Tiny Bathroom Ideas : How to Live With a Small Bathroom

Many houses in the UK have tiny bathrooms, and if it is your only bathroom space it can be a real challenge to make it work for the whole family! In our last house (built in the 1950’s) the upstairs bathroom originally had no toilet in it. One had been added at some point, which meant that a bath, sink and toilet had to be squeezed into a space barely 6ft by 6ft. Not enough room to swing a cat! So we had to think really carefully about how we made the best use of space. I have put together my learnings from the experience into my best ideas tiny bathroom ideas:

Tiny Bathroom Layout Ideas

In our case, due to the small size of the bathroom, there was very little opportunity to rearrange the layout – it was a tiny bathroom whichever way you looked at it. As it was our only full bathroom, and we had very young kids at the time, keeping the bath was imperative. Getting rid of the bath and putting in a lovely shower would have made the room feel much more spacious, but we felt that as it was a family house, it might making selling it more difficult down the line. I would always think very carefully about getting rid of the only bath in a house. We were able to compromise by having a shower over the bath; a clear glass shower screen stopped the space feeling too enclosed. We also had a slightly more compact sink than you might normally have in a main bathroom and a slimline toilet too, to save space. Another space saving compromise was to alter the bathroom door so that it opened outwards onto the landing instead of inwards into the bathroom. This meant that there was no loss of space in the bathroom when the door was open.

Our 6ft by 6ft tiny family bathroom in our old house.
Our tiny family bathroom – our old house

Tiny Bathroom Decor Ideas: Keep it Light and Bright

It’s a good idea for a tiny bathroom if the surfaces are a light bright colour. White tiles are timeless and help to blend the bathroom suite with the walls and floor and flow into one consistent space. Interest can be added by a coloured border tile, or an accent colour on the non-tiled areas of the room. As in our bathroom, using a clear glass shower screen instead of a shower curtain is another idea to gain a sense of space in a tiny bathroom. If you don’t mind seeing yourself in the buff (can be a bit frightening first thing in the morning!), then a large mirror instead of tiles behind the bath helps to make the room feel much bigger and lighter too.

Keep the Bathroom Floor Clear

To try and maximise (literally) the floorspace, one trick is to keep as much off the floor as possible. So have a wall-hung sink unit and toilet if possible, is a great idea for a tiny bathroom. This is a trick we are also using in our current family bathroom renovation. Having a wall hung sink (and probably a slightly smaller one than usual) definitely helped in our old bathroom. The more floor you can see, the bigger the room will feel:

Picture shows a wall hung sink helps to make the floor space feel bigger in a tiny bathroom.
Image: Betterbathrooms.com

Storage Ideas For A Tiny Bathroom

When we moved into our old house, there was literally no storage in the bathroom anywhere. I have no idea where the former owners kept their toiletries! There wasn’t enough space for a decent sized wall mirror and a bathroom cabinet, so we had to double up and get a bathroom cabinet with a mirrored door. This gave us a decent amount of storage and a decent sized mirror in one hit.

Image: Amazon.

In the bathroom above a mirrored cabinet provides both excellent storage and a large mirror and light which helps to bounce light around the room.

Similarly, we replaced a small radiator and separate single towel rail with a much larger towel radiator.

Keep Clutter Out of Sight

Having lots of shampoo and bubble-bath bottles along the side of the bath can very quickly make a tiny bathroom feel really cluttered and small. Fitting a small shower-caddy to keep all those bottles neatly stored is very simple to do and they can be fitted even into the most tiny of spaces.

Image above: Amazon

Children’s bath toys littering the floor and sides of the bath can similarly make the room feel cluttered and small. We found a toy bag such as the one below to be really useful for keeping the toys together. If you sucker it to the side of the bath nearest the door, then they also aren’t the first things you see when you come into the room.

Image: Amazon

Everyone has a Towel

Because our bathroom was so tiny, there wasn’t enough space to allow storage of towels in the room. So, we installed pegs in all the bedrooms specifically for a towel. I then bought everyone their own set of towels. We just kept a hand towel and a floor mat on the bathroom towel radiator.

Picture of a towel radiator which doubles up as a source of heating and towel storage in a tiny bathroom.

Coming up with ideas to make a tiny bathroom easy to live with can be a real challenge, especially for a family. With a bit of thought and planning though you can still have a lovely bathroom that works for everyone 🙂 . These are my plans for the family bathroom renovation in our current home, and also some more bathroom layout ideas.