually Changing in Bathrooms for 2027
- The 8 Bathroom Trends Worth Your Money in 2027
- What's on the Way Out for 2027
- Find Your Top 3 Bathroom Trends (Take the Quiz)
- What a Bathroom Remodel Costs in Greater Lansing
- Is This Trend Worth It for Your Bathroom?
- How Odd Fellows Contracting Helps You Choose
- 2027 Bathroom Trends FAQ
- Your Next Step
What's Actually Changing in Bathrooms for 2027
The big shift for 2027 is toward warm, natural, and barrier-free, and away from cold, white, and matchy.
For about ten years the default bathroom was white subway tile, gray floors, matte black fixtures, and every finish pulled from the same family. It looked clean in photos. It also looked like every other bathroom, and a lot of those finishes are already starting to feel dated.
What's replacing it is warmer and more textured: earthy color, stone and wood with some character to it, brass and copper instead of black, and showers designed to be walked into rather than stepped over (this is the biggest change of all, and it's the one we see most in our own work).
There's a reason behind the shift too. A lot of Greater Lansing homeowners who might have moved a few years ago are staying put and reinvesting in the house they already own. When you're planning to live in a bathroom for the next twenty years instead of selling in five, you stop asking what's trendy and start asking what still works when your knees are older, and your family has changed.
The 8 Bathroom Trends Worth Your Money in 2027
These are the eight trends we expect to define bathrooms in 2027, ranked roughly by how much they actually matter in a Michigan home.
For each one, tier means the same three levels we use in our cost guide: a Refresh (cosmetic updates), a Mid Range Remodel (layout changes and better materials), or a Luxury Remodel (custom everything).
1. Low-threshold and curbless showers
The single biggest change in bathrooms right now is the tub coming out and a walk-in shower going in. Industry forecasts call it curbless or zero-threshold entry, usually paired with a glass partition instead of a door.
This the most common request we get. Out of every bathroom message that came through our door this spring and summer, some version of "convert the tub to a walk-in shower" showed up more than anything else. It's also the goal written on more of our completed projects than any other. If you only take one trend from this list, take this one.
A few things worth knowing before you commit. A truly curbless shower needs the drain and floor framing set up for it, which is easier in a basement or on a slab than on a second floor in an older Lansing home. A low-threshold shower gets you most of the benefit with far less structural work, which is why it's what we build most often. If you have kids who still take baths or you're down to one bathroom in the house, keep a tub somewhere.
The finished low-threshold shower in a Delta Commerce condo. Opening the shower wall meant moving the plumbing wall behind it.
Project spotlight: Delta Commerce Condo Bathroom Remodel
A standard alcove tub and shower that felt tight. The goal was "replace tub with new low-threshold walk-in shower," and getting there meant opening part of the shower wall and relocating the plumbing wall behind it. Tthe shower itself is the easy part, the wall behind it is the work.
This usually lands in the Mid Range tier, and it can be a Refresh if you keep the same footprint. Small-scope shower swaps are handled by Odd Jobs, our home services division. We wrote a full guide on tub-to-shower conversions if you want the details.
2. Bathrooms designed for the next thirty years
Call it aging in place or accessible design. Either way, it's moving from a specialty request to something people are just building in by default: benches in the shower, grab bars that look like fixtures instead of hospital equipment, shower controls near the entry so you're not reaching through cold water, wider doorways, and comfort-height toilets.
A large share of the people who contact us are dealing with a mobility change, planning for a parent, or looking at a house they intend to stay in permanently. Nobody who does this regrets it.
Designing for accessibility now costs very little extra, while retrofitting later costs a lot. Blocking behind the walls for future grab bars adds almost nothing during a remodel. Adding it after the tile is up means tearing the tile off.
A roll-in shower with a bench, glass partition, and grab bars in Mason. The entry door was widened for wheelchair and walker access.
Project spotlight: Mason Accessibility Bathroom Remodel
The existing layout genuinely didn't work for the homeowner's accessibility needs, so we gutted it and moved nearly everything: a large roll-in shower with a bench, niches, a glass partition, and a ramp curb, a vanity with an accessible area at the sink, and a widened entry door for wheelchair and walker access. The goal was a bright, clean look with full access.
