Small bathrooms can be dark, making it hard to properly care for yourself since you can’t see yourself clearly. You may also bump into furniture and fixtures, leading to injuries. Moreover, you may have difficulty storing your hygiene items. All of these issues generally make your bathroom a less functional relaxing space.
Yet you can learn how to make small bathrooms look bigger – literally and figuratively– with remodels and renovations. Alternatively, you can use do-it-yourself design options that won’t require any permit or professional knowledge.
In this blog, we’ll explore the design choices that can artificially enlarge your bathroom.
How to Make Small Bathrooms Look Bigger: 9 Best Design Tips
If your bathroom feels cramped and dark, you can use the following design tips to create a space that feels larger and more luxurious:
1. Brighten the Color Palette
The first thing you should do to enlarge your bathroom is to brighten the color pallet. By choosing light colors such as pastels, light will bounce more strongly off of these surfaces. Increasing the brightness of your bathroom will make your bathroom appear larger.
Furthermore, you can brighten the color in your bathroom at the surface level, such as decorations and towels, or with a complete remodel. Therefore, you can select the options that fit your budget. However, the most effective option would be to select changes at every level.
Here are design elements you can alter to brighten your bathroom’s color palette:
- Paint: You should repaint your bathroom’s walls a light color. You could also choose high-gloss paint, which will help reflect light.
- Wallpaper: Another do-it-yourself design you should use to brighten your color pallet is to install light-colored wallpaper.
- Tiles: In a remodel, you should swap your titles for reflective ones with a light color. For instance you could select marble tiles. Alternatively, you should install stuck-on light colored tiles.
- Furniture: You should select furniture that has a light color or you can repaint your current furniture.
- Fixtures: While renovating, you should exchange your fixtures and exposed plumbing with shiny, bright-colored parts. Conversely, you can repaint these fixtures with bright colors.
2. Remove the Lines and Borders
Another design choice to enlarge your room is to remove lines and borders. By removing these dividing lines, you’ll make your bathroom appear larger. Nevertheless, if you opt for remodeling options, it may also physically enlarge your bathroom.
Now, let’s explore how to make a bathroom look bigger by removing borders:
- Remove Walls: In a remodel, you should remove the walls of your bathroom to make your bathroom larger. However, you’ll need professional help to ensure you don’t damage the integrity of your home.
- Remove Doors: You should remove the doors in your bathroom. You can even remove the doors of your cabinets to give your bathroom a larger appearance.
- Install Sliding Doors: If you desire a door to your bathroom, you should replace it with a sliding one. This will allow you to make it disappear completely and enlarge your room when it’s fully open.
- Use Black Colors: You should use black materials. This can make your bathroom appear borderless.
3. Install Mirrors
You should install mirrors since they make small bathrooms look bigger. The mirrors will help reflect light, which will make your bathroom appear larger. Therefore, you should install mirrors across a whole wall. If you need to use multiple mirrors, it would be best for them to have no frames so that you can install them in as one seamless mirror wall.
Alternatively, you could install mirror panels or select furniture with mirrors on its doors. Though mirror panels have frames, they can still give the illusion of a larger room.
4. Replace Curtains with Glass
You can create the illusion of a larger bathroom by replacing curtains with glass. Opaque curtains, in particular, can divide a bathroom and make it appear smaller. This is especially true for shower curtains, which divide your bathroom by obscuring your showering and bathing area.
Therefore, you should install a frameless glass door to replace your shower curtain. This door will function like a shower curtain by keeping water from splashing onto the rest of the bathroom. In addition, it will let your bathroom appear larger since you can see through it.
Moreover, you should remove the curtains on your windows. Even if they’re day curtains, they limit some of the natural coming into the room, which makes it look darker and smaller. So, you should remove them. If you need privacy, you can replace the glass in your window with frosted glass. Alternatively, you can place plastic sheets to mimic frosted glass on your windows.
5. Use Back Lights
Using backlights can help make your bathroom appear larger by brightening it. In addition to general lights, the backlight can illuminate your bathroom, which makes it easier to see or highlight specific elements of your design.
In particular, you should consider adding a backlight to your mirror. Conversely, you can use backlights near your bath. Then you can even use this fixture in your light therapy.
6. Clear the Floor
Clearing your floor is another way to enlarge your bathroom artificially. By removing anything that rests on the floor, you literally make more space, which helps the bathroom feel less cramped – even if you still have furniture. This is because it reduces clutter. When your bathroom looks more empty, it feels larger.
Here are design elements that don’t touch the floor, which can help make small bathrooms look larger:
- Floating Sink: You should install a floating sink. This type of sink does not have a pedestal, which frees up the area beneath it.
- Wall-Hung Units: With wall-hung units, you’ll be able to store your items without letting this storage furniture touch the floor.
- Niches: You should install niches in your shower. They’ll allow you to have storage where you need it without requiring furniture.
- Mirror Storage: You can install storage shelves behind your mirror. This combines light reflection with niche storage to maximize the size of your bathroom.
7. Select Movable Furniture
You should enlarge your bathroom by using movable storage. With rolling tables, vanities, and storage space, you can declutter while still having access to some furniture. This will help your bathroom appear larger whenever you’ve rolled them out of your bathroom. Alternatively, you could put them away beneath a floating sink or a doorless vanity.
Therefore, if you only need items for weekly self-care rituals, you can bring them to your bathroom when you need them. Then, you’ll easily roll them away for the rest of the week, making your bathroom less cramped in the meantime.
8. Select Larger Wallpaper Prints
By understanding how to decorate with wall prints, you can learn how to make a small bathroom bigger. In a small bathroom, you might be tempted to use smaller prints. However, these prints may make the bathroom appear even smaller.
Instead, you should use large- or medium-sized prints. These large graphics will artificially make your bathroom appear larger. Therefore you should use large patterns on your walls. Alternatively, you could use this print on only one wall or furniture. Moreover, you can apply this concept to other materials, such as stencils or patterned tiles.
9. Add Natural Light
Finally, you should increase the amount of natural light coming into your bathroom. This additional source of light will brighten your bathroom. In turn, the increased brightness will create an illusion of a larger bathroom. So, you should widen your windows or even install new, floor-to-ceiling windows.
In addition, if your bathroom is on the top floor or has direct access to the roof, you should consider adding a skylight. However, due to the intricacies of such a remodel, you should contact a professional to create this skylight.
Recap
You can summarize how you make small bathrooms look bigger in three major design concepts: Brighten, remove barriers, and declutter. In particular, light can help make a room bigger, so you should install a backlight, widen windows, and remove curtains. Moreover, you can expand on the concept by artificially creating a brighter environment using glossy paint and light colors, which all reflect light.
Furthermore, barriers such as curtains and doors can make a space more cramped, so removing them as much as possible will help your project. Similarly, reducing the number of things in your bathroom can help it appear bigger. Lastly, use the mirror and large print tricks listed above to create the illusion of a larger bathroom.