KNB’s Top Six Small Bathroom Ideas

Use Floating Appliances

Small spaces can often feel cramped when there are lots of appliances and cupboards on the floor, not least because the increase in shadows makes it hard to create light. ‘Floating’ cupboards and appliances help to create the illusion of more floor space and keep the room feeling bright and airy.

By using careful plumbing, you can ‘float’ toilets, sinks, and more. With this customer, we used floating cupboards and a floating toilet to create maximal floor space.

Another plus with floating appliances is that they allow any potential spill from the wetroom shower to be easily dried out, and not create mould under the appliances.

Built-in is Better

If you’re limited on wall space or plumbing points, then utilising a built-in unit can be an advantage. Not only will this free up wall space, but also maximise existing pluming points. This option creates a tidy look, as all pipes can be boxed-in with cupboards placed around them.

This also works if you haven’t got space to hang wall cupboards, or if this isn’t something you want to do.

Bathrooms need storage space and using a wall unit works well to keep everything in one convenient spot, from clean towels to stocks of toiletries.

This example has the toilet, sink, and cupboards built against the back wall, which creates an open walkway and no head height risk for anyone using the bathroom. It also keeps it neat and tidy, and in the colour scheme of the bathroom.

Focus on a Single Wall

When working with a small, rectangular space, some choose to create an alternating approach. While this is an interesting one, for ease of access, flow through the bathroom and visual aesthetic, it’s much better to focus all major appliances on one wall.

The illusion of space this creates is fantastic, especially for otherwise cramped bathrooms.

Here, all appliances were centred on the right-hand side, and the light up mirror was used as a focal point for the entire bathroom. The simple layout benefitted the overall design of the room and was in-keeping with the minimalistic theme.

Consider a Wetroom Approach

Wetrooms, unlike bathrooms, are all level and flow seamlessly. You can have a bath in a wetroom, however, in a small space a wetroom shower is the best approach. A shower creates more apparent floor space, therefore allowing a small room to appear bigger.

The flow of the room here is created by having an open-ended wetroom style shower and using patterned tiles to create a focal point in the floor. Wetroom showers are becoming more popular for a number of reasons. As well as being accessible to all, they can also look incredibly stylish in a wide variety of homes.

Merge Your Towel Heater and Radiator into One

Those who want to heat both their bathroom and their towels will know that having separate appliances can take up a lot of precious wall space that you may not have. For smaller bathrooms, opt for a towel heater radiator.

Rather than hanging your towel over a radiator that may be dusty or dirty, you can use a single towel rail to heat your towel, while the radiator warms your bathroom.

Utilise Your Wall Space with Alcoves

When you are limited on shower storage space, building alcoves into your walls to hold shower products is a great way to maximise your options. Lighting them up can also provide gentle backlighting for your shower, saving harsh lights while you wash the day’s troubles away.

Alcoves can easily be built around existing plumbing, and as they regress into the wall, they don’t add any space to the room, instead detracting space.

Here, the customer wanted a simple yet modern bathroom. These LED illuminated alcoves added a hint of luxury to the bathroom and also gently lit the shower space for a relaxing feel.