An Owosso bathroom built for aging in place before it was needed. The jetted tub came out to make room for a larger, more accessible shower.
Project spotlight: Owosso Bathroom Remodel
Same trend, earlier in the timeline, which is the version most people should be planning. These homeowners weren't in crisis. They wanted to stay in their home as long as they could, so we pulled the jetted tub nobody was using, relocated the shower to a more accessible spot, and made the vanity wheelchair accessible before anyone needed it to be. Their words were that it had to be functional for future limited mobility and beautiful too. It's both.
This usually lands in any tier. The small stuff is nearly free during a remodel. Full layout changes for wheelchair access are Mid Range to Luxury tier.
3. Warm, earthy color replacing cold white and gray
Every 2027 forecast agrees on this one: stark white and cool gray are out, and warm neutrals are in. Beige, taupe, clay, terracotta, mushroom, and sage green, often carried across several surfaces at once in what designers are calling tile drenching.
However. our own experience doesn't perfectly match the magazines. The most common thing our clients ask for is to make the bathroom brighter. "Brighten the space" is one of our most common project goals. Meanwhile, other trend content is pushing warm, enveloping, moody bathrooms.
Both can be true. The real move for a Michigan home, where winter light is in short supply for a good chunk of the year, is warm and light rather than cool and light. A warm off-white, a soft clay, or a light natural stone reads current and still bounces light around a small windowless bathroom. Save the deep saturated color for a powder room, where you're only in there for a minute, and "moody" is a feature.
Color in the cabinets, countertop, and floor tile in Okemos. The homeowners ruled out white and grey from the start.
Project spotlight: Okemos Upstairs Bathroom Remodel
A returning client who told us up front that white and grey were off the table. They wanted color and life in the room, so it went into the cabinets (custom paint on a Pioneer double vanity), the countertop, and the floor tile. This is the 2027 color trend we see in Greater Lansing: not a moody tile-drenched spa, just a bathroom that isn't beige.
Usually lands in: Refresh, if it's paint and fixtures. Mid Range if it involves new tile.
4. Natural, tactile materials, and the maintenance question nobody asks
The 2027 forecasts are full of unrefined stone, travertine, limestone, microcement, and handmade zellige tile. These materials have variation and depth that manufactured surfaces don't, and they photograph beautifully.
Now the part the trend articles leave out. Textured natural stone and handmade tile mean more grout, more sealing, and more cleaning, in the single wettest room in your house. Another option is a solid-surface shower with no grout lines at all. It's easier to clean, it handles Michigan humidity without staining, and it lets us mount a bench and grab bars anywhere we want. It isn't the trendier choice. It's frequently the one people are happier with three years in.
An East Lansing bathroom where cultured stone won out over tile. No grout lines to scrub, and the bench and grab bars go anywhere.
Project spotlight: East Lansing Bathroom Remodel
This one shows the tradeoff. The homeowner was finding the tub harder to get into and wanted a shower with a built-in bench. We went with cultured stone rather than tile, because it's easy to clean and it lets the bench and grab bars go exactly where they need to be instead of where the tile layout allows.
Treat it as a tradeoff rather than a rule. Put the beautiful textured material where you'll see it and rarely scrub it, like a vanity wall or a floor. Be more careful about specifying it for the shower surround unless you don't mind the upkeep.
This usually lands in the Mid Range to Luxury tier.
5. Storage that actually fits
This one doesn't show up on a single national trend list we reviewed, and it's one of the most requested things we build.
Tall linen towers, cabinets above the toilet, recessed medicine cabinets, and drawers instead of open vanity space. A bathroom with nowhere to put towels and supplies never feels finished, no matter how good the tile is.
A Briarwood Okemos bathroom where vanity width was traded for a full-height linen cabinet. Most homeowners make the same call.
Project spotlight: Briarwood Okemos Bathroom Remodel
To get more storage into this bathroom, we gave up vanity width for a full-height vertical linen cabinet. Narrower counter, dramatically more storage, and the homeowner chose it deliberately. We've had that same conversation on multiple projects and it usually ends the same way.
If you're weighing a double vanity against a single vanity plus a storage tower, and your bathroom is under about 60 square feet, the storage usually wins. Two sinks matter less than most people expect.
