Replace Your Boring Shower Curtain: A Vintage Style Alternative From Amazon

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Decorating a bathroom in vintage styles comes with its own share of challenges: A bathroom tends to be a more compact space than, say, a living room. Because of this, you need to choose statement pieces that immediately establish a focal point in the room and convey the essence of the vintage style you're creating. The Homechoice Decor Black Handcrafted Bow Tie Shower Curtain from retailers like Amazon fits both criteria. With its dramatic color and endless rows of ruffle bow embellishments, it's bold enough to hold its own when you're decorating in dark academia, industrial design decor, and other vintage styles.

However, first things first: The shower curtain features three rows of ruffly bow ties. The design employs gentle pleats that gather in bunches and are punctuated top and bottom by these rows of bows. Stylistically, it looks a bit like a floor-length pleated skirt from yesteryear — a characteristic that lends itself to vintage decor motifs. Additionally, although the black bow tie curtain is made of satin, don't let the delicate-looking material fool you. It goes easily into the washing machine when the time comes to clean it. 

Finally, at 72 inches long, it's difficult to miss this piece when you walk into the bathroom. However, its height, as dramatic as it is, is functional in addition to being useful: If you're keen on hiding a feature like your bathtub for cosmetic reasons, the curtain's length allows you do that. It's large enough and long enough to easily cover up that unsightly architectural element and turn it into the focal point in your vintage bathroom instead.

Industrial design decor came into prominence in the 19th and 20th centuries when old factories were turned into apartments and lofts. This motif is all about contrasts. Light and dark, wood and concrete, and rough and refined are thrown together in this style to create a look that's both cozy and modern. And it's because the pleated, almost ruffled design of the shower curtain contrasts with the stark lines and hard surfaces that are common in this decor style that you can make an argument for it here.

Bathrooms done in this aesthetic include materials that are common in industrial decor, like brick, wood, and concrete, including in the bath and shower area. From a architectural standpoint, you may be looking at a walk-in shower. However, you could also just as easily have a claw foot or horse trough bathtub that's standing on a brick or wooden floor or raised platform. Small details like the JTDTH Store Double Shower Curtain Hooks made of wood and iron introduce the black bow-bedecked shower curtain into the decor scheme logically and reinforce the style's proclivity toward the use of natural materials. Finally, if your bathroom includes structural elements, like exposed pipes, the loose, black shower curtain hanging underneath those features will soften the look. You'll have a shower area that has a lot of visual drama and tension without looking overdone.

Dark academia as we know it became popular in the 1980s, early 1990s when classics like "Dead Poets Society" and "The Secret History" hit the film and literary scenes, respectively. As a design motif, dark academia decor embraces hints of Gothic, Victorian, and Romantic sensibilities, architecture from centuries past, plenty of texture, and campus life at old and storied institutions like Oxford or Harvard. It's a layered look that creates a visual record of centuries of decor. The color schemes associated with the style are deep, rich, and moody: black, purple, forest green, burgundy, and brown. This curtain's traditional design, along with its color and requisite moodiness makes it a fit for this style.

Although it could be a stand-alone piece, you'll add more drama to the decor scheme if you create a double curtain setup. Use something like a Yookeb Store Black Flower Gothic Dark Bathroom Shower Curtain as a curtain liner to introduce a Gothic element to the mix. The florals on this piece serve two purposes. They introduce more visual interest and show off popular flowers of the Gothic period, like roses. 

Place a second curtain rod in front of the first shower curtain, and then, hang the black bow curtain in front of it. Although black satin is usually reserved for bedrooms, it works well in this setting, too, thanks to dark academia's tendency to embrace an assortment of textures. Finally, pull the black curtain aside just a tad to let the liner curtain peek out from underneath. The visual contrast between the two curtains will make the black curtain stand out even more.