How to Make Your Small Bathroom Look Bigger

Small bathrooms can be a homeowner’s biggest design challenge. These baths can feel cramped, often don’t have enough room for all of your stuff, and if you decorate them the wrong way, they can somehow feel even smaller. There are a few tricks that can help you open your small bathroom up, both aesthetically and functionally.

Make Your Floor Seem Bigger

There are several tricks involving just the floor of your bathroom that will make it appear larger. First, opt for a sink or vanity with a pedestal base or hanging from the wall. You can even find toilets designed to hang from the wall. This tactic increases the amount of visible floor space and makes the room seem larger.

Next, select the largest size tile you can comfortably fit in the room and install it on a diagonal. Large tiles have fewer grout lines, so they are less likely to emphasize the size of the floor, while the diagonal layout draws the eye out to the corners of the room, visually widening it.

If you have a shower in the bathroom, lay the same tile on the shower floor as well in a mosaic size, or lay a mosaic everywhere in the bathroom to make the two spaces seem like part of the same floor. Glass shower doors also open up the space more than an opaque option.

Finally, take the wall furthest from the door and run the tile right up it. This creates an optical illusion that makes the room seem much larger than it actually is.

Gain Some Storage

Done right, well-placed storage can help make the room feel larger as well. Start with niches, small cutaways in the wall that will let you place items without actually taking up space in the room.

Next, opt for cabinets on the walls above the toilet and next to the shower to give you the storage you need without eating up precious floor space. Install shelving just below your bathroom mirror, but above the sink to give you an out-of-the-way place to hide toiletries.

Keep It Light and Bright

Finally, keep the palette for the whole room very light and simple, using just one or two cool colors through the whole space. Combine these tricks to make your small bathroom seem larger and appealing.