Maria Soboleva

5 secrets on how to visually increase space in the bathroom

Is your bathroom, with its very modest size, a source of constant dissatisfaction and bad mood? Are you sure nothing can be done about it? Nothing like this! A correctly selected design of a small bathroom, if desired, will help to visually expand the space if you use your creativity and imagination. Try turning a tiny room, usually referred to as a “convenience”, into a truly comfortable place. And to help you in this exciting but difficult task, we will share 5 secrets of success.

The role of color scheme in the design of a small bathroom

Even non-designers know that color plays an important role in the visual perception of a room. This determines whether your room will look small or spacious. Are you looking to visually expand your bathroom? Then immediately exclude dark colors, otherwise you will end up with a cramped closet. Your allies are light colors. It is better to decorate the walls, ceiling, even the floor in neutral colors. The white tone is alarming (won’t such a bathroom look too strict, even sterile?). Choose other options: beige, soft blue, sand, milky, light green. Let's share a secret - doors and furniture that match the walls also visually increase the volume. As for the white color, we note that modern tiles come with an interesting corrugated pattern, which does a good job of enlivening the room.

The design of a small bathroom also involves the use of several colors in the design: combine white with other tones, but not contrasting ones, but light ones. For example, one color for the floor, another for the walls and ceiling (light green and milky, cream and white).

You can lay out horizontal stripes of color along three walls to visually expand the room. If you want to visually increase the height of the bathroom, use vertical stripes. You should not use large panels in the design of a small bathroom - this will reduce the space. But ornaments made from light-colored tiles are quite appropriate and can decorate the room.

What should be the light in the design of a small bathroom?

The main secret is simple - there should be a lot of light! In addition to central lighting, take care of local lighting. No darkened corners, otherwise the effect of spaciousness in the bathroom will not be achieved! Experts advise giving preference to “warm” light, reminiscent of sunlight. Then you will even like your own reflection in the mirror more than with “cold” (white or bluish) lighting.

Lighting above the washbasin is a must; it’s a good idea to place a light source above the bathtub as well. Neon lamps or LEDs are suitable for this. Traditional overhead lighting is mounted in the ceiling; soffits will be relevant here. By placing them correctly on the ceiling, you can manually change the direction of the light rays in the desired direction. But illuminating the bathroom from below may seem to some to be an exotic idea and, at first glance, unacceptable. But, according to some designers, it is quite piquant and quite appropriate in small spaces.

The magical power of mirrors - expand your space

The design of a small bathroom cannot be considered successful if you do not use mirrors - a truly magical means of visually expanding the area. Everyone hangs a mirror above the sink, but it is possible, and even necessary, to decorate the walls in this way (the effect of depth is created). But do not place mirrors opposite each other.

Let's reveal another design secret - a mirror the size of the entire wall will turn your small bathroom into a spacious room, at least it will give such a visual effect. Do not forget that illumination of large mirror surfaces is required (for example, with wall spotlights).

There is another original proposal: a mirror ceiling.

It will also visually expand the space, especially in combination with a mirror wall. By the way, such a ceiling is not pieces of glass at all, but a ceiling covering with a glossy surface. This can be a polymer film or aluminum panels treated to create a reflective effect. Mirrored cabinets will complement the visual effect of space.

Secrets of furnishing a small bathroom

You will have to work hard when selecting furniture for your small bathroom. The main rule is to choose compact items for a small bathroom. Built-in cabinets, hanging sanitary ware and corner shelves, especially transparent ones, free up space. Another interesting solution is niches in the walls, trimmed with tiles. This is a great place to store various hygiene items.

Instead of a cabinet, you can choose an elegant dressing table with a built-in sink. It has drawers where you can store all sorts of things, and it looks neater and more compact.

Create the effect of spaciousness - such important details

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Small bathrooms that only fit a bathtub, a sink, and a small patch of free space for one person are the sad reality of standard apartments. Dreams of expanding the bathroom space often remain dreams, but still, there is a way to win back free centimeters even in the smallest areas. Take the advice of resourceful designers and find out.

