When you’ve got a bathroom that’s short on square footage, that doesn’t mean you have to think small with style. Instead, to maximize the space, you can incorporate savvy design strategies that cater to a smaller bathroom layout. By thinking strategically about bathroom components, colors, features and accessories, you can design a small bathroom that makes a big impact.
To help you plan the best small bathroom for your needs, here are 10 great ideas worth trying:
- Opt out of a bathtub. There’s nothing quite like a long soak in the tub — if your bathroom has the space for it. In a tiny bathroom, a tub’s just not worthwhile. Because they take double the floor space than showers, tubs monopolize too much of the bathroom and make a small space feel even smaller, with less room to move.
- Go with a frameless glass shower door. The beauty of a stand-alone shower is it takes half the space of a tub, provides a fast and convenient way to get ready every day and, with the right design decisions, can look sleek and stylish. When space is at a premium in the bathroom, forget shower curtains and go for a frameless glass shower door. A glass panel creates a clear visual line in the bathroom, expanding its spacious feel. Glass panels also let in more light, and they’re easy to install.
- Float the vanity. There’s no law that says your vanity has to sit on the floor. Try saving floor space by lifting the vanity up and mounting it to the wall. Wall-mounted vanities free floor space and make the bathroom feel bigger, with more flooring exposed.
- Float the toilet. Take a cue from your floating vanity and apply the same idea to your commode. While every bathroom needs a toilet, you can save some floor space with a wall-mounted toilet that floats off the floor. You’ll need space in your walls to build in a toilet tank, but then you’ll get to float your toilet off the floor, saving floor and leg space.
- Use continuous flooring throughout. As long as you’re going with a stand-alone shower and a frameless glass door, take advantage of the seamless feel further by continuing the same flooring from the main bathroom space into the shower. Whether you’re going with tile, concrete or stone, when you continue the flooring throughout the bathroom, it creates a larger, cleaner feel.
- Contrast floors and walls. One surefire way to make a small bathroom feel smaller is by painting everything in dark hues. Instead, relegate dark colors to the floors only — make light walls feel even brighter when they contrast with the dark colors on your floor.
- Make mirrors work to your advantage. Mirrors reflect light and make a small room feel bigger, so, to maximize space in your bathroom, use mirrors to your advantage. Consider making a full wall a mirror or extending the size of your mirror above the vanity or along one side of a narrow bathroom space.
- Find storage on the walls instead of the floor. Save more floor space by planning bathroom storage on the walls instead of the floor. Vertical storage may include a recessed medicine cabinet, shelving above the toilet, metal towel racks or something else. Look at the wall space you have and imagine the possibilities.
- Go bold with one wall. One place to have some decorating fun in a small bathroom is with an accent wall. Maybe you go with a decorative tile pattern in the shower wall, which is viewable through your frameless glass shower doors. Perhaps you paint one wall a contrast color that’s still in a light, bright shade. Explore pictures in magazines and online to get ideas and make a dramatic statement with a bold wall choice you love.
- Use pocket doors. One giant space sucker is a bathroom door, which needs open space to swing in and out of the room. Eliminate this need by installing a pocket door, which tucks in and out of the wall, instead. You will have to open the wall to create the pocket, but, in doing so, you’ll free usable space you wouldn’t have had — which makes a huge difference in a small bath.
Small bathrooms feel bigger when they’re strategically designed and planned. When you want to make your small bathroom capitalize on space, remember these 10 strategies above. From floating elements to running the same type of flooring through the room and into the shower, there are lots of ways to enhance and expand the feel of your bathroom at home.