Wouldn’t it be great to have a spacious bathroom that looks at home in a boutique hotel? As you can imagine, there are so many options, so many ideas, that we can’t fit them all on one page! When it comes to smaller spaces, it really is an opportunity more than a hindrance. This guide aims to give you plenty of ideas for getting started on your own journey of creative expression.

Whether you are aiming to carry out a complete renovation or simply refresh the look of your bathroom, this guide will allow you to unlock the potential of your compact space. Think of this as an opportunity to transform your bathroom into a space to express your personality, a bold and distinct statement that becomes a pleasure to spend time in.

There’s only one problem, your bathroom is small. Read on for all the inspired ideas and tips you’ll need to make your bathroom feel luxurious, spacious, and as extravagant as you dare to be.

• Stunning Styles
• Drastic Designs
• Calming Colours
• Terrific Tiles
• Shower vs Bath
• Tiptop Toilets
• Brilliant Basins & Taps
• Fabulous Flooring
• Luminous Lighting
• Tasteful Towel Rails

The first step in designing your amazing new bathroom is to choose a style. You probably have a good idea of the direction you want to go in already, be it ultra-modern or traditional. Rustic or minimalist? Or some combination of elements from different styles? Don’t be afraid to experiment.

The trick with smaller bathrooms is to find the balance between a style you like and ways in which to efficiently use the space to ensure it doesn’t become cluttered or cramped.

In general, you will want to:

• Incorporate stylistic elements into the décor – Whether you use bold and striking colours or intricate murals, walls are an opportunity to express your theme, adding unique and interesting elements to a traditionally utilitarian room.
• Choose a complementary colour scheme – we’ll cover this in more detail below but there are some ways to use colour to make any space appear larger. Keeping your tiles, shelves, cabinets and sanitaryware within the same colour scheme will tie the room together cohesively into your chosen theme.
• Be efficient with your use of space – really think about how the space is used and what it is used for. Think big; can you add a false shelf into a wall, where can you add cabinets with mirrored doors, is there a wall that could have shelves installed?
• Don’t be afraid to make big changes - Think about adding plant life into the room. It can even be artificial if you prefer to cut down on maintenance. A touch of nature will bring lightness and if the plants are real, help to freshen the air. Wherever possible, consider using glass for surfaces and partitions, it is obvious but sometimes easy to overlook that this will help with light transmission.
• Consider every element of the room as an opportunity – don’t forget the finer details, the use of mirrors and light helps to make a small space appear larger and is usually a necessity for a bathroom. Incorporate the door/cabinet handles into your overall theme, these add little flourishes that will really elevate the look you go for.

With careful planning to maximise space and a little bit of work, you will be able to change your bathroom into a tranquil escape or ultra-efficient sleek, modern space, or anything in-between.

Don’t be afraid to get creative. This won’t be for everyone, but we would recommend drawing a plan of the room on graph paper. Work out the correct size and scale of all the utilities within the room and then go crazy. Draw the bathroom how you want it to be, if money and time were no object, really push the boundaries of what you would do to the space if there were no restrictions at all.

This will often unlock new ideas, things you hadn’t considered before and although you won’t be able to achieve all of them (or maybe you will!), it will aid in inspiring you to discover the potential of the space. It will also help to visualise exactly how much space you have to work with and what is possible with the means available to you.

When designing your perfect bathroom, things to consider:

• Floor space – if you do decide to draw a plan you will get a precise measurement of the space available to you. Turning your design strategy into more of a science, you can then break down the amount of space you wish to use for each essential element of your bathroom. This gives you a precise feeling of what you have to work with in terms of more adventurous designs.
• Tiles vs paint – Tiling from the floor to about two-thirds of the way up the wall creates a sense of height and there are many patterns and shapes to choose from. With paint, you can open up the room, making it feel more airy with lighter colours, and combine the two in any way you wish to gain the benefits from both. Match colours for a seamless look or go with dark at the bottom and light at the top to make the room look taller.
• Placement of utilities – As well as planning their placement on a graph plan, you can also move your sanitaryware to better use the space available to you. There is often much that can be done with clever placement to maximise space, plus there are many basins, toilets and more designed for smaller spaces.
• Size of your bath/shower – Think about whether you can alter the size and shape of your bath or shower. For smaller bathrooms, a freestanding bath is often smaller and helps to save on space. Consider the shower cubicle (if you have one), and if you can remove or alter the screens and replace them with glass if you haven’t already.
• Use the shape of the room – If your bathroom is an awkward or unique shape you can often use this to your advantage. This opens up options not available to those with standard room sizes and shapes. If your bathroom is in the upper floor of your house and in the eaves of the building, you can add a skylight or use this space for interesting design features that draw the eye. If you have a little nook this could be the perfect place for shelving to store your towels.

