Is your bathroom small, and do you want to make it look bigger? Of course, you can’t knock down the side wall and incorporate your neighbour’s area into yours. We can’t just tear down walls – make the front one’s bathroom into your own. This is impossible, but what is possible is that if you implement simple tricks in your bathroom, it will make even a small bathroom look spacious.
An Interior designer and an architecture firm designed this article. When designing homes, living spaces get bigger, gallery spaces get bigger, and kitchens get decent sizes too. But bathrooms, which play a very important part in our lifestyle, often remain small. But don’t worry – I’ll share 12 simple tricks that will make even your small bathroom look bigger. So let’s get started.
Right Colors and Textures
In a small bathroom, it’s ideal to select a light color palette. That doesn’t mean that an all-white bathroom is the best and only option. You can mix and match different tiles; however, focus on using light and soft colours to make the bathroom look bigger.
Thanks to the fact that light colors reflect more light, the walls seem to recede, expanding the space and giving a feeling of airiness.
Tile Colour
When deciding on tile colours, make sure that you choose light-colored tiles. Light colours, whether for tiles, paint, or any other element, make small spaces look bigger. I’m not just saying this without reason – there’s a study behind it.
In 1860, a study conducted in Germany called the “Irradiation Illusion” proved that between two objects of the same size, the darker object will appear smaller while the lighter-colored object will appear larger.
Interior designers like us use this trick to make small spaces look bigger, and you should use this same trick when designing your small bathroom. So if you’re designing a small bathroom, make sure your tile colour is light, whether for flooring or walls.
Tile Size
Now that you know what colour tiles to use, let’s discuss what size they should be – our second point. When deciding on wall tiles for a small bathroom, make sure to get the largest tiles possible.
. The logic here is that the fewer partitions in a tile, or the fewer partitions on a surface area, the larger that surface area appears. If we install multiple small-sized tiles in any space, we see many partitions because the tile joints are always visible. This makes our brain think that since one area is divided into many parts, its size has become smaller.
Obviously, it doesn’t actually become smaller, but the illusion or perception created in our mind is that the area has shrunk.
How To Avoid This:
Tiles must have as few joints as possible, which happens when the tiles are as large as possible, automatically reducing the number of joints. So if you’re deciding on wall tiles, you should at minimum choose 2×4 tiles – don’t go smaller than this.
If you want to go bigger, there are now 2×8 tiles available, although they’re a bit thicker and more expensive. Even if you don’t choose those, you must at least go with 2×4 tiles – don’t go smaller.
Tile Pattern
Make sure that the patterns on the tiles are subtle and not too heavy. Slightly blurry is even better, or closer to plain will also work, but don’t have too many lines or patterns on them.
The logic behind this is that if two objects are exactly the same size, our brain will start to perceive them as smaller. Visually, it will appear smaller. Psychologically, this is called the Figure-Ground Relationship Theory, which means that if multiple elements are placed on one element, our brain differentiates between them.
You need to use this brain-hacking technique and make sure that there are minimal patterns on your tiles.
Let me give you another tip along with this. These days, there’s a tile in the market called “jointless tiles.“ What happens with these is that when two tiles are placed next to each other, the patterns are completely continuous – if a pattern ends at one point on a tile, the same pattern begins at that point on the next tile. This makes all the tiles on the wall look like one single slab when installed, because the patterns continue. This minimizes the visibility of joints and creates the perception that the area is much larger.
Tiles Uniformity
Many people make the mistake of installing different tiles in the shower area, different tiles in the rest of the area, or different tiles to separate the WC or wash basin. This might look good visually, but in small bathrooms, it creates a separation.
Once separation is created, a small area gets divided into even more pieces, making the small area look even smaller. In technical or psychological terms, this is called the Contrast Effect.
The Contrast Effect states that if you have two surfaces of the same colour, and you paint one surface in multiple colours while leaving one plain, the surface painted in multiple colours will appear smaller.
For this reason, if a bathroom is separated into different areas with different colored tiles, the contrast effect is created, making the area look even smaller. So what you need to do is have the same colour tiles throughout the entire bathroom, whether on the walls or the flooring.
The wall and floor tiles can be different from each other, but don’t have different tiles for the shower area, WC, or wash basin area. All these areas should have the same tiles.
One more thing to keep in mind – I often see people installing tiles up to a certain height (usually 7 or 8 feet) and then painting above that. You shouldn’t make this mistake either. If you’re going with tiles, they should go all the way up and touch the ceiling.