This usually lands in the Refresh to Mid Range tier.
6. Making a small bathroom bigger without building an addition
Small bathrooms are one of the most searched bathroom topics going into 2027, and most of the advice out there is about light colors and big mirrors. That's fine, but it's not how you actually gain space.
Here's how we do it. We borrow square footage from whatever is on the other side of the wall, usually a closet. We square off an awkward bathroom by pulling in a few feet of adjacent closet space, then use that to make the shower a usable size. We move the toilet to free up floor area. We swap a swinging door for a pocket door, which instantly gives back the several square feet the door was sweeping through.
The Briarwood Okemos project above is the clearest version of the first move. We took part of the adjacent bedroom closet to square off the room, which made space for a larger shower, then moved the toilet to free up floor. The closet got rebuilt smaller with a new door.
Swapping the bathroom and closet locations deleted a wasted hallway and gave the square footage back to the room.
Project spotlight: Okemos Bathroom Relocation Remodel
The most aggressive version of this. The entry to this bathroom was a hallway with a closet on either side, which is a lot of square footage doing nothing. Rather than work around it, we swapped the bathroom and the closet locations outright, which deleted the hallway and handed all of that space back to the room. The homeowners wanted it to feel less crowded and brighter.
A Williamston bathroom that gained space from a frosted-glass pocket door and a single-bowl vanity.
Project spotlight: Williamston Bathroom Remodel
This bathroom door was eating so much usable space that the homeowner asked to replace it with a frosted-glass pocket door, and that one change reshaped how the room worked. They also skipped the double vanity on purpose and took a single bowl with more countertop instead.
This usually lands in the Mid Range tier, because it involves moving walls and usually plumbing.
7. Living metals and warmer fixtures
Matte black is on its way out, and polished chrome is fading with it. What's replacing them is warmer and less uniform: unlacquered brass, brushed copper, aged bronze, and deliberately mixed metals rather than everything matching.
The interesting part is that unlacquered brass is meant to patina. It darkens and shifts with use, which is the point, though it does surprise people who expected it to stay bright. For mid-Michigan, our water is hard, so any finish will show spots more here than in a soft-water area. Brushed and living finishes hide that far better than polished chrome or matte black, both of which show every drop. While this is an upcoming trend, our portfolio is still mostly chrome, brushed nickel, and matte black.
Fixtures are also the cheapest way to make a dated bathroom feel current. If you're not ready for a remodel, changing the faucet, the shower trim, the mirror, and the lighting will do more for the room than almost anything else at that price.
This usually lands in the Refresh tier.
8. Smart technology and the ventilation that actually matters
Every 2027 trend list includes smart bathrooms: concealed digital controls, app-controlled showers, smart mirrors, circadian lighting, built-in steam.
Across the bathrooms we've completed in this market, almost none of that has come up. It's a real trend in high-end and urban markets, and if you want it, we can absolutely build it. It just isn't what most Greater Lansing homeowners are asking for right now.
What most people don't think about is ventilation. A properly sized exhaust fan ducted all the way outside is the single most valuable piece of technology in a Michigan bathroom. Humidity here swings hard between seasons, and a bathroom that can't dry out is how you get peeling paint, failing grout, mildew, and eventually a soft subfloor. Humidity-sensing fans that run until the room is actually dry are worth it as well.
A Frost Road bathroom that started with a rotted subfloor from a long-running shower leak. The walk-in tub gives both tub and shower options.
Project spotlight: Frost Road Williamston Bathroom Remodel
This project started with a hole in the floor. The shower had leaked for long enough to rot out the subfloor and leave a soft spot that was a hazard. We replaced the subfloor, put in a walk-in tub with a shower surround so the homeowner had both options, added an illuminated medicine cabinet and new lighting, and brightened the room. Even after the floor was rebuilt, they were still in the habit of stepping around that spot! This is what a moisture problem looks like when it's ignored long enough.
This usually lands in the Refresh tier for a fan upgrade, and Luxury tier for the full smart package.
A note as you read. these are the trends we're seeing across the industry heading into 2027, filtered through what we actually build in Greater Lansing homes. When you come in, our designers will have their own take on where things are headed and what fits your specific bathroom. Trends are a starting point, not a rulebook.
