Want to make a small bathroom feel bigger? Start with the layout, keep the floor as clear as you can, and let light, colour and mirrors do the rest. Owning a home in Britain often means making the most of every square metre, and the bathroom is usually where space is tightest. Fortunately, a small bathroom doesn’t need to feel cramped.
At LKG Daughters, we fit bathrooms in Chelmsford and across Essex, and plenty of them are bijou. Here’s what makes a small bathroom feel more spacious than its floor plan would suggest, and when it’s worth calling in a professional.
Begin with the layout
We always recommend starting with the layout. It matters more than your colour scheme or your choice of fixtures and fittings, because no amount of styling will rescue a room where the door hits the basin. When we plan a small bathroom, we usually look at:
- Moving the toilet or shower to free up floor space
- Keeping the toilet close to the soil stack, so the waste pipe has a short, direct run
- Swapping a bulky radiator for a slim heated towel rail
- Rerouting pipework to suit the new layout
It’s also worth looking at the door. If it swings into the room, an outward-opening, sliding or pocket door can free up a surprising amount of space.
Choose compact sanitaryware
Once the layout is set, choose sanitaryware that suits the size of the room. Oversized fixtures look awkward and eat into the space you’ve worked hard to free up. Look for short-projection toilets, slimline or corner basins, and vanity units with a shallower depth.
Swap the bath for a walk-in shower
Swapping the bath for a walk-in shower with a clear glass screen can open up a small bathroom significantly. If you currently have an opaque screen or a shower curtain, you should notice the difference almost immediately.
Check your water pressure before you commit, as a walk-in shower needs a good flow to feel worth it. We can check yours and recommend the right type of shower for your system. And if it’s the only bath in a family home, think about whether future buyers might expect one.
Keep the floor clear
The more floor you can see, the bigger the room feels. A wall-hung toilet and a wall-hung vanity unit both lift fittings off the floor, while anything left standing on it adds to the sense of clutter. A wall-hung toilet sits on a concealed frame with the cistern hidden behind a false wall, so it’s best planned in at the layout stage.
Use light, colour and mirrors
Pale, soft colours reflect more light than dark ones and make walls feel further away. Large-format tiles with fewer grout lines help too, especially if you run the same tile from the floor up the walls so nothing breaks up the eye. A large mirror then adds light and a real sense of depth.
If there’s no window, lighting matters even more. Recessed ceiling downlights give an even spread of light, and an illuminated mirror puts light exactly where you need it at the basin. Adding to or altering electrical circuits in a bathroom is notifiable work under the Building Regulations in England, so it should be done by a registered electrician. We work with trusted local electricians who can take care of this for you.
Plan your wall storage
Clutter makes any room feel smaller, so build storage into the walls rather than onto the floor. Recessed shelves set into a stud wall give your shampoo and toiletries a home without anything sticking out. A mirrored cabinet is a smart choice if you’re particularly short on room, because it combines the mirror and storage in one. Baskets and other floor-standing storage rarely work as well.
When to bring in a professional
Some changes, like new accessories, a fresh coat of paint or a mirrored cabinet, are easy weekend jobs. Anything that moves the toilet, shower or basin is a different matter. That’s when it’s worth working with qualified plumbing and heating engineers, who can handle the pipework and drainage and make sure your water pressure and heating work properly in the new layout.
As bathroom fitters Chelmsford homeowners trust, we manage the whole job from plumbing to tiling, bringing in the local electricians and tilers we’ve worked with for many years. Planning a bigger refit? Our guide on how to plan a bathroom renovation without the stress is a good place to start.
Call LKG Daughters on 01245 478 111 or get in touch via our contact page.