Before you install a luxury vinyl plank floor in your bathroom, there are a few things you should consider first. Just because it’s waterproof and everywhere, does NOT mean it’s the right choice for every bathroom. Here are some dos and don’ts for installing vinyl plank floors in the bathroom.
Is it ok to put vinyl plank floors in the bathroom?
This mistake is so widespread, after I saw it again today in one of our eDesign projects (installed by a previous homeowner) I decided it was an emergency to post this list of Dos and Don’ts:
✅ DO Install vinyl plank floors when it is continuous throughout your new build or renovation without interruption by a different flooring
It should visually look like, “How nice, the same hardwood floors (that’s what a good LVP should look like) simply extend into the bathrooms too” just like this image below:
or this:
So I actually only have one DO when it comes to installing vinyl plank floors. And you just read it.
The rest of my recommendations are DON’Ts
In my opinion.
Please note, this is my opinion and it doesn’t mean it’s right. If you don’t agree with me, you can just keep clicking. If you’ve already installed them, and they don’t extend throughout the rest of your home, perhaps it’s best if you keep clicking as well? After all, ignorance is bliss sometimes.
When I did a search to see what everyone was saying, about the world of LVP flooring, it reminded me of the time I searched black windows.
Everyone just talked about how great, inexpensive, durable and waterproof they were. NO ONE told me WHEN they would not be a good choice, design-wise.
This quote made me cringe:
The DIY crowd will benefit the most from LVT and LVP floor coverings. The ease of installation and the low cost rank pretty high for those wanting to install it themselves. Most people want the look of real wood or stone, without the hassle that comes along with it, and they don’t want to empty too much of their wallets to get it.
Upgrading to vinyl is a cheap investment in your home and will look nearly identical to stone or wood. The next time you update your bathroom, consider using floating LVP or LVT to quickly transform that room into a modern space for you and your family.
Why? Because it’s often the DIY crowd that gets seduced by a good sale on some taupe or grey LVP that does nothing to improve the look of the older, dated bathroom.
Okay now onto the don’ts, since there are so many.
❌ DON’T install vinyl plank flooring into an old bathroom like this
It screams NEW floors, OLD bathroom.
If you are renovating a bathroom and not replacing everything, that’s when you need to keep reading this mantra over and over again:
To avoid the “yesterday and today” look, your bathroom should look like everything was installed at the SAME TIME.
If the homeowner had chosen sheet vinyl flooring in a white hex pattern, for example, that would have been way better. It would simply have looked like an updated 70s bathroom, NOT a badly updated 70s bathroom.
A hex tile like this would be a better choice for this bathroom
❌ DON’T install vinyl plank flooring if it connects to carpet
I was recently in a new build. The builder had installed a nice classic LVP downstairs and carpet upstairs. All the upstairs bathrooms had the same LVP as the rest of the house. But they were now installed right beside the carpeted hallways and bedrooms.
If you have carpet upstairs, and you want vinyl flooring that’s fine. But now you should be choosing vinyl flooring that looks like tile (LVT) and NOT the look of hardwood planks.
Because a wood floor looks best, as I said, when it runs throughout a continuous space and the small rooms and bathrooms that run off the main space. In a bathroom abutted to a pile carpet, it just starts to look odd. Because unless you have the flow integrity of a continuous wood floor, tile is simply a more classic look for bathrooms.
In my mind, the goal with flooring should always be to minimize the transitions from one flooring to another. And actually, that is what LVP is great for, a single flooring that you can run EVERYWHERE.
But what happens too often in a DIY renovation is that we are renovating one room, one bathroom, just the kitchen, only the mudroom, etc. and the new LVP goes only in there, butting up to some other older flooring.
And that is never ever a good look.
❌ Don’t install LVP flooring connected directly to other wood or wood look floors
Especially don’t consider wood look LVP for your bathroom (or bedroom, or laundry room, what have you) if it will connect directly to your existing hardwood or wood look floors. It’s highly unlikely you will ever find a close enough match for this to work well. It will just look bad. Sorry.
If you’re tempted to do this, consider whether you can tackle floating LVP over ALL the flooring for a current, unified look instead. If not? Choose a timeless and classic tile for your bathroom, or kitchen, or foyer.
