Bathroom Design
8 Tiny Bathrooms With Big Personalities
Small wonders are challenging to pull off in bathroom design, but these 8 complete baths do it with as much grace as practicality
Thirty or 40 years ago, most houses, even big ones, had a single, modest-size bathroom for the whole family. I've read somewhere that baths back then averaged around 5 by 10 feet — smaller than a lot of area rugs. I know for a fact that my mom and her three siblings grew up sharing one that was barely larger than the coat closet in their ample suburban home. In that era the loo was mostly just functional, in contrast with today's trend toward the bathroom as a spa experience.
Here's the thing: Many of us still live with these little baths. Some, such as those who espouse the tiny house movement, even build them on purpose. Making them work requires an extra helping of ingenuity, and the owners of the eight baths pictured here all took different — yet equally successful — approaches. These aren't powder rooms, either; they're all complete with a sink, toilet, shower and/or tub.
If you have a tiny bath, we'd love to see how you've maximized the space. Upload a photo to the Comments section and give us the details!
Here's the thing: Many of us still live with these little baths. Some, such as those who espouse the tiny house movement, even build them on purpose. Making them work requires an extra helping of ingenuity, and the owners of the eight baths pictured here all took different — yet equally successful — approaches. These aren't powder rooms, either; they're all complete with a sink, toilet, shower and/or tub.
If you have a tiny bath, we'd love to see how you've maximized the space. Upload a photo to the Comments section and give us the details!
Thanks to a console sink with space for storage underneath and abundant natural light bouncing off the mirror, this snug urban bath feels as though it has plenty of breathing room. A recessed shelf below the mirror, lined with the same tile as the floor, boosts storage.
Old-fashioned claw-foot tubs are a great option for small baths. They tend to take up less floor area than traditional built-in tubs and create the illusion of more square footage, because the floor is visible beneath them. A medicine cabinet helps corral toiletries.
This narrow bath, a converted storage closet, proves that high style sometimes comes in small packages. The designers tucked the toilet and shower at opposite ends and kept the fixtures shallow. Graceful sconces and subway tile walls draw the eye upward; a mirror with a Greek key pattern on the frame expands the room visually.
Here's the same bath from the opposite angle. A shower door (even a frameless glass style) or curtain would have chopped up the slim space, so an open shower makes sense here. Wall-mounted hooks and racks provide space for linens and help to solve the storage problem.
See the rest of this traditional New Orleans house
See the rest of this traditional New Orleans house
At roughly 5 by 7 feet, this New York City bath has almost zero elbow room. Yet it doesn’t feel cramped, thanks to a few visual tricks: long, lean lines and a short shower curtain that doesn’t swallow floor space. A recessed niche keeps the sink out of the way.
Large scale can work in wee spaces, as this bath demonstrates. Instead of installing a shower only, the homeowner took a more confident tack: squeezing in a freestanding tub that enhances the room's cottage overtones. The tall, narrow window elongates the wall visually and makes the ceiling appear higher.
The opposite end of the space features a compact pedestal sink and mirror-mounted sconces that free up wall area. A serene white-on-white palette helps the room to feel more expansive.
Tour this 540-square-foot family home
Tour this 540-square-foot family home
A strip of Moroccan tiles helps to define the sink and mirror and gives the impression that the bath is roomier than it really is. The wall-mounted sink is a smart choice not only because of its pared-down scale, but also because it doesn’t obscure the beautiful tile motif.
Floating vanities and teeny bathrooms were made for each other. Although it can be tricky to pull off this many materials in a tight space (dark wood, marble, two kinds of tile), strategic placement makes it work here. The tile on the shower floor blends unobtrusively with the marble, deep gray-blue walls appear to recede, and the espresso-brown vanity cabinet anchors the whole scheme. Note too how the transparent shower curtain doesn't stop the eye, even when it's drawn.
Rounded shower enclosures such as this one take up less room than squared ones, making them ideal for baths in which square footage is at a premium. A slender cupboard in a sliver of free space offers just enough room to store sundries.
Please share your small-bath photo below!
More ways with small spaces
Please share your small-bath photo below!
More ways with small spaces