When it comes to designing a small bathroom there is no need to sacrifice style, comfort or functionality. With careful planning any room can be transformed into a bold expression of your personality.

It may be advice that you’ve heard a million times before, after all, anyone who has decorated a room would have heard it. To make a smaller space look larger, use light, neutral colours. No one can deny that this is true. Cream, white, and pastel shades add freshness to any room.

However, don’t let this limit you when it comes to choosing the colour scheme of your bathroom. Rules are made to be broken and although lighter colours make the room look bigger, this doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with all manner of different shades.

Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing before you choose a colour scheme:

• Traditional cool colours – The tried-and-true method of making any room appear larger. And there is a reason for this, it works! This is because light reflects better off of lighter-toned colours. Not only that, it can produce a calming effect, making the room more pleasant to spend time in after a stressful day.
• Bold, big and bright – Perhaps not for the entire room, consider a statement or focus wall. A surface that you make busier than the rest, whether through use of colour or patterned wallpaper. This is to draw and distract the eye from the overall size of the bathroom.
• Delve into the dark – It might seem counter-intuitive but dark colours are not impossible to pull off in small spaces. Especially with the addition of mirrors and gloss finishes on walls and floors to increase the ambience of available light. Add small sections of darker shades in a light room with taps or radiators to really make them pop.
• Mix dark with light – Split up the room by using a dark colour with a light colour. A darker colour in the lower half of a room lowers the eye and as such tricks your mind into thinking the room is taller than it is. For example, you could tile the lower half of the room in a light colour and paint the top half in a darker colour to achieve this effect.

As you can see, the choice is yours and there is no definite right answer when it comes to colour. Even though traditional wisdom prevails, this shouldn’t stop you from making the room yours, regardless of recommendations.

A part of your bathroom décor that is ideal to use as a tool for maximising the look of your space. There are almost as many tiles to choose from as there are stars in the sky, and your choice of colour and finish will drastically impact the feel of your bathroom.

You can use tiles as a feature wall or focal point in the room, helping to add your own distinctive style. When it comes to selecting the colour, it’s best to choose complementary colours to the rest of the room, again this is to add to the cohesion of your theme.

When choosing your tiles, you’ll want to think about:

• Visually distinct tiles – A patterned tile can add a distinctive quality to the room and give the eye something to look at. More importantly, it can also be an expression of your personality.
• Not just rectangles – Tiles come in many shapes and sizes, so think about changing it up and tiling with a mosaic effect or larger hexagonal or pentagonal tiles.
• Gloss or matt – Both gloss and matt have their advantages. Matt tiles have a greater air of quality to them; gloss tiles help to reflect and diffuse the light. The reflective quality of gloss tiles makes them a good choice for small rooms by enhancing the light and allowing you to go for darker colours.
• Consider Textiles – Even though the finish of your tile is important, where you can get really creative is with the texture of your tiles. You can find tiles with a wood effect or wave-like pattern and many more. Much like the different finishes, these textures react differently when light hits them, creating interesting effects.
• Maintenance and cleaning – A small piece of advice but perhaps a crucial one, gloss tiles are easier to clean, their finish giving them a wipe-off surface. Wallpaper or matt, on the other hand, tends to take a bit more work when removing stains.
• Match floor and wall tiles – To add cohesion and a seamless look you could use both wall and floor tiles with the same tile. You can use strong colours to give a real pop to the room or give it a spa-like feel by using neutral stone-coloured tile.