Wall decoration

When choosing the color of tiles for the bathroom walls, remember:

• The success of an attempt to visually expand the space of a room largely depends on the design of the walls;
• Only light shades can visually enlarge a room, while dark ones make it smaller.

It follows from this that it is more advisable to choose light-colored ceramic tiles. By the way, if you decorate the walls with mosaic tiles, the effect will be much better.

Ceiling decoration

The ceiling in a small room can, figuratively speaking, “press” if it is not designed correctly. You can visually “raise” the ceiling in unusual ways. For example, make it mirrored. If this idea does not seem attractive and practical to you, decorate the ceiling with small spotlights - this will make the bathroom very bright, such lighting will not irritate or tire you, which is very important when you are taking a bath. A ceiling painted like a starry sky might be a good option. In general, rely entirely on your own imagination, and then you will not want to leave the bathroom for as long as possible!

Plumbing

In small rooms, you should especially carefully consider the placement of all items. After all, reasonable arrangement of furniture and details will allow you to gain additional precious centimeters. Fortunately, progress helps restless housewives in the eternal question of how to arrange a small bathroom, and modern plumbing is especially pleasing - instead of the usual huge sink with an unsightly long tap, you can purchase and install a neat miniature sink that takes up half the space. Your bathroom will become even more spacious if you get rid of the bathtub itself, which occupies a good half of the room. Instead, you can install a compact shower cabin.

Cabinets and shelves

Properly decorate the walls and ceiling, install new mini-plumbing fixtures, replace the bathtub with a shower stall - and now your former tiny bathroom has been transformed and visually become much more spacious. However, this is not all, because there are still many details to be filled in.

But first you have to critically examine everything that used to fill your bathroom. Even in a more spacious room, you should try not to clutter up valuable centimeters with unnecessary things, otherwise all your efforts will come to naught, and in place of the free meters won through battle you will end up with a dump of unnecessary things. To prevent this from happening, follow these recommendations:

• Firstly, leave in sight only the essentials - what you use every day. Let the rest wait in the wings in specially designated lockers. By the way, a little trick about cabinets in the bathroom: make several open shelves on the wall a little higher than your usual level. There you can store all the things that are not particularly in demand. Open shelves do not visually “eat up” space - unlike closed cabinets, which are usually hung at eye level. A compact closed cabinet will look good under your small sink. You can hide household chemicals in it.
• Secondly, if possible, install the washing machine outside the bathroom, for example, in the kitchen.
• Thirdly, use the space above the toilet - it is usually not used, but this is a very convenient place to hang an additional cabinet.

Doors in the bathroom

Doors are a great place for a variety of hooks and hangers, so you can free up a few more centimeters for the desired space. However, this does not mean that you need to turn the door into a bulky hanger. Everything should be in moderation, because you need to think not only about functionality, but also about maintaining the “airy” style.

How to visually enlarge a bathroom with light

As mentioned above, spotlights on the ceiling will illuminate the bathroom very well - and this is great, since the abundance of light plays into our hands and visually enlarges the space. If this lighting option does not suit you, install several small lamps: above the bathtub, above the sink, and above the mirror. By the way, if there are many mirrors in your bathroom, they will reflect the light and the room will seem even more spacious.

So, if you carefully follow all these tips, you will end up with a completely new room. Your bathroom will become another dimension, allowing you to completely relax, shutting yourself away from everyday life and problems.

When you need renovate a small bathroom, you'll likely want the result to be a practical space that looks larger than it actually is. There are many different factors that influence the perception of the size of a space, but in this article we will focus on the color of the walls. Is it possible to increase or decrease the perceived size of a bathroom just by using one wall color? We decided to test this using a virtual space modeling program.

To do this, we contacted the company Santa Ceramica and asked her to do several small bathroom interiors for us with tiles of different sizes and colors. The comparison results are in front of you.

