If there’s one thing I’ve heard from bathroom designers, it is that successfully designing a very small space often means losing one’s anxieties and inhibitions. Whether you’re remodeling a compact guest bath or upgrading your pocket-size bathroom to add more modern fixtures, the designers under will teach you a thing or two about extending every square foot of space — and every ounce of layout courage — if it comes to your small bathroom.
Christopher Patrick Interiors
When it comes to a daring option in color and layout, the small-bath designers to your 2012 DC Design House went out for bold color and layout using Farrow & Ball wallpaper. Designers Christopher Patrick and Kaitlyn Andrews-Rice maximized previously unused storage space by making a custom vanity and building shelving inside the wall.
They incorporated the toilet’s existing pinwheel tile into the plan. “We fell in love with the unusual and infrequent burgundy pinwheel tile and could not think that it had been in such excellent condition,” says Andrews-Rice.
Vanity: habit, Kala Studios; faucet: Hansgrohe; faucet: Toto; countertop: Carrara marble, Charles Luck; mirror: custom, Avery Fine Art; sconce: Visible Comfort
Christopher Patrick Interiors
The designers also included the small shower and markets together. “The shower markets eliminate clutter and make room for a gorgeous shampoo, soap and loofah display,” says Andrews-Rice.
Hint: Forget matching your small bath or powder room with the rest of your home. “It is really the place to go big, to have fun and to take risks that you wouldn’t ordinarily take in other areas of the home,” says Andrews-Rice.
Shower tile: Ann Sacks
Cathy Schwabe Architecture
Architect Cathy Schwabe mounted on the fixtures to save space. She also installed a Duravit bathtub that is shorter than the 60-inch diameter of this room, making it a fantastic choice for a compact bathtub.
A floating toy port eliminates the need for clunky, wall-mounted baskets or tiered organizing systems, which might only have taken up more of this limited floor space.
Hint: “It is not feasible for everybody, but when it’s, I highly recommend adding a skylight,” says Schwabe. The window and the skylight give a feeling of expansiveness and height to this small bath.
Scott Neste | Minor Details Interior Design
Joy is exuded by this small bath. “The shower curtain, out of Target, makes me grin each time I look at it,” says interior designer Scott Neste. It is the ideal case to look at, at the onset of a new moment.”
Hint: Keep ceiling, walls, floor and tile colors tonal. Neste established what he calls a “commanded personality” in this small bath by changing from white to cream to tan. “The tone-on-tone colors produce thickness and help the room read considerably larger than 30 square feet,” he says.
Sink, mirror, dressing table, wall shelf: Ikea; toilet paper holder: Bed, Bath & Beyond; artwork: Goodwill
Peter S. Balsam Associates
This 55-square-foot bathroom might not have a soaking bathtub, but it’s everything needed to come out feeling clean and fresh. In the straightforward and easy layout, space was saved by designer Peter Balsam by using a round dressing table. “It matches perfectly within the niche and softens up the whole space,” says Balsam.
Floor and wall tiles: Vintage limestone, Artistic Tile; dressing table: Camber miniature, Kohler
Peter S. Balsam Associates
Hint: Figure out what you will keep out of your current bathroom and what you will replace at a makeover based on condition and practicality. Balsam did away with all the vanity and adopted the curves of the new petite pine piece.
Jordan Parnass Digital Architecture
The union of glass and mirrors inside this studio’s bathroom gives the illusion of space — though the area is no more than 24 square feet. The Stark 3 Duravit bathroom and custom dressing table float above the hex tiles, leaving the floor space open.
Hint: Continuity in layout gives a small space a feeling of cohesiveness. The wall-mounted faucet, the Duravit sink and the shower fixtures all talk architect Jordan Parnass’ modern language — he expanded the mounted design right down to the Hafele toilet paper holder.
More: Built-Ins Boost Storage in Tiny Baths