Room of the Day: A Small Bath With Big Ideas and a Bold Look
Geometry and color make this child-friendly space come alive
Mary Jo Bowling
June 17, 2015
Houzz Contributor; writer, reader, serial remodeler.
Before the remodel of this home, this small, basement bathroom seemed to be an afterthought. “Previous owners had done the bare minimum for this room,” says interior designer Rachel Seldin of Seldin Design Studios. “And it was a watered-down brown color, so it was pretty grim and uninspiring.” Since the bath is adjacent to a playroom, it would obviously be kid territory, so Seldin knew uninspiring wouldn’t do. She transformed the awkward space with strong doses of color and pattern.
Room at a Glance
Who uses this room: A boy and a girl
Location: Mill Valley, California
Size: 40 square feet (3.7 square meters)
This room is shoehorned in the basement, and Seldin was charged with giving it a cosmetic makeover. Besides the small size and the muddy color palette, the first things she noticed were the room’s angles. The foundation had created a ledge that ran across the room from the floor to the bottom of the windows, and a soffit made for a unique angular ceiling plane. The designer decided a highly patterned, brightly colored wallpaper could take care of the major problems.
“I couldn’t disagree more with designers who think patterned wallpapers or dark wall colors make a room feel too busy or smaller,” she says. “In this room I think the pattern blurs the boundaries of the room and hides the angles.”
She made the wallpaper bathroom-ready by having it coated with a polyurethane sealer to protect it from steam and spills.
Wallpaper: Squiggle by Vivienne Westwood, Cole & Son
Who uses this room: A boy and a girl
Location: Mill Valley, California
Size: 40 square feet (3.7 square meters)
This room is shoehorned in the basement, and Seldin was charged with giving it a cosmetic makeover. Besides the small size and the muddy color palette, the first things she noticed were the room’s angles. The foundation had created a ledge that ran across the room from the floor to the bottom of the windows, and a soffit made for a unique angular ceiling plane. The designer decided a highly patterned, brightly colored wallpaper could take care of the major problems.
“I couldn’t disagree more with designers who think patterned wallpapers or dark wall colors make a room feel too busy or smaller,” she says. “In this room I think the pattern blurs the boundaries of the room and hides the angles.”
She made the wallpaper bathroom-ready by having it coated with a polyurethane sealer to protect it from steam and spills.
Wallpaper: Squiggle by Vivienne Westwood, Cole & Son
Kids use this room, and where you have children, you generally have colorful accessories like toothbrushes, barrettes and hair elastics. To keep the room from looking too cluttered when these elements were introduced, Seldin accented it with pops of bright colors: orange, yellow, green and pink.
Towel rack: Cost Plus World Market; towel hooks: Room & Board
Towel rack: Cost Plus World Market; towel hooks: Room & Board
A storage cubby is orange-red, and the hooks around the room are an array of colors.
By tiling the ledge created by the foundation, the designer provided something of a secondary countertop. “I have never liked putting things on a painted surface,” she says. “The tile makes it no problem to put bottles or damp towels here.”
Tile: Ceramic Tile Design
Tile: Ceramic Tile Design
Put together, the new elements bring fluid movement and a whimsical nature to the room. “I think it fits the personality of the kids who use it,” Seldin says.
See more Rooms of the Day
See more Rooms of the Day
Dream Baths is a complete design-build-remodel firm located in the Historical German Village area of downtown... Read More
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We love, love , love it.
Our position is that a bold and fun decor in a tiny bath takes the emphasis off the smallness and makes the whole experience of being in such a tight space FUN. With your design one would forget completely that it is a basement and that it is little.
And also since the time spend in a half-bath is minimal, why not go all out and create a dynamic impression as you have with your clever choices. Love the wallpaper and great use of space.
Below as some other examples of small bathrooms with a fun aspect. One of our NYC clients did this tiny bath with a dynamic floor. (Imagine it with some accessories):
A Chicago couple used a fun pattern in a little half-bath in their loft (below). Note the cute sign on the door !
And lastly, this little half bath in a office building has so much character, no one notices the room size. But it gets a lot of oooh's and oz when people see it.
...Lundy
thank you for your thoughts!
I like the blue tile, it is fun and clean looking!