One of the most neglected areas of a home’s interior is the bathroom, despite the fact that we spend hours inside of it, preparing ourselves for the day, doing our hair and make-up, taking care of business, or cleaning up before bed. While many of us wish we could simply hire a professional remodeler and start an immediate renovation project to expand its size and make it looks more elegant, it’s not always possible due to the cost and space requirements involved. However, by employing some of the visual tips and tricks below, you can create the appearance of a larger bathroom without tearing down the walls. If you’ve ever wondered how to make a small bathroom look bigger and stylish, keep reading.
1. Choose Your Color Scheme Wisely
Image Source: Pexels
Every color has a presence that can be used to create optical illusions which change your perception of the shapes and sizes of both objects and spaces. Black, for example, is a dark color with clearly defined visual edges. When you look at an object that’s black, you can see where the object stops and everything else begins. The color white has the opposite effect because the visual boundaries are not as clear. This slight blur creates the optical illusion of more space because of how we visually perceive it. In a bathroom, the trick is to use colors with a soft hue and saturation to make it appear larger than it is. Light variations of white, gray, green, and blue are not only stylish, but they’re also most commonly used to create depth and increase the visual size of a room.
2. Maximize Your Lighting
Image Source: Pexels
Proper lighting can maximize the visual size of your bathroom, while establishing the sophisticated look people crave. The best option is to increase the room’s natural light. This can be accomplished by adding more windows, expanding a current window, or installing a sky-light. Sunlight enters the bathroom through these openings and reflects off the soft colored walls, which visually expands the room. You can create a similar effect by adding more artificial light to the bathroom or by changing to white LED’s. The color white exudes a feeling of cleanliness and spaciousness, expanding your impression of the room’s size. LED’s can be installed on the ceiling in the center of the room, under the bathroom countertop, around the vanity, or even around any existing molding.
3. Use a Small, Floating Vanity
When you’re working with a small bathroom space, storage can be a problem. Instead of using a bulky bathroom countertop with drawers underneath that extend to the floor, try a small, floating vanity. Most often, these can be custom ordered from a local remodeler. Floating vanities provide plenty of space to store the essential bathroom items, while simultaneously creating the visual impact of more bathroom space because the floor tiles under the sink area are now visible. If you can’t decide what bathroom items to remove to make space, consider some of these creative storage solutions.
4. Gyms Use Mirrors and You Should Too
Have you ever noticed that most gyms have wall size mirrors that extend across the rooms? They do this because large mirrors are the key to increasing visual space. When you walk into a room, you want it to feel open and comfortable, not small and cramped. Although mirrors of this size can be pricier, they’re a crucial element to consider if you’re looking to make the most out of your investment in the bathroom. Select a mirror that’s big and thin to hang above the vanity.
5. Skip the Tub
Image Source: Flickr
Everything from romantic comedies to pharmaceutical commercials promote this idea of a couple relaxing in a luxurious tub, surrounded by candle light, and drinking glasses of wine. While it’s certainly possible to remodel your home to achieve this, if you’re looking to make your small bathroom look larger, skip the tub. Tubs take up a disproportionately large amount of space. Instead, opt for a walk-in shower with a glass door. Walk-in showers take up less space, they’re easier to clean, and they make the bathroom more elegant, partly because they’re not as common.
6. Make the Door Disappear
A standard bathroom door is 32 inches across and opens to the inside of the room. If you think about it for a moment, that’s nearly 3 feet of space that’s taken up by the entry way. One way to add more space to the bathroom is to shorten the width of the door to 28 inches. This smaller size is less common and may not be available at your local hardware store. If that’s the case, it can custom-ordered through a local remodeler. As an alternative, try using a pocket door. To install it, a special track is built on the floor, in the wall. The door then slides in and out of the wall when it’s opened and closed, leaving plenty of extra space. Pocket doors allow for more floor space, which improves spaciousness and again adds to the elegance factor due to its rarity.
From using a pocket door to enhancing the lighting to choosing the optimal color scheme, try some of these clever tips and tricks to make your small bathroom look bigger and more elegant without doing a huge remodeling project.