There's a common misconception that masculine interior design means rough, poorly styled, or un-evolved. And perhaps that is, in part, because the interiors considered as “rugged” are often “strong and robust”. In fact, it’s these qualities that make masculine décor spectacular in its depth, boldness, and sense of warmth.
A dark wall surface, natural wood texture, furnishings with clean lines are the epitome of masculine interior design. This Decor Textures Black Porcelain provides the perfect backdrop for all the room furnishings — allowing each piece to shine on its own.
And the great news is that you can make any part of the home — living room, bathroom, or kitchen — shine with the use of tiles! Whether you’re designing a bachelor pad or a special room in the house set aside for the ultimate man cave, defining your masculine decor with dark colors, rich details, and natural surfaces reflects the space’s functionality as well as its elegance of simplicity.
That said, there are ways to strike a balance between a masculine home that combines great elegance and style with enough restraint to keep it from looking tacky and tasteless. Feel like hopping on the bandwagon? Whether you're inspired by your home's architectural details or looking to make use of your creative impulse by bringing more flair into your abode, you've come to the right place.
Let's dive deep into masculine interior design as well as take a look at stunning approaches to creating a strong environment that exudes timeless style.
The juxtaposition of the wood look porcelain floor tiles, stone and metallic copper, and sturdy furniture pieces with straight lines work beautifully together. Our Kasai Notte Rectified Porcelain Tile floors proves how adding wood touch perfectly creates a cozy and sophisticated ambiance.
Masculine interiors: the basics of design
Since comfort and practicality are the hallmarks of masculine interior design, this rugged décor style embraces a mix of various elements such as modern, industrial, and rustic aesthetics. Semi-minimalism, clean lines, and sharp corners are key, and the addition of rich and strong materials, bold details, geometric patterns, natural greenery, and heavier and sturdier looking furnishings can bring about a huge change in the aura of the room.
Rugged décor: designing with color and texture
Three elements are imperative when creating a masculine sanctuary: warmth, comfort, and simple elegance. The use of color and texture is critical to setting the right tone. Dark moody tones, reclaimed woods, metal accents, wrought iron, leather, textured stone, and hints of aged materials are mixed and matched to create the feel of rugged functionality, visual depth, and extra dimension.
Teaming different types of fabrics that highlight both soft and rough textures create that welcoming, lived-in look that makes masculine interior design feel so special. While the heavy use of deep and dark colors is a popular choice with this design style — these hues can quickly turn into a boring and monotonous affair — so incorporating warm neutral shades and vivacious, exciting tones like royal blue, forest green, burgundy, or mocha can help you find the perfect balance between starkness and subtlety.
Accessories: It's all in the details
Known for its thoughtful luxury and immaculate flair, masculine style can be characterized by smart, tailored furnishings and accessories. A curated coffee table and a clever placement of décor accents such as sculpture pieces, intriguing artwork, rustic globe, books of vintage variety, or treasured first editions naturally become talking points and make you feel comfortable at home. Addition of plush throw cushions and a stunning textured rug can simply elevate a bare space with minimum effort.
The most striking masculine spaces consider a visual affirmation that perfectly blends balance and consistent flow. This Fan Wooden Beige Marble Mosaic Tile lends a softer touch while maintaining its elegance despite all the other striking design features in the room.
An expression of boldness and softness
It’s worth mentioning that the term “masculine interior” isn’t just for the men in our lives. Yes, handsome dark furnishings, straight lines and robust textures can be combined effortlessly to give a masculine vibe for sure, but we’re happy to report that doesn’t have to be the case.
There’s something so timeless about this style of design that goes to show that it is applicable to both men and women looking to level up their dwellings. Besides, there is no rule that says masculine decor can’t express an element of softness and beauty one way or the other.
Perfect style for man caves and bachelor pads
The idea of carving out the ultimate sanctuary in your home designed for downtime and unwinding in comfort, as well as celebrating your passions is something we can all embrace. We especially love that man caves often feature masculine décor — allowing you to engage in your hobbies, express your creativity, proudly display your collectibles, and offer a hangout spot to entertain friends.
Nate Berkus combines tones of dark Nero Marquina marble (with the characteristic white veins that make this marble eye-catching), with tones of olive green and natural wood for the gourmet kitchen he shares with husband Jeremiah Brent.
Swanky bachelor pads prove that living solo doesn’t mean forsaking a stylish home. In fact, you can achieve gentlemanly interiors with a contemporary and cool twist on traditional masculine style, whether you’re living the single life — or just want your space to have its own unique identity. Think of the quintessential design elements that combine tastefully amalgamating subtle textures with clean-lined details.
