The downstairs toilet; the smallest room in the house; the powder room. Whatever you choose to call it, I always think it’s one of the rooms that gets the least ideas and attention decorating wise, and yet the downstairs toilet is one of the rooms in your home that many visitors see.
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One of my house goals for the first part of the year was to give our downstairs toilet a glow up. The floor was a very tired lino, the walls were a dirty yellow and after almost 2 years in the house, we still hadn’t got round to even putting a mirror up in there! We didn’t have a massive budget for this, so it wasn’t a major renovation, more of a refresh. The toilet and sink are plain white and there are a few plain white tiles as a backsplash above the sink. The tap has been recently replaced, so these things were staying.
First Decorating Ideas: Wallpaper
Our toilet is tiny, with just a small window, so I felt like it would be a great room to have a bit of fun with 🙂 I didn’t think there would be much point keeping it a light colour as it wouldn’t make it feel any bigger, so I decided it was going dark! I love the idea of decorating with some really rich opulent wallpaper in the downstairs toilet, so here are a few examples I found:
Right image from Xwallcolors
Whilst I love the idea of wallpaper, in our case we’re a bit of a messy family, so I thought that it might not be such a practical decorating idea in the downstairs loo!
I also really liked these more simple paint ideas:
I love the contrast between the dark walls and the patterned flooring in both of these images. Here is the moodboard that I came up with:
Downstairs Toilet Decorating Moodboard
Paint Colour
To make a bit more of a statement in the room, I decided to go for a dark green on a couple of the walls. The colour I chose is Emerald Glade by Dulux. However I also painted a couple of the walls in White Cotton. To paint the whole downstairs toilet in the dark green would be too overwhelming in the space for me. I used Dulux Easycare paint that hopefully will withstand lots of splashes from the sink etc.
Practical Flooring For the Downstairs Loo
Previously the floor was tired lino that looked permanently dirty. Originally I intended to replace it with these peel and stick vinyl tiles from Amazon:
However once the old lino was taken up it quickly became clear that unfortunately these tiles just wouldn’t be suitable to use.
Instead I replaced the old lino with a new piece of lino. This was probably the lowest-cost option and as I still had the old piece of lino I was able to use this as a template for cutting the new lino to fit. This is the new lino:
Give The Downstairs Toilet A Statement Mirror
As I wasn’t able to change the tiled splashback or any of the sanitary ware, I wanted to use a mirror as an eye catching feature in the room. A good mirror also helps to bounce the light around in a dark space. The one in the moodboard above is from The Range. I found this one in Homesense:
Light
Previously there was just a bare bulb on the ceiling, so I replaced that with this simple but smart light from Mano Mano:
If I were redecorating the downstairs toilet more comprehensively, I would probably choose to maybe have wall lights next to the mirror, to give a softer light. Due to the size of the room, lighting options were quite limited.
Art Work
It’s always nice to have something pretty to look at – whichever room you are in! I really like these 2 matching prints from JustinasWordArt on Etsy:
I also really like this playful piece:
Adding Some Downstairs Toilet Storage
Finally, I wanted to add a little bit of storage in the downstairs toilet to keep loo rolls etc. off the floor. I added a small set of shelves as this also provides scope for decorating with plants and other bits and bobs! This is what I mean:
And that’s about it! I’m really pleased with how redecorating our downstairs toilet has come together, the space is so tiny though it’s virtually impossible to photograph – I have tried! Check out my other post on quick and easy bathroom makeover ideas – for more inspiration.
