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Small Bathroom Ideas And Makeovers

Small bathroom design ideas to make the most of your limited space with clever small bathroom makeovers. When it comes to decorating a bathroom which is a little on the small side, there are several key things you need to keep in mind.

You need to bear in mind the scale of everything here - a large bath or tub will take up too much space and you may wish to consider making a shower-room rather than a bathroom.

Personally I would prefer a room with a decent sized shower enclosure than having a large bath with shower attachment over squeezed in.

It may be that you have a property with an existing small bathroom that needs to be redecorated or possibly you have a large bedroom and are trying to increase your rental return by taking a piece of that and converting it to an additional en-suite but either way, the principal is the same.

I think it is important to have one bath in your property if you can - for washing small children if nothing else - but most people shower nowadays so I wouldn't worry about just going with showers in additional rooms.

You perhaps pay a large bill for water so encouraging your visitors to shower rather than bath will save you money too.

Many bathroom suppliers do offer scaled down suites these days so buying items that are less 'chunky' can help make the room appear bigger.

One thing I can't stand in a vacation property bathroom is where no thought has been given as to where you can put things. You won't, of course, need as much storage space as you would like in your own home but I really object to having to place my bathroom essentials on the floor or remember to carry everything in with me each time so some cupboard space or shelving is essential.

An undermount or inset wash basin with a counter top area around it and some cupboard space beneath should suffice.

A wall mounted sink or hand basin is another good small bathroom design idea. Suitable for any bathroom of course but particularly suited to a small bathroom where the fact that it doesn't have a 'footprint' makes your floor space appear larger giving the illusion of space and makes it easy to keep the floor clean - an additional bonus.

Lighting is always important in a bathroom and is even more so in a small bathroom. Making the room as light and bright as possible will give the illusion of space as will maxiumum use of mirrors.

One of my favourite small bathroom design ideas is clever use of mirrors. In one small bathroom I decorated, we had a mirror cut to size to fill the whole of one wall from the edge of the basin right up to the ceiling and this really did make the space seem larger. Personally speaking, seeing myself naked from one angle at a time is as much I can manage so I would be careful about putting mirrors on opposing walls - one good sized mirror on one wall is enough.

Inset ceiling spotlights are a good option as you don't want the 'clutter' of a light fitting dangling from the ceiling when you are short of space.

I always prefer a white bathroom suite is possible and think this is even more important if you are decorating a small bathroom. You don't want the room to seem clinical though so will need to add some color, somewhere. I would be tempted to paint one wall with a color that is definite but not dark - bright yellow, sky blue, that kind of thing. Alternatively, you may feel that a colourful easy care silk plant will do the job - nothing too big though.

If you opt for a bath with shower over, be careful that a heavy shower curtain doesn't appear to cut the room in two. Much as I generally love a colorful shower curtain, when decorating a small bathroom I would either favour a clear or white background with a small pattern or alternatively a vertical stripe.

If you are really short of space, you may need to consider changing the door so that it opens out of the room rather than into it. A sliding door is also an option worth considering if you are really short of space.

Until you actually use the bathroom yourself you can't always tell that the door is a problem but it is something I always look out for having once stayed in a property where you quite literally had to straddle the toilet in order to open the door inwards as there was so little floor space.