Tile choices for masculine interiors
The name masculine inherently gives you a sense of warmth and strength. A well-appointed room that maintains a distinctly rugged appeal embraces tiles with rich surface textures and authentic detailing in mid to dark tones. Wood, metallic, and stone effect porcelain tiles are a big hit when it comes to shaping interiors with a masculine aura.
To enhance the overall look and feel of a space, a blend of ambient and natural lighting is sure to bring out the richness of the room, as it plays off the walls, floor, and other surfaces. Here, our Fabrique Blue Grey Chevron Glass Mosaic Tile creates a stunning contrast with the marble vanity and black floating shelf below.
Classic, cool neutral toned tiles are also perfectly cut out for a room with a masculine vibe. Soft hues beautifully offset dark furnishings, fixtures, and hardware. For instance, if your room base furnishings are dark, pay special attention to using light colored tiles to give the space a sense of airiness and cheerful ambiance.
The size of your room also matters when selecting tile style and color. This is precisely the reason why using white and other lighter shades is essential in achieving visual balance in small-scale bachelor apartments that intend to embrace the masculine look. Ideally, sticking to a palette of not more than three main colors (read combining lights and darks so well) helps in reducing visual fragmentation of space.
Masculine bathroom interior design
When designing a masculine bathroom, you likely want a space that’s handsomely glamorous, if there is such a phrase… a place that exudes both maturity and sophistication, not just practicality. It should be inviting enough for guests to walk in and relish the cleanliness, the décor, and even the smell — but also cozy enough to enable you to relax and unwind after a long day.
Simply put: a true masculine bathroom strives for a touch of elegance while retaining its dramatic, edgy, and handsome sensibility. What makes tiles so amazing is that they can accentuate the look and feel of the room and also give it a tangible and practical impact.
Masculine style bathrooms are usually dark — black, charcoal, or gray — strict, minimalist, and luxe; however, you may add a punch of color with your tile selection — saturated shades of orange, purple, green, red, or blue create a warmer and wonderfully welcoming atmosphere. Porcelain, natural stone, big dark format tiles, or nonslip geometric mosaic floor surface would help you craft a décor scheme that’s high-end and oozes sophistication and grandeur.
Here are some interesting ways to use tile to jazz up your bathroom with masculine style and create a rejuvenating space you can escape to and spend time in.
Nothing spells style and luxury quite like wood, metal, and stone finishes. The use of porcelain has pushed these materials into the spotlight when it comes to bathroom tile selection. Because tile is a highly durable, moisture-resistant, and an easy to clean material ideal for wet rooms, using realistic recreations of wood, metal, or natural stone effect porcelain offers a perfect synthesis of beauty and functionality.
The right combination of color, texture, and shape can establish a sophisticated masculine aesthetic. Cosmo Silver Marbled Porcelain Hexagon Tile combines dark and light tones of gray, resulting in a look that infuses copious amounts of visual distinction.
When chosen and displayed cleverly on both the floor and wall surface, the tiles, for example stone-look porcelain, can exude a refined, elegant, polished finish that harmonizes with the rest of your rooms’ sculptural masculine touches. For a seamless effect, the same floor tiles can be wrapped around the walls into your shower room.
Wood look tiles present endless opportunities to lend a vibe that’s part contemporary and part rustic. When installed on the floor and paired with dark and strong metallic accents, wood instills a natural warmth and timeless artisanal touch to an otherwise strictly masculine setting.
We especially love that wood, metal, and stone effects have an element of visual texture, which is a plus in executing a masculine room with depth and dimension. Having a combination of both, smooth and rough texture, would seemingly be ideal. For example, one area of the shower, say the wall behind the showerhead can highlight a rough-to-touch surface, and another area, such as the backsplash behind the vanity area, may be made from the smoothest marble effect available.
The right color palette not only adds to the sense of approachable elegance, but also offers a ton of stunning design moments. Whatever look you’re after — laid back, conservative and traditional or modern and urban, use tile colors that reflect that and set a firm tone for the rest of the room’s palette.
The beauty of strong neutrals such charcoal gray, white, and brown, paired with wood and metal tones is that they always adapt to their surroundings no matter the choice of aesthetic. We love that this Sea Glass Blue Tile, used as a backsplash that runs from the floor all the way to the ceiling, provides an eye-catching touch without detracting from the room's other design elements.
- black tiles are synonymous with sophistication and traditional masculine flair — it is dramatic and classic, and teams well with pretty much any color you can think of.
- dark gray tones are fantastic if you prefer the calm nuances without the exaggeration of a deep, saturated color that may hurt the eye.
- deep brown tiles, on the other hand, offer a masculine feel while also providing warmth and appeal to the space.
