Transform Your Garden and Home

5 Space-Saving Hacks for a Small Bathroom

25 September 2017

Christy Rivera

Does your bathroom have little space to store spare towels? Do you bump into the sink when you try to take a shower? If so, you aren't alone. Many homeowners are stuck with bathrooms that are too small. Here are five space-saving hacks that will help improve any small bathroom.

Wall Mount Everything

Cabinets, cupboards and freestanding shelves have no place in a small bathroom. Replacing furniture with wall-mounted alternatives such as shelves will free up valuable floor space. Toiletry holders and shelves held in place with suction cups or adhesive pads are a great solution if you are renting or want to keep costs down. Costlier, permanent solutions are glass or stainless-steel shelves.

Could your bathroom be a wet bath?

Turning your bathroom into a European-style wet bath may be an option. Does your bathroom have tiled walls and floors? Wet baths, as the name suggests, don't have separate sink and shower enclosures meaning that when you take a shower, the whole room gets wet. By positioning a showerhead overhead and locating the drain in the centre of the floor, you can free up a lot of space. You can always install a shower curtain between the sink and the toilet if the thought of a permanently wet bathroom seems too much. This keeps most of the bathroom dry without having to install a shower enclosure.

Buy a Cistern Sink

Jutting out of the wall, sinks take up valuable space. One solution for small bathrooms is to install a toilet cistern with built-in sink on top. Not only does this save space but it cuts down on your water bills. Waste water from the sink flows through a filter and into the cistern, ready to use when you flush the toilet. Cistern sinks can transform a tiny bathroom by freeing up a great deal of space.

Recess Your Toilet

You will likely need the help of a plumber to decide whether this is feasible. If your bathroom walls are made from drywall, it may be possible to recess the toilet and install the cistern behind the visible wall. This approach costs significantly more than a cistern sink so requires careful consideration.

Install Wall or Shower Niches

Niches are polycarbonate or stainless-steel alcoves that greatly increase storage space in any bathroom. They are recessed, meaning that they don't jut out like shelves do. If your bathroom walls are drywall, you can install them yourself with simple sealing and tiling. If your walls are solid, you may need a contractor to help you cut an alcove with power tools, depending on your DIY experience and ability.

Wall niches come in a range of colours and styles, some have mirrors and some have doors. Some niches are depth-adjustable, giving you plenty of storage space without intruding into the room like a shelf would. As niches are sealed into the tiling, they don't suffer from the corrosion issues that screws on some shelving systems can. This means that niches are perfect for wet areas. For more advice, contact a local interior design expert.

Share

Search