So, the initial data: a bathroom measuring 1.6x1.7 meters and a height of 2.5 meters. As you can see, the bathroom is small, the total size is 2.72 square meters. For laying on the walls, tiles of 4 sizes were successively used: 10x10 cm, 20x20 cm, 20x50 cm and 40x85 cm in the same colors: white, green, brown and black. The laying seam was 1.5 mm. We decided to conduct an experiment with tiles of different sizes in order to exclude the influence of size on color, and see what effect the shade of the tile produces for all size options - from small to large tiles. It is generally believed that a light color increases space, while a dark color reduces it. Let's start checking.

1) 10x10 cm tiles in a small bathroom. Which color should I choose?

Let's say you want to lay a small tile, 10x10 cm. Let's compare white and green tiles (hereinafter, the view of the bathroom from the door)

Which bathroom looks better? Probably white, although the difference is not that fundamental. Let's compare with a darker color - for example, brown.

Here the difference is already more obvious. A white bathroom looks more spacious than a brown one. Let's darken the color even more - let it be a black tile 10x10 cm.

Yes, the result is obvious. In black, the bathroom looks much smaller (and the furniture is white and gray, imagine what it would be like without it). Now let's complicate the experiment. It is quite possible that you do not want to make a bathroom in one color. Let's try making the bathroom floor a different color than the walls.

With a brown floor, the bathroom certainly looks a little more lively. But visually, unfortunately, it decreases a little. Of course, it still looks bigger than the completely brown version.

So, if you love a dark color so much, but aren't willing to sacrifice much space, using a dark floor is a bit of a compromise. Here's an interior for green tiles with brown floors

Again, visually the size has decreased slightly. As for lovers of white and black bathroomsah, let's see what happens,if our bathroom floor turns from brown to black.

To be honest, the difference is quite strong. It turns out that after all, dark floors visually reduce space. We suggest you think a few times before installing subflooring in a small bathroom. However, there is good news. If you're a big fan of dark colors and still want to make your small bathroom dark, there's a way to make it look a little bigger. In exactly the same way that a dark floor reduces the area of ​​a light bathroom, so a light floor increases the area of ​​a dark bathroom. Here's an example

A room with a white floor looks larger. If you really want to make dark walls, then if you use a light floor, the final size of the bathroom will seem a little larger. Of course, a reasonable question arises - what to choose in this case? Dark walls and light floors or light walls and dark floors? Let's get a look.

I don’t want to upset those who love the dark, but still, light walls + a dark background give a little more space than dark walls + a light floor. How more contrast difference between two colors, the more obvious it is. Control check - white and brown tile combination:

Again, light walls win (although the difference is slightly smaller).

So, for a small tile (in this case 10x10 cm), it turns out that light colors expand the space, and dark colors reduce it. This rule also applies in the case of partial use of light/dark colors: adding a dark color to a light interior makes it visually a little smaller, and adding a light color to a dark interior makes it a little larger. Let's see what happens with other tile sizes.

2) 20x20 tiles in a small bathroom. What color tiles make the space look bigger?

Let's check the 20x20 cm format tiles. Let's start with light shades: white and green.

As with the 10x10 cm tiles, the green version may look a little smaller, although the difference is not so fundamental. Let's check out the black tile.

The rule continues to work. A white bathroom looks larger than a black one even with 20x20 cm tiles. (During the rendering, the laying of the tiles shifted slightly, but this did not change the essence). Will a light floor make our small bathroom look bigger?

Expanded. If the walls are darker, it will also expand:

How amazing! Or maybe the use of white flooring in itself is so good,that it doesn’t matter what color the walls are? Maybe it’s the floor that will determine what size our bathroom will look like, and the rest isn’t important?

The answer is a bit ambiguous. It all depends on the difference between the shades. If you remember, in the first part, where there were 10x10 cm tiles, we compared an all-brown bathroom and a brown bathroom with a white floor. The bathroom with white flooring definitely wins in size. These two pictures above show a green bathroom. wins the brown one, but not with a huge advantage. This happens because the difference in brightness between green and brown bathrooms is not huge. If we replace the brown wall color with black, the difference will increase. See:

The black bathroom in the picture looks smaller than the green one, even though it has the same white floor. Therefore, if you are choosing between two colors of similar brightness, give preference to the shade that you like best and do not think about the visual effect. And if the choice is between distant shades (for example, light blue and deep brown), then the lighter of the two will make your bathroom more spacious.