You can see our recently finished bathrooms, including every project above, in our bathroom portfolio.
What's on the Way Out for 2027
Just as useful as knowing what's coming is knowing what's on its way out, especially before you spend money on it.
Designers are calling time on a handful of looks that defined the last decade: stark all-white bathrooms, matte black hardware everywhere, cool blue and gray palettes, standard subway tile used by default, and matching every fixture and finish in the room. Floating vanities are cooling off too, mostly because people want the storage back.
Full wet rooms are the interesting one. Some forecasts still list them as a rising trend, and some designers are already calling them finished. Our read, based on what we build: barrier-free entry is absolutely here to stay, because it's about accessibility and it makes a small bathroom work better. Turning the entire bathroom into one tiled wet space is a different and much bigger commitment, and in a Michigan home it means more surfaces staying damp in a climate that already makes ventilation a challenge. We'd think hard about that one.
Jetted and jacuzzi tubs deserve a mention here too. We've pulled a lot of them out, and the reason is almost always the same: nobody was using it, and it was taking up the space where a shower should have gone. If you have one you don't use, that's your square footage.
If your bathroom has white subway tile and black fixtures, it's fine. It doesn't need to be torn out. "Going out of style" matters when you're about to spend money, not when you already have something that works.
Find Your Top 3 Bathroom Trends (Take the Quiz)
Not every trend fits every bathroom, so we built a quick way to find the ones that fit yours.
Answer six short questions about what's driving your project, who uses the bathroom, and what you're ready to invest. The quiz matches you to your top three 2027 trends, tells you roughly which tier each one lands in, and points you to the right next step. It takes about two minutes, and there's nothing to sign up for.
What a Bathroom Remodel Costs in Greater Lansing
Most bathroom remodels in the Greater Lansing area fall between $35,000 and $80,000, depending on the size of the bathroom, the tile work, the cabinetry, the plumbing changes, and the finish selections. Larger primary bathrooms with layout changes tend to land on the higher end.
This is where a lot of confusion starts. People compare one company's price against another's and assume somebody is overcharging, when usually the two quotes just cover very different work. One might be a pull-and-replace in the same footprint, the other a full gut with new plumbing, a moved wall, and a repaired subfloor. Same room, different projects. We'd rather show you the tiers up front than have you find out mid-project.
We group bathroom work into three tiers, plus a smaller-scope path:
- Refresh: Cosmetic updates that keep your layout: new vanity, countertop, fixtures, lighting, mirror, flooring, paint. Most color and fixture trends live here.
- Mid Range Remodel: Layout changes and better materials: converting the tub to a walk-in shower, moving the toilet, borrowing closet space, new tile or solid-surface surround, upgraded storage. This is where the large majority of our bathroom projects land, which is worth knowing if the trend photos have you bracing for a much bigger number. Almost every project spotlighted above landed in this range.
- Luxury Remodel: Custom everything: premium finishes and fixtures throughout, significant structural change, high-end tile work, the full smart package.
- Smaller scope: If you need a shower replaced, a vanity swapped, an exhaust fan fixed, or grab bars installed, that's Odd Jobs, our home services division. It's a separate process from our design-build remodels, and it's a good fit when you don't need a designer involved.
You can see real local ranges for each tier in our free Greater Lansing Remodeling Cost Guide before you ever call. It's built from decades of actual projects in this market, so it's a realistic starting point rather than a national average.
Is This Trend Worth It for Your Bathroom?
A trend is worth your money when it still makes sense after the trend is over. Before you commit to anything above, run it through this check:
- Will you still like it in ten years? Keep the expensive permanent pieces (tile, layout, shower surround) closer to timeless. Take your risks on paint, fixtures, and mirrors, which are cheap to change.
- Are you willing to clean it every week for a decade? This is the bathroom-specific question. Textured tile and heavy grout look incredible and ask more of you than a smooth surface does.
- Does it still work if your knees change? A curbless entry, a bench, and blocking for future grab bars cost almost nothing now and a great deal later.
- Can your bathroom handle Michigan humidity? Proper ventilation and sound waterproofing matter more than any finish you pick. If your fan doesn't vent outside, fix that first.
- Does it match your tier? If a trend needs a wall moved or plumbing relocated, it's a remodel, not a refresh. Knowing that early keeps your budget realistic.
