7 Tricks to Make Your Small Bathroom Look and Feel Bigger

The planning stage of your renovation is the most critical part. Your decisions at this point will dictate your overall finish and look once all the hard work has been done.

Bathrooms, for the most part, are not large spaces.  And so there are a number of tricks you can implement at the start to make sure that your bathroom or ensuite renovation feels spacious.

Layout

The right bathroom layout is critical and is the first place you should be putting your energy before looking at anything else. Bathrooms come in some odd shapes and sizes so you may be limited in what fittings you can place where. Even if you know what you want, it always pays to share your ideas. And this could mean either with a professional, friends and family, or both. Another set of eyes can see something you may have missed or think of a way to do things that you haven’t.

The location of the bigger stuff like your bath and shower should be done first as the smaller fittings can go in much easier around these. Baths and showers come in general sizes too while your vanity options are a bit more varied in terms of length and width. This brings us to our next trick;

Vanities

There are plenty of vanity styles on the market but did you also know that they come in many sizes? A standard vanity depth is 460mm however slimline options can give you an extra 110mm of space in the bathroom with a depth of 350mm. Your width will also be important, smaller vanities start at 600 wide and can go to a whopping 1500mm wide.

When selecting your vanity, the wall hung option as opposed to the floor standing will give you the illusion of more floor space. It lets light flow better around the room and will tie in with the new modern look of your renovated space.

Vertical Visual Aids

Patterns play a big part in drawing ones eye in the right direction and can give an impression of a bigger room. This can be achieved with groove board or your tiling layout.

Groove board, like hardie groove lining, has an etched groove into the panel. It’s installed onto the wall and painted to match the rest of your room or as a feature wall. 

Tiling layouts have a big impact too. A large style tile in a light colour on your walls can give the feeling of grandeur and luxury while making your room feel bigger.

If you are leaning towards a smaller tile such as a subway, these can be layed vertically to give you a modern look and creating that visual pattern at the same time.

Mirror

A big beautiful mirror not only looks great but can help light to bounce around the room. While a LED mirror can help more, any large mirror like a glue fixed or bracketed bevel or polished edge mirror will do the job.

Tile & Paint Choices

Once your design, layout and fittings have been chosen, you will be onto the fun stuff of choosing tile and paint colours. In order to continue the efforts so far to make your space feel bigger, keep your paint and tile colours light in nature. Whites and neutrals have always played a role in renovations of small bathrooms and ensuites to give that effect.

Lighting

This one goes without saying, lighting plays a part in how your room looks and feels. Your basic lighting needs should include a bright ceiling light, and a vanity light (which can be sacrificed if you are going with an LED mirror). Lights come in a warm or cool white and it comes down to personal preference on which way you want to go. If you are unsure, it would pay to visit a lighting store to see them in action.

Minimalist Decoration

Once your bathroom or ensuite renovation is completed, you can often get so excited about being able to “move back in” so to speak that your fresh clean room suddenly gets filled with plants and display items. Taking the effort to simplify your toiletries and knickknacks on display will go a long way in keeping your new renovation space as intended.