Small Bathroom Ideas
If your bathroom is small, like mine, it can probably use some great small bathroom ideas – ideas to save space, make the best use of the space you do have, and make the space look larger even if it really isn’t. Read on for a collection of ideas, from the basic to the slightly over-the-top, to help you make the most of your small bathroom.
Use a shower instead of a tub. If you have a tub somewhere else in the house, maybe you don’t need one in this particular bathroom. Nowadays, most people take showers instead anyway. The space used by a standard tub, 60″ x 30″, will give you a luxurious two-person shower, or you can install a smaller shower and use the extra space for storage or a second vanity basin.
The toilet-lid sink is a sink which installs in place of the lid of your toilet tank, and drains into the tank, thus reusing your washing water as flush water and saving water. I can’t see many people installing this instead of a regular vanity or sink, but if you’re in a really small bathroom it might be just the ticket.
Good lighting can make your small bathroom seem larger, and even if it doesn’t, it will make it brighter, more cheerful to be in, and safer and easier to use. Think about windows (including interior transom windows over doors), skylights, solar tubes, fan/light combo units, heat/light combo units, vanity lights, over-shower/tub lights. Also consider bulb types: compact fluorescent (CFL) and even LED light bulbs are now as good and as available as the old incandescent bulbs, and save a lot of energy in comparison. They also run much cooler, saving on AC if you have hot summers.
Do you need only minimal storage in the bathroom? If this is a guest bath, or if you have storage right outside the bathroom door, you may be able to get away with only enough storage for a few toilet rolls and spare toiletries. That frees up space for actual spaciousness: consider the difference in look between a pedestal sink and a vanity cabinet. Alternatively, use a half-depth vanity cabinet, with the sink extending forward over the front: these take up less floor space while providing some storage space.
Frequently used or not? If not, you can use wild or fragile decor which might get damaged or tiresome in a heavily used room.
Instead of trying to make a small room look less small, why not play on the smallness and make it into a cocoon or cave.
Use opposite-wall mirrors or reflective wallpaper to make the room extend into infinity.
Borrow space. Can you set a shower or tub back into unused closet space in another room? Set storage cabinets between the studs? Expand a ceiling up into attic space? use a greenhouse window in place of a standard one? Even bump out one wall a couple of feet?
A light colored floor which is as clear as possible makes a space look larger. Use a pedestal sink or small vanity cabinet, a vanity cabinet on legs, a claw-footed tub, or wall-hung toilet to give you the maximum visible floor area.
Bath/shower combos often feel very cramped in use, but much of that perception is at torso and shoulder level rather than round your feet. A curved shower rod which projects into the room gives a surprising feeling of spaciousness to showering in the tub, and doesn’t impose much on the room visually.
A cathedral ceiling can make a space feel more airy and open but don’t go too wild: a too-high ceiling in a small room sometimes just feels like you’re in the bottom of an elevator shaft!
Glass shower stall walls and doors allow the eye to move freely through the space instead of being stopped by structures – and that means feeling as if there’s more available space.
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