❌ And never, ever install grey plank flooring
Grey is not a natural wood colour and grey plank flooring should have never been invented in the first place. Shopping for houses and only seeing grey floors? Here’s what you can do.
And if you already have them in your home, here are some great rug options and here’s how to decorate around them.
Here are some pretty floors to consider instead of LVP
A large scale marble look tile like this one
Not into a white floor? A charcoal herringbone or hex is a pretty choice.
I used this black hex tile in one of my bathrooms:
There are lots of other pretty options too, terracotta/saltillo in the right house (like this one), or a pattern with colour is fun.
Since so many of you were confused by this last statement:
Wood look floors in the bathroom is a specifically rustic farmhouse look though that doesn’t work in most homes, and certainly not if it’s not continuous with the flooring in the adjoining spaces.
- Extra wide, extra long planks that have become ubiquitous
- Distressed, weathered finishes meant to mimic reclaimed wood
- Color variations and artificial patina designed to look timeworn
- Whitewashed or greige tones that are now falling out of favor
The modern farmhouse trend is clearly waning in 2025. So, this limited range of options creates a significant problem: homeowners with traditional, formal, or non-farmhouse style homes are left with few appropriate flooring choices in the LVP category.
And if your house is more traditional in style, especially if you have more traditional hardwood flooring in other areas of the house, a wide plank LVP wood look floor, is not your best choice.
So I always advise my clients to look for the smoothest, quietest and most versatile looking options in LVP, without lots of rustic burnishing and detail. For longevity. Because this trend is already on the decline.
It’s important to be aware of the trends when you’re doing any kind of expensive renovation, like a bathroom. Rustic wide plank wood floors in a bathroom is technically a more rustic farmhouse look. And that’s fine if the same floor connects the bathroom to the rest of the house directly.
But if you’re choosing flooring for a bathroom that is not continuous with your wood floors, or a in more traditional home where more formal wood floors exist in the hall, it’s worth considering a tile that will look like it has been there forever and is completely timeless.
Feeling lost. Hire me to choose your floors for you. Try my eDesign Services here. Or grab my Timeless Flooring Guide here.
Related posts:
Are Hardwood Floors Considered a Pattern?
Hi Maria
Are charcoal LVP tile floors also a ‘Don’t’ when renovating a bathroom? Thanks
100% yes DO NOT do it.
What about LVP on main areas (open), carpeted bedrooms, and tile baths? Too many different surfaces?
I think “same floor all thru the house” is also a trend. Just like “different flooring is okay for different rooms”. I think you need to be comfortable in the house in which you live. And, if that means LVP in the living areas, carpet in the bedroom and tile in the bathroom, that is okay. YOU have to like what you are doing. When you stand at my front door, you can see 4 different types of flooring(living room, entry, library and kitchen) and I am okay with that!! Each flooring represents a different room and a different “feel” for each room. Eventually, I will jump on the bandwagon and get like floors thru out, but not today!!
This post is not a tutorial on what you’ve mentioned. It’s a tutorial on how and where to use LVP. Yes every bathroom except the powder room should ideally have timeless tile installed and a lot of people like carpets in bedrooms or on the second floor that is fine What doesn’t work is installing carpet in a bedroom AND then LVP in the adjoining bathroom. At that point tile should definitely be the flooring choice. Thanks for your comment. Maria
Cheri, that’s fine because it’s the traditional look. You only need to make sure the three surfaces are coordinated.
I see tons of grey in nature what do you mean grey is not in wood in nature? Look at tree trunks especially in the winter
Yes however you’ve nailed it with your ‘grey tree trunks in the winter’ because that is exactly what it looks like inside. No warmth a lot of blotchiness and like winter just arrived but on the floors in your house. That’s why, you won’t see grey floors in House Beautiful or Southern Living, it’s just wrong. People decorate with enough neutrals in this world that it’s too much to also have the floor colour also be in the world of bleak and grey. Hope that helps, Maria
Yeah grey tree trunks, barn wood, drift wood are all natural but speak to different styles or looks. I have a beach house bungalow and have LVP that looks like reclaimed barn wood it looks great. It’s more brown than grey( not taupe) also sand & salt water not great for hardwood. We have it in every room still looks great ten years later. I am rethinking the grey paint in principal bed/bath simply as I find it too dark for such a pretty space.
