Top Tips for Creating a Small Bathroom Design
January 3, 2024
An Introduction to Small Bath Designs
A remodel is an opportunity to reimagine your Gainesville home and create spaces that fit your personal tastes, functional needs, and lifestyle. From a first-floor remodel to a new powder room design, an update to your home gives you a chance to create spaces that will enhance your life for years to come.
A customized design can also help you find the ideal layout, storage, accessories, and more for your needs. This means you can make the most of your available space to create an innovative design that gives you everything you need.
This is especially important when designing compact spaces. In a large master bathroom remodel you have greater flexibility when choosing your bathroom fixtures and storage options. When creating a small bathroom design, whether a compact master bath, a hall bathroom, or a powder room, you must be more discerning with your design choices.
A small bathroom remodel has unique challenges, but it also presents an opportunity to get creative in a compact space. You can also include luxury materials in a small bath design, where your materials budget goes further than in a spacious bathroom.
Start your small bathroom remodeling journey by examining what you like and don’t like about the existing bathroom. What elements are you eager to change? Is your compact bathroom lacking in storage? Or is the style outdated or boring? Determine your key priorities and bring these when you meet with your Gainesville bath design expert. They will help you find the perfect layout, materials, and color scheme to bring your design vision to life.
Maximizing Your Space
Finding the perfect layout for your space is the first step toward achieving your bathroom design goals. The layout is the foundation of any design, and it is dependent on the shape and size of your room. Think about your available space, the type of bathroom it is, and who will use it. Consider if the room has any unusual architectural features, such as an archway, alcove, or slanted roof. These features must be incorporated into your room’s layout unless you plan to make structural changes to your room.
Choosing your layout determines the location of key fixtures in your bath design, such as the vanity, tub, shower, and toilet. It also establishes your room’s storage features. In a small bathroom remodel, your layout options may be more limited, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make changes to benefit the functionality and style of your space. Even in the most compact space, there could be scope to add storage, move around the toilet, or change the tub/shower for a more spacious custom shower.
One top tip for small bathroom planning: change your bathroom door to a pocket door! These clever doors slide in and out and don’t interfere with your bathroom’s fixtures or floor space. Think about what you want and work with your design expert to find out what is possible in your bathroom layout.
Bathroom Fixtures that Fit Your Space
Once you know your room’s layout, you can select the ideal fixtures to fit your space. Key features of a bathroom design include the vanity cabinet, shower enclosure, plumbing fixtures, and bathtub. Depending on your space, your design may not include all of these, for example, if you don’t have space for both a tub and shower.
There are a few basic principles to follow when choosing fixtures for your Gainesville bathroom remodel. These tips will help you to better utilize your available space and open up your room, creating the illusion of a larger bathroom.
- First, a small bathroom design is typically not big enough to accommodate both a tub and a shower. For this reason, you should either go for a space-saving tub/shower combination or leave out the tub and focus on the best shower enclosure you can fit into your layout.
- Second, the best solution for a compact space is to install a frameless glass shower door. It gives your room a clean look, allows light to shine through, and gives a sense of depth with no frames or embellishments to break up your line of sight.
- Third, you could take this one step further and install an open shower design, creating a wet room effect for your compact bath design. Since there is no shower base or door you get a sense of the full space available in your bathroom footprint.
- Finally, you can use your vertical spaces to keep your floor clear and give the sensation of more space. Go for wall-hung fixtures, such as a vanity and toilet, to avoid limiting floor space. This can also make a compact bathroom easier to clean since you can sweep or mop without having to work around bulky fixtures.
Clever Storage Solutions for Your Gainesville Bath Design
Every bathroom needs well-designed storage solutions to avoid a cluttered mess on your countertops and floor. In a small bathroom design, carefully planned storage solutions are even more important. You must include sufficient storage for your needs, but in a way that does not overwhelm your space.
Before you start planning storage for your new bath design, take time to declutter and determine what you need to store in that location. Get rid of expired medications, face products with barely a drop left in the bottle, and items you have not used. Here’s an easy rule of thumb: If you forgot you had it, then it’s probably safe to throw it away!
Next, look at the items you still use and determine if they need to be stored in that bathroom. Are these items you use daily in that location? If not, then they can be kept in another bathroom or a hall closet and taken out when you need them.
Finally, examine what is left and use this to assess your storage needs. Vanity cabinets provide essential closed storage for items you don’t want to have on display. They come in enough sizes and styles to fit almost any size bathroom design. Make sure you choose a vanity that won’t overwhelm your space and that you account for cabinet doors opening easily.
