9 Ways to Improve Your Small Bathroom

Small bathrooms are one of the toughest décor challenges in the home. With every fixture fighting for its share of your square footage, it’s difficult to achieve a sense of spaciousness. Don’t worry. You can create magic if you exercise your creative muscles and explore a few décor tricks.

1. Bring the outdoors in

Glass creates the illusion of spaciousness while inviting plenty of natural light indoors, so you don’t need to increase your floor’s square footage in order to create extra bathroom space. Your windows can take care of the problem all on their own.

Garden windows build extra sides into their design, giving you a sense of spaciousness while simultaneously creating room for your own indoor garden. If you’re feeling ambitious, you can even install a ceiling-to-floor window that lets in the view.

You’ll want to make the most of the morning sunlight, so create privacy with a one-way screen or window treatment that lets light in while simultaneously keeping prying eyes away. Alternatively, use a sheer privacy blind.

2. Perform a tub-to-shower conversion

Bathtubs are greedy with floor space. They displace over 13 square feet of flooring. A tub-to-shower conversion will open up your bathroom, adding four extra square feet of usable space. This kind of renovation offers a $1,71 valuation improvement for every dollar you spend.

If you’re a minimalist, you can even turn a small bathroom into a wet room. This will move all those cluttered lines away and enable you to move freely throughout the space. Wet rooms require little more than 2500 square millimeters. By moving away your shower walls and barriers, you can leverage every centimeter of your floor.

3. Go tankless

If your existing water heater is installed below your ceiling, it adds needless clutter. The taller your ceiling, the more spacious your bathroom will look, so why not move that old tank out and replace it with a tankless system? On-demand water heaters are small enough to hide behind your cabinetry, and they’ll reduce your energy usage to boot.

4. Rely on the light

Light is the most powerful way to bring a cramped bathroom to life. You can invite sunlight into your room by:

Widening your windows.
Using lighter palettes.
Fitting a skylight.
Replacing opaque shower doors with glass.
Installing a full lighting palette that includes ambient, task, and accent lighting.

5. Remove clutter

Larger rooms can afford to combine a full palette of materials and textures, but smaller spaces need to be a little more restrained. This is the time to create a simple palette. Choose two dominant hues and one accent.

Texture creates just as much clutter, so try to pare it down, whether that means simplifying your skirting, refacing your wall treatments, or removing busy backsplashes.

Grouting adds unnecessary lines to your bathroom, so over-sized, grout-free products will add the illusion of spaciousness. They’ll also end the grouting hygiene wars you fight every week.

6. Try mirrors

Much like glass, mirrors can create the illusion of spaciousness, particularly if you give them a back light. These magical installations amplify and reflect light, so the larger they are, the better. You needn’t limit your installations to your vanity. A floor-to-ceiling mirror will add elegance to your room at a lower price than ceramics.

7. Consider a slipper tub

If you’re too attached to your bathtub for a tub-to-shower conversion, a free-standing slipper tub will free up extra floorspace. This design is remarkably flexible, so you can place your new bath just about anywhere. If need be, you can hide half of your slipper tub behind the side of your vanity to clear extra floor space.

8. Replace your skirting

Designers often use contrasting skirting in larger bathrooms. It frames the walls and neatens up the space, but smaller bathrooms need a more unified aesthetic. If you’re dealing with a smaller space, your skirting should be the same hue as the wall. This will add height as well as width by making your walls appear further away.

9. Scale down your fittings

A well-designed room is proportionate to its size. Large basins and toilets will eat up usable space while destroying your room’s sense of balance. The height of your fixtures has an equally powerful effect.

Features that are low to the ground will give your space a sense of openness, so look for low-profile options. While you’re adding proportion, consider installing a shallow, floating vanity. The more visible your flooring, the more spacious your room will look.

Don’t let a lack of square footage ruin your bathroom’s elegance. A face lift or renovation will restore the magic while making your room more functional. Bathroom renovations earn more returns on investment than almost every other room in the home. Treat this as an investment, and you’ll reap the returns.

Need help with a bathtub or shower replacement? Contact 1-800-HANSONS for a free estimate.