With tiles, you’ll want to marry functionality with style. They should reflect the overall theme you have decided to go for but be a distinct addition to the bathroom space.

One of the most important, if not the most important element of a bathroom and the entire reason for its existence! We all have our preferences, just because you have a small space to work with doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice that relaxing bath at the end of a hard day. Equally, it is possible to remove the bath entirely and convert that space into a cubicle shower or even make the entire bathroom a wet room.

The shape of your bath can also help to utilise the space to your advantage. By using an oval, freestanding bath you create the illusion of more space by literally cutting off the corners. A deep bath makes use of the verticality of the room; a slipper design adds further style while saving space.

Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of these options:

Bath –

Pros: More style options and a more relaxing experience, also better for cleaning pets and children

Cons: Uses more water and takes longer to prepare while also taking up more space

Shower –

Pros: Uses less water while being quicker and hassle-free; is a drastically more efficient use of space

Cons: Can need more maintenance with not as many style options

Wet room –

Pros: Gives a spa-like feeling to the room in which the shower seamlessly blends in

Cons: The entire room needs to be waterproof and offers no barrier to stop water from going everywhere

Of course, you can have a combination shower and bath, giving you the option of both and this is what most people are used to in modern times. But it is worth thinking about, if you are willing and able, often you don’t have to just stick with the positioning of the bath or shower as it was when you bought the house. This will mean additional and possibly quite disruptive work and maybe even the re-working of the plumbing.

Something to consider, if you are able, is to incorporate the design of your toilet into your bathroom to maximise the space available. If you are only redecorating or looking to freshen up the room, you may not be willing to change or relocate your toilet. But there are still options available to you for including your toilet in your redecoration efforts.

Let’s take a look at a few of them:

• Concealing your toilet – Install a half-wall or use cabinet storage to hide the toilet away. Fluted glass is also a good option to create a screen between the W.C. and the rest of the room.
• A floating toilet – These hide the pipe and cistern of a toilet in the wall, requiring a little plumbing work. But the result is undeniable and looks ultra-modern, also making the space taken up by the cistern available again.
• Sleek designs for modern times – As mentioned above, there is no reason you can’t be innovative with toilet design, with the days of the standard W.C. we all remember from our grandparent’s house gone. There is a range of interesting designs you can select from (close-coupled toilets and rimless toilets for example) that lean into a modern minimalist aesthetic.

If you do not intend on replacing your toilet don’t forget that you can alter the seat to fit with your new colour scheme, even this little touch can help to make it blend in with its surroundings.

Much as with toilets, baths, and cabinets you have many options for subtly altering the way your bathroom is perceived with your basins and taps. From efficient space use and different design philosophies, all are perfect for use in smaller bathrooms.

• Combined basin units – You can aim to combine as many elements of the room as possible to use the space effectively. These units combine a toilet, cabinet and basin in one. Ingeniously designed to make maximum efficient use of space, combine a basin with a cabinet below to give you additional storage.
• Corner hand wash basins – One of the best things you can do with a small space is use every inch of wall space that you can. This goes for corners as well, which are an often-under-utilised part of rooms. A basin can neatly be integrated into a corner of the room.
• Wall hanging sanitaryware – As mentioned above, there are many options now to make it look as though the toilet or basin is ‘floating’ on the wall. These wall-hung basins not only look great but save space as well.
• Side-mounted taps – You needn’t stick with even the placement of taps on modern basins. By side-mounting the faucet on a slimline sink you save space and create an interesting feature for your bathroom.

Hand wash basins and taps are an essential part of the bathroom and can often be overlooked as a way to express your style. Along with your choice of taps, which could include any number of styles and materials to add extra pazazz to your bathroom, making a sensational statement out of the most mundane of things is always possible.

A wealth of options awaits you. In general, larger format floor tiles will look the best in smaller spaces. This is because a continuous colour scheme or patterning on the floor enhances the illusion that the room is bigger.

Whatever you choose as your flooring style and material will set the tone for the rest of the room. This is why it’s important to plan out your theme before starting work. You want all the elements of the room to be cohesive, so starting with the type of flooring is a great idea if you are struggling to come up with a unifying theme for the room.

