10 Ways To Make Small Bathrooms Look Bigger and Better

Being able to enjoy a spacious bathroom is on the wishlist of many tenants, but many properties - especially rental unit clusters - are designed with optimizing the overall space in mind. In most cases, this means that the sheer size of a property’s rooms might have to be reduced to squeeze in extra storage space or living areas.

While an extra small bathroom or powder room is certainly better than having one less bathroom in the property, it can be a hard point to sell, especially when a small bathroom is a property’s only bathroom. Opting for an actual room expansion or complete remodel is not only an expensive, labor intensive and a lengthy project, but is also unlikely to be feasible for units that have been purposely designed to host certain number and type of rooms of specific dimensions.

This week’s article will list 10 maintenance projects that can make a drastic improvement to small bathrooms, not only making them look bigger but actually turn them into an appealing space for current and especially prospective tenants.

1. Opt for white on white - Avoiding dark, overly bright or coordinated color schemes is a must when it comes to keeping contrasts and colors from emphasizing how small a space is by highlighting where the walls and/or ceiling end. The color white creates a spacious and airy feel, while also allowing natural and/or artificial light to illuminate the space as opposed to being absorbed by dark colored paints or wallpapers.
2. Match tiles, walls and ceiling - Matching the color of painted walls, tiling and ceiling erases the visible contrast that would result if they were of different colors. Uniformity and continuity of color makes the space look significantly larger, thus making more elaborate tiling patterns or color schemes an element to avoid.
3. Extend tiling - If showers and other areas are surrounded by tiled walls, it’s ideal to extend tiling all the way up to the ceiling to avoid trims “marking” a clear point on the walls and “shortening” them as a result.
4. Lengthen the space with vertical tiling - Instead of opting for regular or square-like tiles and laying them horizontally, choosing longer tiles and laying them vertically tricks the onlooker to perceive the space as being taller or wider than it really is.

5. Save space with a new door - Regular doors demand a certain radius of space available at all times to adequately swing open, which forces the layout of all elements within the space to accommodate the clearance. Sliding doors give back this space as they slide open without taking up space from the room.
6. Incorporate bright lighting - Poor illumination can make a small bathroom look dark and claustrophobic, making it essential to ensure that light - either natural or artificial - abounds and illuminates the space; the combination of bright lighting with the white color scheme of its surroundings creates an airy, fresh look.
7. Use mirrors to your advantage - Large mirrors can create an optical illusion that makes the room look larger, often almost doubling the perceived space. Larger mirrors can be quite pricey, but generally still cost less than a tiled wall. This makes them an advantageous substitute.
8. Invest in sleek fixtures and furnishings - Elaborate design elements are distracting and overwhelming is a small space. Modern bathroom fixtures and furnishings showcase sleek and harmonious lines, that work well with the minimalist look of uniform white paints and tiling to create an elegant space.

9. Go with glass - Instead of boring and cheap-looking shower curtains, opting for a glass panel for your shower modernizes and opens up the space by allowing for greater visibility past the “visual wall” that a shower curtain would create. For added privacy - if preferred - glass paneling can be tinted or frosted.
10. Be smart about storage - In a small space, any extra room made available by eliminating “bulky” furnishings goes a long way. Adding floating vanities, shelving and wall cabinets allows to maximize storage space while still maintaining a neat and polished look.