Now let's complicate the input data again. Which bathroom will appear wider: green with green floors or brown with white floors?

The answer is even more vague. We think that a green bathroom looks wider, but, of course, the brown one is greatly helped by the presence of a white floor. (Just in case, let us repeat once again - it’s not the green color, but its brightness. In our pictures we use a fairly light green tile, so it wins over the brown one. Instead of green, you could have used blue or pink with the same success). If we had taken an even lighter green, the left bathroom would have won the competition, but if we had taken a darker green, the result would not have been at all obvious.

Enough with 20x20 tiles, everything seems clear. Let's look at something rectangular. bigger size.

3) 20x50 tiles in a small bathroom. Which tile to choose to increase space?

We continue the experiment with 20x50 cm tiles. Let's start with a standard combination - white and medium-light (in this case green) tiles

The white tile won by a small margin. In order not to torment you with repetitions, we’ll say right away that all the darker shades looked even smaller. Does a light floor expand the space?

Expands. The same will happen with the rest of the colors. Now let's do something new. Previously, we only changed the color of the floor, but you can also play with the color of the walls? Who said that a wall can only be one color? Let's put a light stripe along the walls and take a look. what will happen:

The bathroom miraculously expanded a little. So. What if we put in a light floor?

What happens if you put a darker stripe in a light bathroom?

Maybe. It became a little prettier, but we lost a little in size. A little - because the stripe was still quite light. Let's make it darker.

The dark stripe made the light room appear smaller than the light one. What if we add a dark floor?

The bathroom began to seem even smaller. Pay attention to this, this option for laying tiles is quite popular: light and dark colors on the wall, dark floor... If this is not important for a large bath, then for a small one it can visually take away much-needed millimeters. Here's a look at the difference between a white bathroom and a bathroom with a black stripe and black floor:

If you still want to combine light with dark, reduce the contrast of the second color and put a light floor. For example, a brown stripe instead of a black one will cause less damage to the dimensions:

And even lighter - even smaller

In any case, it is also important to consider the size of your stripe. If it's large and dark, it will likely make the space feel smaller for a small bathroom. If it is large and bright, and even the bathroom is large, the result can be completely different.

A digression on the design of large and small bathrooms:

If you carefully read our article about vertical and horizontal laying of tiles in the bathroom, you noticed that horizontal stripes visually expand the space, while vertical stripes stretch it out. There were many examples in the article where a light line around the perimeter of a room expanded the space. There was also an example in the article with a darker line running around the perimeter of the room. The result of applying the stripe, in our opinion, was not clear: on the one hand, the dark color reduced it, on the other, the stripe expanded it, and all together it came down to the fact that the bathroom practically did not change the visual volume. However, the picture showed a rather large bathroom - 2.5x2.5 meters. A strip drawn along the perimeter expands because your eye clings to it and passes the entire distance that it covers. Thus, it emphasizes the size and makes the room seem larger. If we draw a dark line across a small bathroom, the harm from it will be much greater than from the same line in the middle of a large room, since there is no size that it would emphasize. in fact, no. Plus the fact that it is dark and itself reduces the space. Therefore, what is not evil for a large bathroom can become evil for a small bathroom. And the light strip will increase both of them, which is good (if you, of course, do not suffer from the fact that your bathroom seems too big and deserted to you)

Either way, consider the total amount of light versus the total amount of darker. What, for example, is better: a darker bathroom with a light stripe or a very light bathroom with a darker stripe? It seems that in the first case the light stripe should expand, and in the second case the dark stripe should reduce it?

That’s right, but since the total amount of white is higher in the right picture, this small bathroom wins in size, it seems more spacious. The more light it is, the more likely it is that your bathroom will look bigger.

Now let's move on to larger tiles

4) Tiles 40.5x80 cm in a small bathroom. Which color should I choose?

Many people are afraid to lay large tiles in small spaces. Whether this can be done or not, and what the effect will be, we will consider in a separate article. Now let's just look at the color.

The initial comparison is a classic one. Will the result differ depending on the tile format?