What are the main advantages of the various flooring materials available to you?

• Porcelain – Absorbs less water, best for wet rooms and busy family bathrooms.
• Ceramic – Hard-wearing and easy to cut into different shapes, these tiles are water and stain-resistant.
• Marble – An elegant and classic choice, these tiles will add a timeless quality to your bathroom.
• Laminate – Easy to lay and cheaper than the other options. There are also many patterns and colours to choose from to fit any style. Also ideal for under-floor heating.   

Your aim should ideally be trying to find ways of opening up the space and choosing the right flooring for the room can do just that. Sticking with lighter colours need not mean a boring, bland, monochrome pattern. Marble effect (or actual marble) can give that airy feeling while still having an interesting pattern. Even a darker tile with a gloss finish gives you a lighter effect and interesting patterns in the flooring keep the eye engaged.

In terms of making a smaller space feel larger, next to the colour you choose, your choice of lighting is of extreme importance. Depending on the location of the bathroom some of these tips may not be practical or possible but could serve as further inspiration nonetheless.

Using light, here is how you can enhance the illusion of space in your bathroom:

• Use mirrors – A simple way of boosting light and making a room look bigger. You don’t need to use a standard rectangular or square shaped mirror either. Experiment with different sizes and shapes to see what fits your theme best; a mirror can be a dramatic statement in itself.
• Gloss finish on tiles – This is especially handy if you select a darker colour scheme, gloss tiles help to diffuse and reflect light, increasing the ambient light available in the room.
• Lighting colour scheme – Use artificial light sources to your advantage. The type of bulb colour you choose can be used to enhance your theme, adding to the warmth of a rustic or traditional style room, while cooler colours will be more effective for modernistic styles.
• Enhance natural light sources – Consider introducing a skylight if possible. For small spaces these types of windows are ideal as they don’t take up valuable wall space and, depending on the location, flood the room with light.
• Use indirect lighting – Strip lights around the edge of the room not only make it look larger but add a good amount of ambient light to be reflected off other surfaces. They are also hidden from view and are an unobtrusive way of adding more light into cramped spaces.

Light is one of the best resources you have available and luckily, it is abundant. If you can increase the amount of natural light, we highly recommend that you do so. With that being said, with a little bit of creativity even a space without any natural light can be made to feel light and airy with at least two sources of artificial light, such as ceiling spotlights, and creative use of reflective surfaces and tile.

The best placement for a towel rail radiator would be where there is no wasted space. Dead spaces on walls opposite your shower or bath, anywhere you are having trouble deciding what to do with the space, consider adding your heating element there.

How can you fit rails and radiators efficiently into a smaller bathroom?

Combined shelf and rail – An efficient use of space, you can use your towel rail as a shelf as well. It adds another surface for storage or display and doubles as a heating rail, a perfect solution for saving space.

Use a vertical radiator – When space is at a premium you need to get creative. Even if it seems like you don’t have enough space, think again. A vertical radiator can fit into those smaller spaces and is ideal for filling up dead space on walls.

Single curved rail – These elegant towel rails are another innovation that saves space. A great compact design allows you to add a towel rail anywhere you desire, another brilliant solution for smaller bathrooms.

Style of heating element – You don’t need to worry about a towel rail or radiator not blending in with your theme, heating elements come in a wide range of designs. Some of them even look more like modern art sculptures than mundane everyday objects.

The towel radiator can be both practical and visually interesting. It is another example of a mundane object that you, as an innovative homeowner can utilise into being a stylish element of the bathroom and need not be abandoned simply because space is tight.

Hopefully, you’ve found this article informative and insightful! If you need any more inspiration, discover more bathroom ideas and advice here. Alternatively, if you need a hand picking your towel radiator, wall tiles or anything else – get in touch with our award-winning team here.

Looking for more inspiration? Take a look at our wide range of product and project guides - covering an array of subjects from garden renovations to painting and decorating, installing stunning lighting set-ups to building out a kitchen or bathroom from scratch and much, much more. Take the leap today and start your DIY journey right here. For direct help and advice, you can also contact our award-winning customer service team.