I would not use this LVP in a traditional home or a condo in the city. A lot of RBF ( Really Bad Flips) will say LVP and it’s just cheapo crap from Home Depot. The skunk lines give it away every time.
One caveat with LVPs that if it’s near a window (south/west facing) that gets strong sun all day it will discolour. We have near the south facing glass door and it has turned a blue ish colour and will need to be replaced. Second caveat always have an extra box on hand for situations like this as near impossible to match! A friend has to replace some in his kitchen and had to rip out a closet floor to match…just saying’
And the manufacturers discontinue the LVP styles quickly, within 2-3 years. So definitely get extra boxes. I had that happen to me when work had to be done through the slab, and the LVP I had was already discontinued, and none could be sourced. So the entire downstairs floor had to be replaced. It was not fun. You’re also right about the sun discoloration.
It’s not just DIYers doing this. Mid-range builders who don’t offer many options are putting LVP everywhere. Many of them put carpeting in the bedrooms and then use the same LVP in the baths.
If you’re building a new house these days, the only way to avoid this is with a custom or semi-custom builder.
I’d still pick LVP over laminate planks. At least it’s waterproof, but ideally, in a new build, you would have better upgrade options like engineered hardwood. I looked at a new build option, and they were putting LVP on stair treads. I didn’t know you could do that, but in reading up on it, they make treads now. I wonder how well those will wear–I suspect not very well or long.
LVP is absolutely horrible on stair treads: DO NOT DO IT! Why? Well each tread needs a end cap since LVP isn’t actually wood. These can range in thickness but are usually fairly thick. We stayed in a rental that had over 1″ caps on their LVP stairs and it hurt your feet to walk down them because they are not smooth. The stairs are also VERY loud, like elephants are coming up and down.
My house used to have just carpet and tile (the same tile). When we replaced the carpet, we put LVP down in most of the public areas that had been carpet and the master bedroom as well. The kid’s bedrooms and the stairs are now the only carpeted area? Why? Slippery stairs with LVP is horrible, you have to have those caps, and our stairs are in the middle of the house. It would be horribly loud anytime anyone went down the stairs if we didn’t have carpet. Even my cats can sound like a herd of elephants with the carpet! Is carpet a pain to vacuum there, yes? But it’s worth it given how many people in the house wear socks. My mom visits and LVP stairs would be a hazard for falling.
I personally don’t like the look of Luxury vinyl floors, they look so cheap the grey is the worst. Especially in homes for sale (I was a home stager for many years and recently retired) where they took up hardwood and added vinyl and painted the walls grey even though the fixed elements didn’t go. I’ve been looking at homes for sale in NC to possibly move and it makes me sad to see how cheap these floors look, or the thought of having to repaint an entire home that was painted grey.
LVP is a great for basements. It’s easy to clean and suitable, unlike laminate or hardwood, for damp spaces. I also looks pretty realistic as long as it is not next to real hardwood floors. I personally prefer tile in bathrooms, easy to disinfect with bleach, if necessary.
I am ready to replace all of the flooring in my home. I had initially planned on a high quality LVP, in a warm brown tone, to be laid continuously throughout all rooms, including the bathrooms. At the design center, the owner strongly discouraged me choosing LVP, especially in the bathrooms, citing problems with warping, buckling and moisture/mold issues in bathrooms. He’s recommending laminate (light oak color) and tile in bathrooms. I wasn’t planning on having to choose a floor tile, especially since l’m not able to replace my bathroom counter top tiles (white 4×4) and don’t necessarily love the timeless options that would match. I also worry that light oak floors, with a pink beige undertone are a good choice. I would be grateful for your perspective!
Warning folks. LVP. If you ever have a water hose break in your house,and get a couple inches of water flooded out onto your LVP. Even if that water is cleaned up within 10-15 minutes, that flooring will have to be pulled up. Last week we had this situation in our Mom’s home. There is no drying this out. The remediation company pulled up the planks and we found lots of water sandwiched between the plank material and the underlayment. There is no way that water would have ever dried before it created mold spores. It was all pulled out. We will put in LVP again. Just don’t want folks to think “water resistent” or “water proof” means the flooring can withstand alot of water. At least this was our experience. Love Maria’s post. We’ve hired Maria for her POV on flooring and an exterior remodel. Next step will be an interior package.