The Easy Shower Curtain Trick That'll Instantly Transform The Look Of Your Bathroom

Nearly half of all water used in the average American household flows through the bathroom, a place you probably spend more time than you'd imagine at first blush. Many bathroom retrofits will adjust the space with an eye toward sustainability; you can replace your toilet with low-flush options, put in high-efficiency shower heads, use LED lightbulbs, or even take some inspiration from public spaces like university bathrooms by installing an air dryer. 

However, a lot of people also see the bathroom as a place to luxuriate with a bath bomb or multi-step skincare routine, and in that case, there are plenty of ways to remake your master bathroom so it feels like a luxury oasis. One idea that could be a boon for both your bourgeois aesthetic and conserving water is installing two shower curtains at once.

To be clear, this isn't to say you should crowd out your shower rod by overlapping four layers of shower curtains and liners (chances are none of them would be able to move with that many hooks stuck beside one another). You can make your bathroom look like an expensive investment by having two lined sets hung up side-by-side, that way they open like luxe window curtains. Expensive drapes and hardware have been associated with elegant American households since at least the 19th century, with a far longer history in European manors and palaces. If you can capture that look with traditional textile-patterned shower curtains, it could really transform the look of your bathroom.

Perhaps the biggest issue with standard shower curtain sets is they tend to help with privacy more than retaining water. Even if your liner comes with suction cups to help stick its base to the tub, the thin sides can still be volatile, letting a lot of water splash from the shower onto your bathroom floor. Hanging up two sets of lined shower curtains not only calls to mind that style of expensive drapery, it also ensures you have more material covering the full length of the shower to keep more water contained.

Ensuring more water reaches the drain is a worthwhile endeavor given nearly 1.2 trillion gallons of water are used every year for showering in the United States alone. You could upgrade your space to a similarly deluxe walk-in shower, one that's surrounded by glass panes to help retain water, but this would better fit a modernist aesthetic than the kind of traditional luxury embodied by a nice, big bathtub with a set of drapery shower curtains. It's also going to be a more expensive upgrade; if you aren't picky and prefer the look of luxury more than the quality of the material itself, you can nab an extra shower curtain for as little as $10 from stores like IKEA. That will give you a lot more bang for your buck.

There are numerous options for updating your shower space once you consider adding more curtains. Do you want the two sets to match, or would you prefer complementary colors? Should you hang them on a straight or a curved shower rod? Will those curtains rise all the way to the ceiling or leave a portion of the showerhead exposed? These questions and more will best be answered by your aesthetic tastes, but once they're settled you can use the shower as a fulcrum around which to design the rest of your bathroom.

If you go with curtains that are designed like traditional textured drapes, an old-fashioned bathroom with lots of wood accents, warm colors, and soft lighting should follow. If you go with more abstract-patterned curtains, 2025's marble tile bathroom trend could be a great option. You can even get a bit silly with it, using the doubled-up curtains to make allusions to entertainment by designing a theater or cinema-inspired space. Considering all the technology available today for luxurious and sustainable bathroom equipment, you can have the best of both worlds with old-fashioned, elegant aesthetics using multiple shower curtains to help retain water without also having to include the more grody bathtub designs of the 1800s. Besides, less mess on the floor after a shower is always a plus.