Small Bathroom Ideas: Eight Style Tips For A Small Space

Small bathrooms require some careful planning to maximize their style. An advantage to working with a compact room is that you can make the decor super effective on a budget. The smaller space often means spending less money on paint and tiles, which tend to be pretty expensive. 

Having a small bathroom may not seem like a blessing when you’re decorating. However, there are several clever designs you can do. Unfortunately, choosing the wrong items for this space can make the room feel cramped, which is too easy to do. Even worse, it can mean that your bathroom becomes unusable, overwhelming, and an overall pain.

To stop your small bathroom from becoming a nightmare, we’ve written a handy guide for you to follow. Furthermore, you can get some after looking through the tips if you want additional inspiration for different design styles. So, if you’re going to elevate your bathroom from dingy cave to chic bijou space, read on! 

Guide For Making A Small Bathroom Appear Larger

1. Using Bold Colors On The Wall

You might believe that the only way to make a small bathroom look bigger is white paint. Sometimes using light colors is a good idea for stopping the walls from feeling like they’re caving in. However, if you’re bored with white paint, you can use deep and bold tones to make the bathroom have a cozy vibe. 

Using a dark color such as deep green can give it character, which shows your personality. To stop these bolder colors from making the bathroom appear too cramped, paint the ceiling and upper part of the walls white. In addition, bringing in shiny elements such as brassy faucets and shimmering shower screens can ensure enough light reflects through the bathroom. 

A feature wall can also be a brilliant way to make a tiny bathroom have some personality and inject color. If you want to make the space even jazzier, you can put in some patterned floor tiles, use vibrant artwork, or put up a mirror with a colored frame. 

2. Pick Chic Storage 

As many small bathrooms don’t have much space to keep toiletries, you must choose storage that looks nice. Also, every furniture item you put into the bathroom will be noticeable because it’s a tiny space. So, you must make sure that you choose what you buy carefully! 

If you’re worried about limited floor space, we highly recommend that you maximize your walls. Putting up cute shelving can allow you to keep your beauty products within reach and stop you from banging your feet on a sharp-edged cupboard. 

Suppose you’re renting and have a small bathroom. In that case, you absolutely can put up temporary shelves as long as your landlord approves it! You can get hanging strips, which allows you to attach decorative hooks to any aesthetic you select. In addition, many temporary wall hooks will hold floating shelving too! 

For something different, that’s easy to change out if your style changes, you can use rattan baskets. Many have handles, which allows you to hang them from the hooks and store toiletries.

These baskets are perfect for anyone living a busy life who wants to bring a bohemian feel to their tiny bathroom. This is because you can quickly grab something from this storage and get on with your day without rummaging through filled drawers.

If you’re renovating your tiny bathroom from scratch, we recommend considering building built-in shelving and cupboards. For example, indented shelves in a shower space are ideal for tucking beauty and hygiene products out of the way. Similarly, window sills are perfect for supporting attractive houseplants, creating a natural vibe to the room.

 3. Use Bold Tiles

To make a statement in a small space, using bold tiling to distract from the size is a beautiful idea. Also, geometric shapes on the floor can bring more character and personality to the bathroom. If you want more inspiration on this, there are tons of brilliant photos on Pinterest to help you out. 

Using herringbone tiling on the shower is perfect to zone the small space. You could use the same color ceramic tiling as the paint, which creates a cohesive theme. If you don’t want to make the colors super bright, we recommend monochrome tiles. 

White and black tiles can be chosen to fit many aesthetics, including suave metropolitan chic, bohemian, and art deco. With a bit of creativity, you can truly let your imagination run wild. This allows you to produce a design, which is a pocket rocket bathroom that’s bursting with character. 

4. Embracing A Feature Wall

You may believe that a feature wall is made only of bold contrasting color in paint. However, you might not realize that a feature wall can also be created with animated wallpaper. Or a bold mural, putting up a gallery wall and painting a graphic design.

Statement wallpaper comes in many designs, including rustic metal effects, sophisticated patterns, and even personalized prints. However, if you want to create trendy shapes in paint, we advise using a stencil or masking tape. This allows you to frame your storage, sink, or other bathroom features with a truly unique art piece. 

With a feature wall, you have a chance to go wild with your creativity and make a room that stands out for the right reasons! We recommend checking out Pinterest for inspiration, which is home to many visual ideas that can get your creative juices flowing!

5. Walk-in Shower 

Walk-in showers are often super luxurious, which allows you to maximize the space and keep clean. It might surprise you to know that walk-in showers can be space-saving as you don’t need a bath to contain them.

To make this shower blend in, we advise you to cover all the walls in tiling, which prevents the room from feeling too broken up. You can find some great bargains for walk-in showers online, which allows you to save some money on your design!

We recommend checking out eBay as this store frequently sells second-hand and discounted walk-in shower kits. This means you can spend more of your budget on exquisite details, which will elevate your small bathroom design.