Yes, there will be a bit more cutting required and the tile installer might charge more, but in the long run, it will be better for you because it won’t divide your small bathroom into two parts and will look much better.
Fixtures and Fittings
Most commonly, we see silver chrome finish fittings, which are installed in 80-90% of homes. But if your bathroom is small and you’re mostly using plain or single-color tiles, to can make them interesting.
Instead of silver, choose fixtures in different colors, They could be golden, rose gold, black, and these days there are blue, red, pink, and all sorts of colors available – you can choose any that you like. But while choosing them, keep one thing in mind – don’t abandon your color scheme.
So even if you’re choosing fixtures of a different color, you’ll still follow the same color scheme. These days, many established companies in the market have introduced colored fixtures.
Bathroom Partitions
Dividing the bathroom into two parts is counterproductive. While functionally we need a partition, the problem arises if we use a heavy partition, which can look very heavy visually and divide your entire bathroom into two parts. Therefore, installing a partition that doesn’t have a frame is just glass because glass is a material with zero visual weight.
For this, you need to use 8-10mm toughened glass and some fittings that attach to the wall and hold the glass. These fittings are sufficient to hold it; you don’t need to make an entire frame.
Interior Designers recommend simple glass partitions without grids. Although they are very nice options, in small spaces it’s better to bet on simplicity because it looks cleaner and has more visual permeability. Look at the difference in these photos – the minimal glass partition makes the bathroom look much larger.
Use Space Wisely
A major problem with small bathrooms is that they lack storage space. In such cases, we leave our items loosely scattered, creating clutter. The more clutter there is, the smaller the bathroom appears.
You need to take advantage of the vertical space in your bathroom. Let me give some examples to explain. For instance, we always have space above the door, but we don’t use it, whereas a towel storage area like this can be created there so that you utilize vertical space and reduce visible clutter.
Additionally, many people waste the space above the toilet seat, whereas it can be turned into quite good storage space. Whether you have a floor-mounted or wall-mounted toilet, it doesn’t matter – storage capacity can be created above both.
Also, in our bathing area where we shower, many loose bottles remain scattered, which looks the messiest – whether in a small or large bathroom. Instead, you can install fixed dispensers like these so that when you buy shower gel or shampoo, you put it inside these and then throw away the bottles. These will remain in vertical space, won’t take up much space, and will minimize clutter.
Storage Behind the Mirror
People don’t take advantage of the space behind the mirror, whereas excellent storage can be created inside it; many things can be stored inside it. You need to create storage there as well.
Mirror Size
A mirror not only helps you get ready by showing your reflection, but it is also a hack to make small spaces look bigger. How? Like this: if you use a large mirror in your bathroom, as you can see on the screen, it immediately makes your bathroom look double in size.
Again, it doesn’t make it bigger, obviously, but visually it makes our mind perceive that the area is much larger. You’ve probably seen this trick in many banquet halls, shopping malls, and multiplexes where they install large mirrors to make their grand areas look even grander. You should use the same trick in your small bathroom.
So what should you do?
Just ensure that the mirror is as large as possible. It should either be full height, meaning touching the ceiling, or if it’s lower, you can also install a combined mirror with the wash basin and toilet, which looks very good and gives a different look.
Consider distributing different lighting sources in the space to get uniform general lighting. If you’re going to build your bathroom from scratch, use architectural lighting..
Wash Basin
If you don’t want to build a vanity under the wash basin, then you should choose a half-pedestal wash basin. The biggest advantage of this wash basin is that it doesn’t occupy your flooring space. We can see the entire floor, and being up high, it looks a bit nicer, a bit sleeker, and enhances the overall look.
If you want a vanity, you have two options
- First, you can get an under-counter wash basin
- Second, you can get an over-the-top or top wash basin
Floating Fixtures
In small areas, we interior designers follow a basic rule that the flooring should be maximally visible, not hidden. But in the bathroom, there are two things that can create distress, meaning they can hide the flooring.
First is your floor-mounted WC. What should you take? You should take a wall-mounted seat so that your flooring remains completely visible.
The vanity, you need to ensure that the height of the vanity is such that your flooring remains visible. The standard height for a bathroom vanity unit above the floor is typically between 30 and 36 inches (760mm to 915mm). Don’t let it touch the flooring.