It looks like not much. The white bathroom, as usual, looks a little bigger. Let's check the brown one.

And again, as expected, the dark color of the walls visually reduced the space. Green or brown?

Lighter. Let's check the floor. Will a light floor expand the space?

It will be all right. Want to make your space bigger? No problem: let the light run

By the way, what happens if we increase the stripe size even more?

The more light the better. Visually, the room has increased just a little bit. Of course, our green color is quite bright, so the difference is not fundamental, if we were comparing with black tiles, the difference would be much greater. Even if you compare completely green walls and green bottom - white top, the difference will be more noticeable

Let's add even more white and compare

Again, the more light, the better. The white bathroom wins.

Are you still with us? Time to take stock.

5) Conclusions. What color tiles should be placed in a small bathroom to visually increase its size?

So, when developing small bathroom design, the following factors should be considered:

Regardless of the size of the tile, tiles of a lighter color will increase the space, and darker ones will decrease the space. White color will maximize the visual size of the bathroom. Black color - reduce as much as possible.

If you want to combine two shades of color, then try to there was more light than dark. Also, if you're choosing between which tiles to lay on the floor- lighter or darker, choose the one that is lighter.

The more light the better. The combination of dark walls + light floor will look smaller than light walls + dark floor. which in turn will be inferior to the set of light walls + light floor.

If you in a small bathroom you want to combine several colors of tiles, try to choose light ones(for example, white - light blue, white - light green, two light beige, peach - vanilla, etc.). A combination of two light colors will look more spacious than light and dark (beige-dark brown, white-black, white-violet, etc.)

If you want to let strip (decor, border) around the perimeter of a small room, prefer a lighter shade. otherwise the strip will reduce the space.

Reading time: 5 minutes

Is it possible to use tiles to visually increase the space of a small bathroom and what decisions should be avoided so as not to at least reduce it? We share design tips on how to visually influence a bathroom space and which tiles expand the space.

Carodeco cement tiles, LES GEOMETRIQUES collection, project author Nadya Zotova

In a small bathroom, the choice of furniture and plumbing is already limited, so is it worth limiting yourself when choosing ceramics? In any case, manufacturers are doing everything to prevent this from happening: the range of sizes is huge, from mosaics and small-format tiles to classic 10x10 cm, 15x15 cm, large-format and almost meter-long. Add to this different shapes - hexagons, octagons, arabesques, bricks and squares. Also, of course, geometry, reliefs, not to mention color proposals. So no, you don't need to limit yourself. But it’s worth understanding which tiles increase space.

Carodeco cement tiles, LES GEOMETRIQUES collection

1. Light really expands

There are many theories about color, but everyone agrees that light shades give more space, while dark shades conceal and muffle. Moreover, each color can be represented in light and dark tones. When choosing a tone within a color, choose as light a color as possible - even if it's red, blue, purple or yellow.

On the wall is a handmade Moroccan mosaic Mosaic del Sur designed by Nadya Zotova

Cement hexagonal tiles from Morocco Popham Design, HEX STAR collection

2. Contrasts

Focusing on light does not exclude dark accents. Contrasts in a small bathroom are even necessary: ​​when there is a visual story in the room, it seems larger. You can make light walls, but, for example, a dark ceiling - then the ceiling stretches and lengthens. A dark floor will also not weigh down the space. You can even highlight a small niche or a separate wall with dark colors. If the main area of ​​the walls is decorated in light shades, the space of a small bathroom will seem lighter and more spacious.

Bathroom with Metlakh tiles on the floor and wall in the project of Marina Volkova

An all-white space also needs contrasts. They can be tile joints.

Hog tile Doremail, METRO GLOSSY collection

3. Combinations of colors, formats and sizes

A two-tone bathroom isn't the only option. In addition, such a bathroom risks being too boring. Many different colors and formats for 3-4 sq.m. You don’t need to use the bathroom, but you shouldn’t avoid them completely.

