5 Ways to Make Your Small Bathroom Look Bigger

Your bathroom is actually one of the most important rooms in your home. It must be fresh and inviting, a quiet escape from the craziness of a busy house and the non-stop activity of your daily life. It needs to be crisp and clean, with beautiful details and the least amount of clutter possible. And most crucially of all it needs to be functional. After all, this is where you’ll shower and get cleaned up for a day at the office or a night out on the town. But what happens if you’re stuck with a small bathroom? If you don’t have the budget to blow out a wall and expand things, you’ve got to come up with the simple shortcuts that make the space work. Some of it comes down to detail choices, but a lot of the work is easy if you know how to trick the eye. Here are five ways to make your small bathroom look bigger.

First of all, focus on bringing in as much light as possible. It’s fairly obvious that darkness and shadows cut off pieces of the room and make it seem smaller than usual. But if you can bring in natural light you won’t only show off the details you spent so much time and money installing, you’ll also make the whole space seem bigger. Windows and skylights are crucial, because they allow the eye to focus on the distance. But if you can’t make changes on that scale, at least bring in artificial lighting that’s colored like natural light.

Next consider the colors and textures you use in the floor and the walls. Just as dim lighting cramps the space, dark colored paint and tile does the same thing. Cut down on busy patterns and contrasts and keep things simple, light and clean. The less busy your color scheme, the larger the room will look and feel. You’ll notice a huge difference if you can paint the ceiling the same color as the walls as well.

Now you should turn your attention to your use of mirrors. Mirrors can work much in the same way as windows, and are obviously much cheaper than installing something on that scale. Mirrors add depth, tricking your eyes to look past the physical boundaries of the walls. Always put a mirror opposite a window, or opposite other mirrors if you have the wall space. Mirrors can also be used to bounce light from skylights or wall sconces.

Glass details can also be your friend in a small bathroom. If you have a shower stall, give it a glass door so it doesn’t cut the room down. If you have a bathtub, a clear shower curtain can fill the same purpose. Think about glass cabinet fronts as well. You can install lightly frosted glass for the same depth trick without showing the world all of your little lotions and potions.

Finally, think simple with all of your appointments. If you have the budget to replace fixtures, go with options that are small, thin and streamlined. If you can’t really replace anything significant right now after already splurging for Filan and Conner Plumbing work, at least remove the clutter from the sink area and countertops. Keep everything as minimal as possible, with empty real estate instead of cluttered counter space, and your bathroom will immediately feel larger and more welcoming.