- Do you know what's under the floor? In older Lansing homes, a long-running shower leak often means a compromised subfloor. It's better to find that during planning than during demo.
If an idea passes most of these, it's probably worth doing. If it only passes one, it might be a trend you like in photos more than one you want to live with.
How Odd Fellows Contracting Helps You Choose
Picking trends off the internet is easy. Knowing which ones fit your bathroom, your budget, and your house is the hard part, and that's the part we do every day.
Odd Fellows Contracting has been remodeling bathrooms across Greater Lansing since 1988. We're a full-service design-build company, which means design and construction live under one roof. You're not hiring a designer, then a separate contractor, and hoping they talk to each other. Our in-house designers, appointment-only showroom, and full 3D renderings let you see your bathroom before anything gets torn out.
That matters more in a bathroom than almost anywhere else in the house, because bathrooms hide their problems. Plumbing, venting, and framing are all behind the walls, and older homes around here have a habit of revealing a rotted subfloor or an undersized vent the moment demo starts. Having designers and builders in the same conversation from day one is how those get caught during planning instead of becoming a change order. Our clear, defined process puts most of the work up front and gives you a fixed price before demolition, so the number you agree to is the number you pay.
2027 Bathroom Trends FAQ
What are the top bathroom trends for 2027?
The defining 2027 bathroom trends are low-threshold and curbless walk-in showers, accessible design built in from the start, warm earthy color replacing cold white and gray, natural tactile materials like stone and handmade tile, better built-in storage, small-bathroom layout changes that borrow adjacent space, living metals like unlacquered brass and copper, and smarter ventilation. The common thread is warmth, real materials, and a bathroom built around how you'll actually use it for the next twenty years.
What color bathroom has the highest resale value?
Warm neutrals are the safest bet: soft whites, warm greiges, light taupes, and natural stone tones. They photograph well, appeal broadly, and don't lock a buyer into a specific taste. If you want more color, put it somewhere reversible like paint or a vanity rather than in permanent tile. That said, most people we work with are remodeling to enjoy the space rather than to sell, so we'd pick the color you actually want to live with over the one that theoretically appeals to a stranger.
What bathroom tile never goes out of style?
Natural stone in warm neutral tones, simple large-format porcelain, and classic patterns like a matte white or off-white tile in a straightforward layout. Large-format tile has a practical advantage too: fewer grout lines means less cleaning and fewer places for moisture to get in. Trend-driven shapes and bold patterns date faster, so use them where they're cheap to replace.
How much does a bathroom remodel cost in Lansing, MI?
Most bathroom remodels in the Greater Lansing area fall between $35,000 and $80,000, depending on the size of the bathroom, tile work, cabinetry, plumbing changes, and finish selections. Larger primary bathroom renovations with layout changes tend to fall on the higher end of that range. Our free Greater Lansing Remodeling Cost Guide has real local ranges for each tier.
Is a curbless shower a good idea in an older home?
Sometimes, and it depends on the floor. A truly curbless shower needs the drain and framing set up to slope properly, which is straightforward on a slab or basement floor and more involved on a second story in an older Lansing home. A low-threshold shower gets you most of the accessibility benefit with far less structural work, which is why it's what we build most often. A designer can tell you which one your house supports after looking at the framing.
Will these trends date fast?
Some will, and that's fine as long as you spend accordingly. Walk-in showers, accessible design, better storage, and good ventilation are functional improvements that will still make sense in twenty years. Specific colors, tile shapes, and metal finishes move faster, so take those risks on the pieces you can change in a weekend rather than the ones that require a contractor.
Your Next Step
The best bathroom isn't the one that copies this year's trends. It's the one that's safe to use, easy to clean, dry enough for a Michigan winter, and built to a budget you agreed to up front. Trends are just the starting point.
For 38 years, Odd Fellows Contracting has helped Greater Lansing homeowners turn a dated, leaking, or hard-to-use bathroom into one they actually enjoy, with fixed pricing, a clear process, and design and construction under one roof. We've built enough bathrooms around here to tell you which trends are worth your money and which ones just photograph well.
Take the quiz above to find your top three, download the cost guide to see where your project lands, and when you're ready to plan it for real, let's talk.