6. Statement Mirrors

As a reflective surface, mirrors are ideal for making any tiny space appear more prominent. To increase the airy feel in a bathroom this size, use a large mirror with a metallic frame. 

And it’s not all about the size! The shape is important because a round mirror contrasts the sharp edges in a small room. Suppose you want to put a quirky twist on this idea. In that case, we recommend going to your local antique or bargain store and finding as many funky mirrors as possible.

Then, arrange them all on the wall in a gallery formation. This is a brilliant way to make the room appear more extensive and more characterful on a budget.

Wavy mirrors are lighting up social media lately because they make a striking frame around cute selfies. Or, you could get a Hollywood mirror to turn this small bathroom into a vanity space. Some gorgeous mosaic ones evoke an exotic feeling and complement the colors on your walls.

7. Lighting Up Your Bathroom 

Ideally, a small bathroom needs a large window, brightening up the space with natural light. But, of course, privacy is vital in a bathroom, so ensure the glass is frosted or the area isn’t overlooked! Unfortunately, not every tiny room is blessed with a window, which calls for stunning artificial lighting.

Statement lights with day-light bulbs are brilliant for imitating a window and bringing a sculptural element. Wall lights are ideal because they don’t take up floor space, and you won’t have to worry about banging your head on an overhead lampshade.

To make the space look even cozier, why not install a dimmer switch?! Lowered lighting around the floor can give the illusion of a bigger room too. Hiding lighting behind a mirror, artwork, or storage is another way to make the small bathroom more atmospheric. 

There are several exciting lampshades out there that can be accessorized with other details in your bathroom. Why not go for a colored glass one, which will shine more interesting tones across the walls? 

As modern technology is advanced, you can even buy yourself remote-controlled and color-changing light bulbs. You can alter the tones to suit your mood, totally transforming the small bathroom instantly. These are pretty inexpensive, too! 

8. Use Versatile Furniture

Who said you only had to use bathroom furniture in a bathroom? If you fancy spicing the decor up, and you’re on a budget, why not get a sideboard in from another part of your house? You can create a unique and retro item that shows off your great style by attaching a basin to this. 

If you don’t already have this furniture, we recommend checking out Gumtree, eBay, and other online stores. This ensures that you save money and find yourself some real bargains in your area.

Cost-effective and environmentally friendly! Plus, you never know what you’ll find when you look at these online marketplaces, so it can be a lovely surprise when you pick up a real gem. 

There are no rules as to where you put certain furniture items! So, even if you need some shelving in one part of your home, you can move existing shelves to the bathroom. The same applies to wall art and leftover paint cans! Similarly, if you have mason or candy jars in your kitchen, you could fill them with cotton pads or cue tips. 

Small Bathroom Ideas

Monochrome Scheme

Adding white to a space through tiling is a great way to reflect natural light throughout a small bathroom. The marbled floor tiles add more depth, reflected in the ceramic toilet, grouting, and shower screen. In addition, the brassy fixtures cast more light across the space, which also serves to bring warmth to an otherwise black and white scheme.

The trailing plant is perfect for softening the grouting’s edges and freshening it up with some foliage. And monochrome doesn’t have to be about black and white, either. You can pick any two colors you love and run with them! 

Dusky Pink 

These herringbone tiles are perfect for making this feature wall pop a little more than they do already! The white grouting links in with the snowy ceramic basin and hexagonal flooring. Using four different tiles is an excellent way to zone the space, giving the small bathroom structure and definition! 

The black accents work well at framing the lighter parts and prove that you can introduce dark colors if you apply them carefully! The plant is another exceptional way to tie in the natural wooden basin cover and ensure the scheme feels more bohemian.

Patterned Flooring 

The pink and white tiles steal the show in this compact space! To make the flooring appear more significant, the geometric pattern and elevated toilet are lovely touches. The metropolitan white tiling is sophisticated, simple, and brightens this boxy room. We adore that a large skylight has been fitted to allow natural light to warm up the tiny bathroom.

The floating shelves are a splendid idea for increasing storage and displaying cute tiny plants beautifully! We love the matching brassy fixtures, which sparkle and serve as warm accents. The round mirror counteracts the narrow room’s edges, bringing much-needed depth to a shallow space. 

Using hooks rather than a towel rail is another ingenious space-saving trick. Towels can be brushed past without a bathroom visitor banging themselves on a sticking-out metal rack. 

Conclusion

Having a small bathroom doesn’t mean you have to abandon all your interior design dreams! You can use many simple hacks to maximize space, bring in storage, and decorate well. No matter your aesthetic preferences, we’ve taken you through a few critical tips that will help you produce a bathroom that you’ll be happy to walk into!

And the hacks don’t stop there! If you’d like more information and help to decorate your interiors, we’ve got you covered with our other content. So check it out for yourself to get inspired! 

Ida Oliveira
Latest posts by Ida Oliveira (see all)