Oh, the sweet sound of two toothbrushes hitting the same tiny cup at 6: 47 in the morning used to send me into a fury of angst and frustration. Seriously – one person trying to brush their teeth while the other guyfts a razor across your legs mid mascara application can turn anyone into a manic driver over you-know-how-many feet of bathroom. My husband and I were clipping around each other like bumper cars on roller-skates when we lived in a one-bedroom apartment with a master bath that was approximately the size of a coat closet.
In fact, this toilet took up more square footage than half our bathroom. And let’s be honest: most coat closets are designed better than ours. Prior to moving into our current apartment I knew I had to come up with a plan to maximize the space because the size was not changing.
We were married; we were moving in together. I needed to figure out how to make the most efficient use of every square inch.
Over the last two years I have tested storage solutions, fixture hacks, layout modifications, and all sorts of tricks that have transformed our annoyingly small bathroom into a surprisingly peaceful … non-war zone?
The difference is in dividing the bathroom in your mind. As soon as I stopped trying to use our bathroom as one shared space and started looking for ways to create two distinct work areas within that small space we stopped bumping elbows (literally) every time we got ready in the morning. Our vanity had been one pathetic looking 24-inch builder-grade vanity with a single sink that sort of took up space in the corner.
Rather than force a double sink into that tiny area (miniature half-sinks that don’t fit your whole hand under? ), I installed a wider 36-inch single-bowl vessel sink that we could actually use and divided up “his and hers” storage on each side of the sink. The easiest and most functional storage hack? Magnetic strips mounted inside of our medicine cabinet doors.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this until last year. It’s like something grandma would do with all her spice jars, but hang on! Attach those magnetic strips to the inside of your medicine cabinet and all your metal beauty utensils (eyebrow scissors, nail clippers, tweezers) have a place to call home instead of being lost at the bottom of a medicine drawer.
I stuck my husband’s safety razor right on his magnetic strip and hung all of my cuticle tools up like trophies. Pull out drawer organizers (<– found these on IKEA.com for $12 each) became a GODSEND under the sink. Instead of reaching into the abyss and hoping for the best when looking for cotton swabs I now assign one drawer for him and one drawer for me.
EVERYTHING has a place we know where to find when we need it. Plus, we’re not fighting over which tube of toothpaste is whose because someone took “his” by accident. Splitting up the shower area took some extra maneuvering because, well, shower spaces don’t typically come in sections.
Ours was just a 32-inch square builder shower stall. Again, not much I could do about the size but I could dictate how we used it. Corner shelves wouldn’t work (trust me, I tried – everything falls in the drain).
Instead, I installed a tension pole mounted shelf system with multiple shelves in the corner. The bottom shelf is for his shower gel and body wash where he can reach without having to squat. The top two shelves are mine and fit all of my hair products (COUGH COUGH approximately seventeen different bottle).
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Okay, hear me out on this next shower upgrade because it was a game changer. We installed a HANDHELD shower head with a slide bar that rests either low for him or high for me. This silly thing cost $89 from our local plumbing supply store and took me five minutes to install myself.
Don’t be afraid to get handy with the plumbing if you don’t know how – watch a few YouTube videos and Bob’s your uncle. The handheld feature not only allows us to aim the water exactly where we need it without adjusting the shower head every two seconds, but cleaning the shower walls is a breeze when you don’t have to crawl inside of the damn thing to scrub grime off yourself. No more fighting over one pathetic towel bar that was big enough to fit two bath towels if you folded them JUST RIGHT and hoped they didn’t fall.
We needed somewhere to hang our towels without them slipping off or driving us crazy with the clutter. The answer? A ladder style towel rack that leans up against the wall. ($45 from my local furniture store) It holds SIX towels without overcrowding the space and actually looks like you planned it that way.
Did you know the lighting fixtures make the biggest difference in how your bathroom actually feels when you’re running late getting ready in the mornings? Y’all. Our old light fixture was one of those creepy Hollywood-style shower light bulbs that literally created shadows across our faces when we were trying to style our hair or see what the hell we were doing with our eyebrow brushes.
It had to go. I swapped out the old light fixture for an arsenal lighting approach. One LED light strip mounted underneath a floating shelf above the mirror (YES I MADE THAT FOR ABOUT $30) and two small wall sconces on either side of the mirror.
The under shelf light shines directly up on your face without creating shadows and the wall sconces fill the rest of the space with ambient lighting that makes your bathroom look and feel bigger. The whole shebang cost me about $180 and I installed it myself. Don’t be afraid to ask for help either if you don’t know how to change a light fixture!
I had an electrician friend of mine come over and make sure I did everything properly. I’m adventurous, not stupid. We hung two mirrors next to each other instead of one large mirror that spans the entire wall.
Bonus storage/shelf space AND it tricks your eye into thinking you have more blank wall space.
Two mirrors also created individual zones for him and me to get ready without invading each other’s space. We installed a floor-to-ceiling, 8 inch deep x 68 inches tall narrow cabinet in the corner next to the toilet.
It’s the perfect spot to stash extra toilet paper, toilet bowl cleaner, cleaning caddy, spare towels – you name it. Tall and skinny cabinets are your best friend when you have zero square footage to spare. Lastly, we painted everything we could white or a warm gray and picked brass for all of our fixtures.
The brass towel rack, faucet, and light fixtures run throughout the entire bathroom creating a consistent color story that doesn’t feel busy. If there’s one thing I learned when designing a small space it’s that you don’t mix metals. I finally found the perfect shower curtain to hide our plain ol’ white shower walls and shower curtain rod.
You can check out that post here. Wall mounted bluetooth speaker for zero fighting over Alexa playing different music for each of us. Also, nobody’s phone gets wet on the counter trying to load up our jams.
