Design Ideas for Making a Small Bathroom Feel Elegant and Refined

We know a thing or two about designing bathrooms, we’ve seen them all, from the teeny tiny pre-war NYC bathrooms that are in the “staff” room (barely larger than an airplane bath), the popular 5’x8’ bath, to the spacious primary bath, and the grande dame mansion baths of the Hamptons…so we’re sharing our tips on optimizing space and aesthetics, to elevate your bathroom. You’ll want to bookmark these for your next bathroom renovation.

Substitute a shower for a tub.

If you don’t use bath tubs often, don’t be afraid of getting rid of a tub. Walk-in showers are practical and open up your space instantly. In apartments that we are renovating, we usually recommend keeping a single bathroom what has a tub/shower combo, it’s great for re-sale even if you don’t plan on using it that often.

Interior design by Libarikian Interiors, Photo by Kirsten Francis

We renovated this bathroom and substituted a walk-in shower for a tub. The glass enclosure was key in making the space feel elevated and spacious.

Interior design by Libarikian Interiors, photos by Gieves Anderson.

Float your sink to open up floor space.

An instant way to make a small bathroom feel large is by floating the sink and vanity because it creates more floor space that is visible. This is something I almost always do because it the eye perceives a larger visible floor area. The next best thing, is a pedestal sink that has very skinny base, this also open us the visible floor area.

Interior Design by Libarikian Interiors. Photo by Gieves Anderson.

In the bathroom above, we chose to keep the tub in place and installed a glass shower enclosure. To visually open up the bathroom, we floated a custom marble sink vanity.

Floating Marble Sink Vanity

Even if you have curved or angled walls, a floating vanity can look chic and help you accentuate the architecture of your space.

Interior design by @nazdesignstudio.au

Adding Curves to Your Floating Vanity

We love floating vanities that are placed asymmetrically, have curves and flutes. It’s so much more interesting than a standard floating block of stone.

Design by Atelier Creative Varsovie.

Separate your toilet.

Toilets are best positioned out of the way in a private area of the bath. If you have the space, always put it it in a separate room or add wall for added privacy. But for those of us dealing with NYC square feet and wet over dry restriction, here are some ideas that can help you visually separate the toilet when you can’t put it in it’s own room.

Design by Shift Interiors, Photo by Chris Shepherd.

Simple oak planks installed on an angle provide a beautiful screen for the toilet and make it feel like it is in it’s own private space.

Design by Alina Gordienko.

The screen can be made out of anything really… frosted glass is a popular choice, so it constructing a “knee” wall (a wall that goes half way up)..but we love unexpected materials like seen in the image above, using a large scale weave in a wood frame.

Add a wide shower niche.

A wide shower nice, all across the longest wall of your shower make the shower feel more spacious, and you can integrate lighting into the niche to make it feel very luxurious.

Interior Design by Grand Johnson.

Accentuate long shower niches with veins of natural stone.

When doing a long shower niche, go wall to wall to create a refined look.

Design by Jean Charles Tomas.

Accent the shower niche with contrasting stone or tile.

We love to highlight the shower niche in the shower and will often mix and match materials.

Image via Pinterest

Decorate Your Bathroom with Borders

Anyone whose renovated a bath with us knows how much respect we have for tile borders on the floor. Adding a white tile border around the floor elevates the bathroom design, making it feel elegant. We love borders on pretty much any surface!

Interior Design by Libarikian Interiors. Photo by Gieves Anderson.

We added an accent white Thassos marble tile border to this shower clad in Lilac Marble tile.

Interior Design by Libarikian Interiors. Photo by Kirsten Francis.

Adding a thin white border to a wall of large 24x24 carrara marble tiles elevates the shower area in our client’s guest bathroom.

Add Panel Moulding Instead of Tile to Your Bathroom Walls

Interior Design by Libarikian Interiors, Photo by Kirsten Francis.

Panel moulding is a great option for your bathroom walls instead of using tile. It gives your bathroom a very elevated look without having to add many other details.

If you love these ideas and want to see more, send us a note! We love seeing how our readers implement new design ideas.