On the floor there are Carodeco cement tiles, LES GEOMETRIQUES collection, author of the project CO:interiors

When combining different tile formats, one rule applies: floor tiles should be slightly larger than wall tiles or an equivalent size. Except perhaps for the mosaic floor. Often, designers combine a hog on the wall with Metlakh tiles on the floor. The difference in formats gives the space dynamics, and Winckelmans Metlakh tiles are offered as ready-made “carpets” and make the bathroom space more comfortable.

The Winckelmans Metlakh tiles on the floor echo the colors of the hog tiles on the walls. Replico Art Workshop project

If you want to add more color or patterns, you can do this in dots. A small bathroom will benefit from different accents. Give an active color or pattern a separate wall, part of a wall or floor - this way the space will not become overloaded and will gain character.

Patchwork on Mosaic del Sur cement tile floor

Popham Design cement tiles, SARL collection

4. Tile size

Tiles that increase the space in the bathroom should be of medium size, no more than 15x15 cm. Too large formats are cramped in a small bathroom, this becomes noticeable. And the mosaic focuses attention on the seams between the tiles and breaks up the small space. If you still want a mosaic, choose a light one; its contrast with dark tile joints can become the very accent that creates character in the space.

Arabesque-shaped porcelain stoneware mosaic, Rainbow Co brand, LANTERN TANGER collection

We spend a lot of time every day in the bathroom, as in the bedroom, and naturally we want our stay to be as comfortable as possible. Alas, Russian layouts most often give us bathrooms ranging from three to six m2. The situation is a little more rosy in modern homes, however, we are still desperately trying to use the treasured squares to the maximum. Today Kvartblog will tell you what five tricks can visually expand the bathroom a little, if actual enlargement is impossible.

More light

Most people's dream is to have a spacious bathroom with a window through which natural daylight will pour in. Alas, such luxury is most often available only in private country houses. In apartments, we rely on competent artificial lighting. To make the bathroom seem larger, the light should evenly fill the entire space, and not shine exclusively on the mirror or from above. The principle according to which lighting should be done at different levels also works here: ceiling lamps need to be combined with sconces, then a room flooded with light will seem more spacious.

Notice how the niches are highlighted with light in the photo below.

Color is important

Light walls and floors are almost an axiom for small bathrooms. Pay attention to Scandinavian apartments, which are approximately equal in area to Russian ones: the Swedes exploit the color of snow with unprecedented zeal, diluting it with bright accents in the form of colored towels, bath curtains and posters on the door.

It is a well-known fact: dark walls cause an oppressive feeling even in spacious areas, let alone small rooms. In addition to what has been said: on dark tiles, drops of water are especially visible, which freeze and leave streaks.

The optimal color solution for the bathroom: a light base (white, beige, pastel) and contrasting accents, perhaps one accent wall or colored cabinets.

Small space - small tiles

The size of the tile and the way it is laid out are just as important as its color. It’s worth remembering right away that the smaller the space, the smaller the tiles should be. Of course, laying it out is more troublesome, but small and mosaic tiles can create a sense of perspective on the wall. And too large a tile will give guests the illusion that the wall is so small that only 10 tiles fit on it. By the way, tiles with a small repeating pattern also work to increase space, this was proven to us by two designers with whom we visited. Alena Stark designed it in Moroccan style and in Arabic style.

Through the Looking Glass

Mirrors visually increase the space in any room, and in a small bathroom it would be a shame not to take advantage of this effect. Don't limit yourself to just a small mirror above the sink. Hang a mirror to the ceiling, as Anya did in her one-room apartment on Dubrovka, or choose cabinets with a mirror surface (you will have organized storage and additional space for self-admiration). There is only one downside: mirrors require constant care. In the bathroom, they definitely won’t be able to escape accidental splashes, so you’ll have to wipe the mirrors more often than in other rooms.

Less e things in plain sight: hidden storage

In small spaces, you should not allow the room to become overgrown with too many things. Of course, in the bathroom there is a lot of things that we use every day: toothbrushes, creams (for girls they can number in the dozens: from face creams to highly specialized jars for dry skin on the elbows or something else), towels and so on. We advise you to try not to clutter open spaces near the sink, but to group things as much as possible and put them in hidden cabinets. Minimalism will create the illusion of a large and uncluttered space.