Ever walk into someone’s bathroom and think to yourself, “Bloody hell how have they made this teeny room look so nice?” I had that experience recently at my friend Jen’s house. Hers is probably smaller than ours was at our old flat in Bulwell. Like, five foot by six foot kind of small.
Yet it felt open and fully fledged modern, without screaming “Look at my bathroom I spent all my inheritance on this!” None of it felt trendy because Jen hadn’t lost her mind in a bathroom showroom. It was all considered choices that complemented each other. Modern but not sterile.
Thoughtful without spending hundreds on things that’ll make you cry when you look at prices online. Trust me, that’s what I’ve realised pouring over every decision renovating our own monstrosity of a bathroom for the past few years.
To be honest, I keep thinking about small bathrooms because I think they’re the hardest to get right, don’t you?
There’s no cheating. It is literally what it says on the tin. Every millimetre is accounted for.
Most of us are dealt a crappy hand when it comes to bathroom square footage though. We’ve either got ancient ones built when bathrooms were a radiator with some towels over it or we have tiny boxes created by people with zero concept of how many blasted bloody towels one person owns. We inherited our bathroom when we moved into the house.
I use the word bathroom loosely. The past tenants decided to magnolia EVERYTHING (why do people always magnolia everything?) Paint a ridiculous sink unit across one wall so half the room was taken up by storage and floor lighting so each person looked like death whenever they entered. Low ceilings, damp walls.
The kind of room you don’t want to see after a heavy night when you’re trying to remember what you did. The first thing I learned – and don’t @ me because it is obvious- just because you have a small bathroom it doesn’t have to feel like you’re storing your toilet in a telephone box. Took me awhile scribbling away on measurements, trying to work out why some small bathrooms feel acceptable and others make you want to flee back outside.
Depth. Trick yourself into thinking the room is deeper than it is. Wall hung vanity units.
I’ll be honest I was poo pooing them at first. Seemed a bit too trendy for my liking. But seeing that extra inch or so of floor when you walk in makes SUCH a difference.
Saw a local guy on Facebook who built us a simple oak unit. No fancy details just straight lines and drawers that don’t slam when Danny brushes his teeth at 0545hrs. Half the price of high street places and bloody loved it.
Sinks were hard. Looked at hundreds of sink styles online. Got WAY down a rabbit hole of different types and how on earth you were meant to clean around the edges of some.
Decided on going simple. Rectangular sink, ceramic material, white because what isn’t these days?! But with ever so slightly rounded edges so you don’t get grimy edges.
Cringy, I know but truth. Matte tiles are great because they don’t show water rings as much but they do show WHEN you’ve dirtied them. Upset your kids in the morning?
You’ll know about it. Go for larger tiles – we did 12×24” inches – which means less grout lines to clean 🙌. They also have to be installed with utter precision though, every bump and out won’t be hidden!
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Our tiler was brilliant. Used matte finish light grey tiles with some colour variation in them. Installed them vertically on the focal wall which helped it feel longer.
Used the same tile for the shower but did smaller ones on the shower floor for traction. It sounds straightforward but matching edges and keeping them level makes it look like you know what you’re doing.. Got overwhelmed by the lighting side of things to begin with.
Read about how you need LED’s for applying makeup, ambient lighting for baths and overhead lights make you look like the undead. Ended up doing LED strips around the mirror for applying makeup/getting ready so you can actually see what you’re doing, a basic light for general bathroom use and spotlights in the shower. We use dimmers on each so I can go from “Gently wake up Nick” to “Let’s turn the bloody lights on I can’t find my earring!” Rather than have one of those tiny medicine cabinets that are never big enough or deep enough I opted to run a large rectangle mirror across the width of the vanity.
Bounces more light around the room making it feel bigger and wider. You can actually see yourself from different angles too! Went for a simple black frame to keep it looking modern and it won’t date as fast as other colours.
Storage was by far the trickiest thing for us. Baths and showers suck up all your stuff – shampoos, towels, cleaning products, hairdryers, spare toilet roll, children’s toys. The list is endless.
Don’t have cupboard space? Build yourself a skinny cabinet from floor to ceiling, paint it the same colour as the walls and it kind of disappears into the background. Put some drawers in it with sliding poles so things don’t become an avalanche whenever you open them.
Bath wise I took the plucky step of getting rid of the bath completely. Who has time for baths? Installed a walk-in shower with one of those oversized rainfall shower heads and a standard handheld one as well.
Glass panel instead of a curtain too. They aren’t the most trendy right now but I can assure you they don’t get as mouldy and you can see throughout the entire bathroom. Colour scheme was also difficult.
I wanted something modern but didn’t want white walls that would date in two years. Ended up going warm white on the walls – not pure white not cream but something in between – with dark grey accents and the oak from the vanities. Feels soothing, plays well with the natural light we get throughout the day and means if I ever decide I hate the towels I can easily change things up without needing to repaint the walls.
But honestly what makes our bathroom work isn’t one specific thing. It’s everything tying together. All the pieces slotting in like a jigsaw.
There’s no clashing.
The materials compliment each other. There’s nothing that screams “look at me I’m modern” because tbh trends will come and go but if you pick things you love they’ll never date.
It took us two months-ish to complete – slower due to juggling Danny’s work hours and other renovations I got half way through – and cost us under budget as well. Saved a ton by not visiting the stupidly overpriced tiled showrooms. More importantly it’s now been three years and I love walking into my bathroom every morning.
I’m not gushing about how awesome it is. Honestly I don’t love it that much. But it makes me feel.. normal.
Grounded. Ready to tackle whatever nonsense the rest of the house throws at me that day. And really that’s the goal right?
You could Instagram your house until the cows come home but if you don’t love stepping into it every single day then what’s the point? !