Go vertical with your storage by including a shallow, wall-hung cabinet. This could be a cabinet hung over the toilet, or a mirrored medicine cabinet over the vanity sink. Alternatively, hang floating shelves for extra storage that leaves your compact bathroom feeling open and airy. Open storage is ideal for keeping a few key items handy, such as cotton buds stored in a decorative container or spare towels neatly stowed. Make sure your open storage does not become cluttered and that it complements your room’s style.
Recessed storage is another ideal option for any bathroom design but works especially well in a compact bathroom. Include a storage niche in your shower for essential toiletries. You could also create a recessed niche over the toilet or anywhere you have wall space. If your room’s layout includes an alcove, install shelves where you can accessorize your bathroom with spare towels, a plant, or candles.
Choosing Color Schemes and Lighting
When designing your compact Gainesville bathroom, choose a color scheme that enhances your space. Light colors always work well in a small space, as they naturally make your room feel larger. Go for classic neutrals like white, light gray, cream, or beige for a tone that enhances your compact room. In a small, enclosed room such as a powder room, you could experiment with a dark color or a bold pattern to create a one-of-a-kind style.
Lighting is essential in any bath design, but a small room requires careful planning to illuminate your space without overwhelming it. A dimmer switch or smart lighting lets you control your light levels without requiring too many light fixtures. Depending on your available space, there are a number of options for over-vanity lights or wall sconces that have a neat profile to fit a small space. Another option is to include an LED backlit mirror, which provides the ideal level of lighting exactly where you need it. Don’t forget about the role of natural lighting when planning your bath remodel. Natural light through windows or a skylight benefits your room’s style as well as connecting your space to nature.
Selecting the Ideal Mirrors
Mirrors are the perfect accessory that makes your small Gainesville bathroom design feel larger. A mirror is essential in any bathroom, as it provides space to see yourself when getting ready. Mirrors and other reflective surfaces also give your space the illusion of feeling larger by giving the room a sense of depth and by reflecting light around the room.
There are several ways to approach finding the ideal mirror for your compact bath remodel.
- The larger the mirror, the bigger the effect on how your space appears. Consider selecting a mirror that covers the entire wall over your vanity area.
- Mirrors with integrated LED lighting combine a mirror and light in the perfect space-saving feature.
- Frameless mirrors give you the illusion of more space in your bathroom with no frame to break up the reflective surface.
- A statement mirror in an unusual shape or with a unique frame provides a clear design focal point and draws the eye as soon as you walk into the room.
Incorporating Materials and Textures
The materials you choose for your Gainesville bathroom design help define your room’s style, functionality, and ease of maintenance. In a small bathroom, you should make your choices count by selecting materials that make your room feel more spacious and luxurious.
Go Large: large format tiles for bathroom walls and floors have the illusion of expanding your space by minimizing grout lines and giving your space a seamless look.
Durable and Easy to Maintain: choose materials that will last, are nonporous, and can be wiped clean. From your tiled surfaces to countertops and shower glass, go for quality materials that take the stress out of daily life. This is even more important in a small bathroom where it can be difficult to work around fixtures to clean.
Glossy finishes: polished or glass tiles, glass surfaces, and polished metallic surfaces reflect light and create a bright design style, which helps your room to feel more spacious.
Simple textures and patterns: stick to subtle textures and patterns in a small bathroom design so you don’t overwhelm your space. If you want to add a bold pattern, include it strategically in such a way that it draws the eye into your room and gives your bathroom a feeling of more space.
Accessorizing Without Clutter
Accessories are an ideal way to give your Gainesville bath design a personal touch. In your compact space, you want to thoughtfully accessorize to avoid leaving your room feeling cluttered.
Choose cabinet hardware with simple lines. You could opt for a hardware finish that blends with other features such as your plumbing fixtures to create a unified style.
If your countertop space is limited, avoid keeping too many accessories on your vanity top. If you must store a few essentials such as cotton buds in open storage, keep them organized in a container that fits your design style.
Clever Bathroom Design Choices that Fit Your Space!
Just because your bathroom is small, doesn’t mean it can’t be packed with style and functionality! Careful bath design planning lets you maximize your available space to fit everything you need. A small bath design is also an opportunity to bring luxury materials into your bathroom since you don’t need as much to cater to a compact space.
Our Gainesville bathroom remodeling team can help you find the ideal layout, choose the perfect products, and install your new bathroom with ease. Contact us today to get started!