- light gray and white may be included into your décor scheme to offset predominantly dark furnishings.
- hints of jewel tones, as you well know, make a strong style statement. So having smaller, finishing touches in these tones: sapphire blue, ruby red, amethyst purple, citrine yellow, and emerald green, make the bathroom feel exciting to be in.
While dark colors may be the signature element of masculine interior design, introducing warm neutrals can soften the sturdy feel of a saturated color palette. One thing we can all agree on is that neutrals including light browns, beiges, creams, and whites take sophisticated simplicity to the next level.
Soft hues get a stamp of approval because they keep things bright but not too bright. Opt for:
- monochromatic black, grey, and white tiles if you’re aiming for a clean and modern aesthetic
- cream or soft beige tiles in conjunction with wood tones and dark brown for a sharp contrast
- dark tones of jewel purple, green or red accompanied by crisp white and soft blue for an impressive personal touch
Glass is favored in masculine bathrooms because it enhances a gorgeously clean and minimalist look that is highly functional. Sleek and stylish frameless glass enclosures with linear shower drains help create a look of strength and stability and add to the open concept of masculine design.
Even better, having a walk-in glass shower with nonexistent curb allows you to carry the same tile style from your shower walls all the way to the floor and into the rest of your bathroom. The results… a seamless, spacious, and elegant design finish.
See more Design Ideas for an Open Concept Bathroom
When designing your bachelor pad or home bathroom, it’s worth remembering that it is part of a broader, fluid environment. Your masculine décor scheme should therefore feel like a continuation of the theme you’ve already established in other parts of the house.
Meaning, if your residence employs a masculine style with clean and modern influences, design the bathroom accordingly. The same can be said when it comes to tile selection — try sticking to the same style and colorway for a seamless and unified design finish.
Lighting that captures the strength and ruggedness feel of your overall masculine interior scheme, as well as help emphasis the detailed features of the room is ideal as it creates a sense of awareness.
While picking out your light fixtures, it's essential that you consider layering the different types of light: ambient, task, and accent — dark metallic pendants, sculptural LED fixtures, and task lamps are your best bet.
Design Elements for a Masculine Kitchen
Being the heart of the home, kitchen design is hugely influenced by individual taste and lifestyle. Since masculine interiors combine form and function with style by incorporating any of the elements previously mentioned, the design of your kitchen, much like the bathroom, should feel inviting, comfortable, and cohesive.
In this kitchen designed by Eric Olsen Design, masculine elements: wood floors, dark cabinets, gray and black backsplash, and an island with black, square subway tiles all come together to create an interior that’s classic and with the right decorative punches.
The best course of action to get your décor scheme right on track is to keep it simple. Choose tiles in staple colors like black, gray, and white so that you can more easily curate the rest of your rooms bold and striking elements masculine design is known for around the monochromatic palette.
Dark colors like black or gray oversized subway tiles are a staple in kitchen design too. Shiny touches like metallic accents and appliances can be adapted to a masculine kitchen décor, while cabinetry in golden wood tones add an authentic feel.
Natural materials such as wood is always a fantastic choice for creating a characterful space that feels timeless and inviting, as seen with this kitchen design by Angeline Guido Design.
If you have dark base furnishings, beautiful contrast can be created with tiles in classic neutrals, for instance a simple white penny tile, to make your scheme a bit more dynamic and less one dimensional.
Case in point: mixing and matching tile is yet another look for kitchens, and allows you to play with color, pattern, and size in order to create rugged decor with visual interest.
Wood-look tile is a trend that’s loved by many homeowners not just for its durability, hard-working, pet-friendly, and stain-, scratch- and slip-resistant qualities, but for the timeless and natural aesthetic that it lends to a kitchen space. For masculine appeal, opt for dark wood tones in black, grey, or brown.
A combination of traditional, old, and vintage elements with trendy and current touches can render a masculine kitchen interior with class. Think reclaimed wood kitchen cabinets for warmth and depth, teamed with modern pendant light fixtures in chrome, and a sleek crisp white marble-look porcelain backsplash and floors. The overall design quality is one that’s fresh yet timeless, rich, and refined.
Micah Abbananto Designs got it right here! The bright white subway tile beautifully complements the island top, at the same time grounding the dark cabinets and gold metal finishes.
Masculine interior design grants you the opportunity to create a look that reflects your personality. So, whether you’re more into dark and natural interiors, sturdy and strict minimalism, or a style with contemporary and urban influences, take advantage of these décor elements to transform your man cave, bachelor pad, or your home’s bathroom, living room, and kitchen into a space that encapsulates the essence of your soul.
