How to Make the Most of Small Bathrooms

Upcycling Furniture & Home Decor For Dummies

Maybe your bathroom remodel project budget doesn’t allow enlarging your bathroom, or maybe you aren’t in a position to remodel at all. You can still make your small bathroom seem larger. First, combine smart layouts and small-scale fixtures. Next, consider these suggestions:

Add mirrors. They’re great space (and light) expanders when used on opposite walls and even on all four walls.
Cover a window in sparkling, colorful glass mosaic for a continuous light show.
Increase storage by building recessed shelves between wall studs, so that shelves don’t intrude into the space.
Keep accessories to a minimum to avoid clutter and confusion.
Keep window treatments simple, and blend blind and fabric colors with the walls’ background color.
Make a bathroom appear larger and lighter by using panels of space-expanding transparent glass between fixtures.
Replace a hinged door with a pocket door (one that slides back into the wall), which requires no swing space.
Store only the essentials in a tiny bathroom. Keep refills and replacements handy in an adjoining room or hallway closet.
Use glass tub or shower doors.

About This Article

About the book author:

Katharine Kaye McMillan, former senior editor of a New York City-based national magazine, is a writer whose work appears regularly in magazines and newspapers. She is a contributing writer to internationally circulated Florida Design Magazine. She is the co-author of several books on decorating and design, including Sun Country Style, which is the basis for licensed signature collections of furniture and accessories by three leading American manufacturers and importers. A graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, she holds a masters degree in psychology and is a doctoral student in psychology at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida.

Patricia Hart McMillan is a nationally known interior designer, whose interior design work for private clients, designer showcases, and corporations has appeared in publications worldwide, including the New York Times and USA Today. Known as a trend spotter and for clearly articulated views on design, she is quoted frequently and extensively in both trade and consumer publications. She a ppears on TV and talk radio. A prolific writer, she is coauthor and author of seven books on interior design and decoration, with Sun Country Style signature collections of furniture based on two books. She has taught decorating courses at several colleges and conducted numerous seminars across the U.S. She is decorating editor for Christian Woman Magazine and reports on design trends for The Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune newspaper based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She has been editor-in-chief of two publications and was head of a New York City-based public relations firm representing some of the most prestigious names in home furnishing and building products. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with a minor in art history (with an emphasis in architecture), from the State University of New York (New Paltz). She was awarded a certificate from The New York School of Interior Design.