My bathroom is small. Like, really small. So small that if The Scientist and I want to brush our teeth at the same time, one of us has to stand in the hallway.

One might think that this wee bathroom is a throwaway, but NO! It can be fabulous, even in a rental! So let’s make it better, shall we?

In teensy spaces you need to remember the following rules:

1. Take every opportunity to add texture.
2. Get creative and add storage.
3. Make sure your colors are cohesive.

Since there’s no room for lots of furniture or much of anything to add visual interest, a tiny room BEGS for texture and pattern. If I owned my condo I would without question tile the entire wall, floor to ceiling, in something shiny to reflect light in the small, dark space. (Mother of pearl, anyone?) But since I am but a lowly renter I must stick to paint and creativity. To add some texture and pattern I went for a bold, graphic shower curtain in black and white and added a silk Oriental rug on the floor. Who says you need fluffy bathmats all over the place just because it’s a bathroom? Treat your bathroom like any other room and make it special!

Bathrooms never seem to have enough storage. This is especially true in small, rental unit bathrooms. Get creative and look to the walls. The first thing that comes to mind for most people is to buy an etagere for behind the toilet, but there are lots of ways you can add bathroom storage without those. I chose a vintage grape crate from a winery in California to add storage, texture, AND visual interest to the space, and it was very easy to hang on the wall. A few screws and anchors and then MAGIC.

Finally, you need to make sure the space is cohesive. If you have too many things in too many styles, suddenly your 25 sq ft bathroom can double as a torture chamber in medieval times. You can get away with bolder ideas in small spaces because it’s a smaller dose of it, but the caveat is that big idea has to be the ONLY big idea, and everything else needs to follow along with it. To make my bathroom more cohesive I painted the 70’s wood medicine cabinet white so it didn’t stick out in a bad way, and I kept all the art in black frames so it wouldn’t look too cluttered. Black frames with white mats also plays well with the black and white shower curtain. I painted the walls in a toned down version of the minty color carried up from downstairs and, with the pop of red from the rug, the space is suddenly both functional and interesting while still blending with the rest of the apartment! #winning

So much better, don’t you think?

Sources:

Shower curtain: TJ Maxx

Rug: India

Wooden crate: Etsy

Bath towels: Turkey

Hand towels: Restoration Hardware

Glass knob: Amazon

Frames: IKEA, Target, and custom