Remember when someone asks to borrow your bathroom and you suddenly see your powder room from their perspective? Last month I had that experience when my sister- in-law stopped by unannounced. She asked to use the restroom and I watched her head toward what I had accepted as bathroom décor for the past year-and-a-half: beige walls, beige paint job.
It was a box with toilet. With tub. Tiny sink.
No character. She emerged moments later.
She didn’t say anything as she left.
She didn’t have to. Her smile was polite. And knowing.
That weekend I tackled that embarrassing half bathroom armed with tape measure and notebook. It was time to create a bathroom guests would remember (and not share!). Half bathrooms are difficult to work with.
First, they’re tiny. Second, they’re utilitarian caves with no windows. Their entire purpose is based around function, not form.
But they’re also the room in your house that every guest and every visitor will see. Everyone forms an opinion about your powder room. Wallpaper was my starting point.
Paint felt like cheating. I already had this amazing William Morris-inspired botanical wallpaper staring at me from my closet. Teal greenery with teeny tiny coral flowers on a cream background.
Hands down, the most gorgeous wallpaper ever. $40 per roll. I needed two rolls to cover this tiny half bathroom. I swear my hands shook cutting that first strip.
Screw this up and I’m out $80. Lesson learned about wallpaper: it does NOT make a small space feel closed in. Everyone warns against it.
But in fact, small rooms need wallpaper. It makes the space feel curated. Loved.
As if someone sat down and considered how to beautify this tiny room instead of whitewashing the walls and calling it a bathroom. The pattern forces your eye to move up and around the room. Suddenly there’s visual stimulation instead of blank beige walls.
Speaking of overwhelm… HOLY WALLPAPER INSTALLATION BATMAN. Okay. Moving on but not without lessons learned.
Installing wallpaper wasn’t as hard as I expected, but it did take way longer than I wanted it to. It also required lessons in pattern matching. Thank goodness for youtube tutorials because although it looks easy, there’s paste everywhere, random bubbles that appear out of nowhere and then that moment when you think you’ve hung the paper and it’s CROOKED.
Ugh. But once it was up? So worth it.
Paint is just paint. But lighting can make or break a bathroom. Since most half bathrooms have a single overhead fixture with bulb guaranteed to make anyone look like a vampire who’s been sniffing glue, I splurged on a fixture.
Replaced the builder basic gold aluminum fixture with this gorgeous little vintage-style brass single pendant that I snagged off eBay for £45. It hangs low enough to create mood but not so low that people keep banging their head on it. The brass tone picks up the subtle gold tone in the wallpaper design.
And the warm glow from the bulb lights off the paper beautifully. Okay, so maybe having two light sources in place of a single ghastly one isn’t a crazy idea. Sticking a little table lamp on the tiny shelf above the toilet might sound weird too, buttrust me.
It works. The pineapple is ridiculously cute and emits this soft, warm glow that makes the room feel extra cozy. Bonus points because it was only £18 at my favorite local vintage shop.
Swap out the builder basic mirror for something eye-catching. Hate the title builder mirror? Me too!
But they’re useful as a starting point when designing a bathroom. Once my wallpaper was up I knew I could handle, well, ANYTHING in that room. The mirror I picked was an ornate vintage gold piece from a local car boot sale.
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Cost? £15. Hands down the best 15 quid I’ve ever spent. It had tarnished spots but a little metal polish and some gentle cleaning solved all of that.
The fancy details on the frame complement the busy wallpaper pattern – it anchors the room without overwhelming it. Add some storage! Okay, hear me out.
Once I’d hung wallpaper and brought in artwork I realized I needed something functional to ground the room. Because yes, while artwork and a killer floor are important, guests will use your bathroom. So I installed this narrow floating shelf (painted the same coral color as the accent flowers in the wallpaper) and keep a small plant, fancy hand soap, and reed diffuser on it.
The plant is actually a snake plant cutting I propagated myself. It lives! Go upscale on hand towels.
On towels… seriously. Linen towels, people. And the perfect shade of dusty pink to tie into the coral accent in the wallpaper.
We have semi-hard water here in Northern California so all my towels tend to look dingy. Buttery smooth linen feels and looks luxe. Sure, I splurged on these (£22 for two seemed insane at the time!) but handmade by a British small batch linen towel company and I’ll never go back to regular towels again.
I originally wasn’t going to hang anything on the bathroom walls. Since it’s a half bathroom no one hangs out in there… except they do! We brush our teeth there.
Apply makeup. Guests use it when they’re alone and I’ve realized they spend more time there than anywhere else in my house. They notice everything.
Flush with relief when the toilet doesn’t explode. So art? Important.
Especially in a powder room. Everything you hang needs to be moisture resistant but conversational. Nothing boring.
I ordered three vintage botanical prints that I had printed at a local shop from high-resolution scans I downloaded from museums. (Did you know you can legally download art from museums for free?! So cool!) Each print was about £3 to order from the shop and I picked up these simple black frames from Ikea. They work together but don’t compete with the wallpaper.
Last but not least: the floor. Ugh, where to begin. I was stuck with vinyl flooring installed by the previous owner that was not only beige but starting to bubble and peel up on the corners.
I seriously considered ripping it out but didn’t have the budget to retile the floor. Enter…. peel and stick tiles that LOOK like marble. Yep. $2.50 per tile and they installed easily with an evening of work.
Total game changer. Are these real marble tiles? Heck no.
Do they look like the marble tiles cost twice what I actually paid for them and will they clean easily with soap and water? YOU BET. Added a small waste bin in brushed gold to echo the brass lighting.
Swapped out the ugly toilet seat for a soft-close seat in white. Nothing too crazy. Functional.
And the small details add up! If you have BO when you walk in there, cover it. If your powder room smell like NOTHING, cover it.
We keep a small reed diffuser going at all times in ours.
Hint of white tea with bergamot. Subtle, but lovely.
I cannot believe the difference just $180 worth of supplies can make. To be fair, I spent six weeks and several weekends working on this…but it wasn’t expensive. The costliest item was the wallpaper, but it made the biggest impact.
Everything else I did supported that main upgrade. Now when guests ask to use our “loo” they tell me about it when they leave. “I love your wallpaper!” “This is the cutest little bathroom.” My SIL was over yesterday and she kept texting me asking where I found certain things. She ended up coming downstairs and looking at everything twice!
I’ve loved every visitor who’s wandered into our bathroom since I finished it. Which kinda sounds weird when you think about how often people visit your bathroom. But heck, I love it so I’m sharing it!
Let me know if you tackle your half bath with me!
