Is a wet room a good idea in a small bathroom?

Often the best one. With no tray edge and no door frame, the floor runs through the whole room and a single glass screen is the only thing standing on it. The floor has to be rebuilt to a fall and tanked, which is more work than fitting a tray, so it sits at the longer end of the usual one to three weeks on site.

Large or small tiles in a small bathroom?

Large. Fewer grout lines make a wall read as longer, and the same tile on the floor and the walls softens the corners. Save small or patterned tiles for one wall inside the shower, where they give the room a focus without shrinking it.

Can a small bathroom have a bath and a separate shower?

It can be drawn, but it rarely works. Both end up undersized and the enclosure door fights the bath. A straight bath with a fixed screen and the shower over it gives you both in the space of one, and if nobody takes baths, a level shower and no bath at all is the biggest gain available.

Do dark colours make a small bathroom look smaller?

Not on their own. A dark tile on one wall inside the shower, with plain tile and good lighting elsewhere, reads as depth rather than gloom. Dark tile on every wall in a room with one ceiling light is what people are remembering when they say it. The Beeston wet room in this article is a dark blue grey and does not feel small.

How much does a small bathroom renovation cost?

It depends on whether the layout is changing, whether the floor becomes a wet room, and how much of the room is tiled, so we do not quote from a list. A small room is not proportionally cheaper than a big one, because the stages are the same and only one person can work in it at a time. After a survey you get a written quote with the full product list.

What size counts as a small bathroom?

There is no rule, and the number matters less than the layout. If the door hits the basin, the WC is jammed against the bath, or you have to step over something to get to the shower, it is small enough to benefit from everything in this article.

Small Bathroom Ideas That Work | Goldswan Nottingham

Start with the layout, not the tiles

Half the problem with a small bathroom is a layout inherited from whoever fitted it decades ago. The basin is where the old pipework happened to be, the WC is wherever the soil pipe came in, and the door hits one of them. Before anyone chooses a colour, the question is whether the pieces are in the right places at all.

Some things are fixed. The soil pipe can be moved, but it is the slowest and most expensive move in the room, so a good layout usually keeps the WC near where it is and moves everything else around it. The window, the door swing and the ceiling height are the other givens. Everything inside those is up for discussion, and in a small room a change of a hundred millimetres is something you feel every morning.

We went in with an idea but welcomed their input. Within a few days we had CAD drawings, and Abbie's layout was far more practical and beautiful than our own. We can't recommend them enough.
Vivienne Gonzalez · Supply only

Get everything off the floor

The single biggest change you can make to a small bathroom is to hang the WC and the vanity on the wall. The floor then runs clear to the skirting on every side, and the eye reads the whole floor rather than the gaps between things standing on it. It is also the reason the room is easier to keep clean, because there is nothing to mop around.

Pair that with a short projection pan, one that sits a hundred millimetres or so closer to the wall than a standard one, and a vanity chosen for the room rather than the catalogue. None of that is a trick. It is just knowing what is available and drawing it accurately.

Small downstairs WC with a wall hung WC and a wall hung wood vanity with a round countertop basin, a brass wall mounted tap and flush plate, marble effect tiles and a gold framed mirror — A downstairs WC in Nottingham. The WC and the vanity are both wall hung, so the floor runs clear to the wall on every side.

Fewer lines, bigger room

A wall covered in small tiles is a wall covered in grout lines, and every one of them tells your eye how short the wall is. A single large format tile shows a handful of lines instead of a hundred and makes the same wall read as longer. Running the same tile across the floor and up the wall takes it further, because the corner stops being a hard edge.

The same logic is why a level floor works so well in a tight room. In a wet room the floor tile runs straight through the shower with no tray edge and no step, and a single fixed glass screen replaces a door and a frame. We set out what that involves under the surface in wet room or walk-in shower. Where a tray is the better choice, a low profile one with a fixed screen is the next best thing.

Small level access wet room with green botanical feature tiles behind a fixed glass screen, a fitted vanity with a basin, a back to wall WC and a white towel radiator — The floor tile runs straight through the shower, and one glass screen does the job of a door, a frame and a tray edge.

	Makes a small room feel smaller	Makes it feel bigger
Sanitaryware	Pedestal basin and a close coupled WC standing on the floor	Wall hung basin and WC, floor running clear underneath
Tiles	Small tiles, a mosaic border at waist height	Large format tile, the same one on floor and wall
Shower	A raised tray with a framed door	A level or low profile floor with a single fixed screen
Colour	Something different on every wall	One feature wall, everything else quiet
Storage	Baskets, caddies and a cabinet bought later	Drawers under the basin and a shelf recessed into the wall
Light	One ceiling light and a mirror that came with the cabinet	A backlit mirror and downlights placed where you stand

Sanitaryware

Makes a small room feel smaller: Pedestal basin and a close coupled WC standing on the floor
Makes it feel bigger: Wall hung basin and WC, floor running clear underneath

Tiles

Makes a small room feel smaller: Small tiles, a mosaic border at waist height
Makes it feel bigger: Large format tile, the same one on floor and wall

Shower

Makes a small room feel smaller: A raised tray with a framed door
Makes it feel bigger: A level or low profile floor with a single fixed screen

Colour

Makes a small room feel smaller: Something different on every wall
Makes it feel bigger: One feature wall, everything else quiet

Storage

Makes a small room feel smaller: Baskets, caddies and a cabinet bought later
Makes it feel bigger: Drawers under the basin and a shelf recessed into the wall

Light

Makes a small room feel smaller: One ceiling light and a mirror that came with the cabinet
Makes it feel bigger: A backlit mirror and downlights placed where you stand

One wall to look at, everything else quiet

Small rooms suit strong tiles better than big rooms do, because you only need enough for one wall. A patterned or coloured tile inside the shower, with plain tile everywhere else, gives the room a reason to look good without four competing surfaces. It also keeps the cost sensible, because the expensive tile covers a couple of square metres rather than twenty.

Walk in shower with monochrome patterned wall tiles behind a fixed glass screen, a chrome exposed riser with a rain head and handset, and plain white tiles on the other walls — Arnold. One patterned wall inside the shower, plain white everywhere else, and a chrome riser rather than a boxed in valve.

The same thinking applies to a downstairs cloakroom, which is the smallest room in the house and the one guests always see. Because it is small you can afford a finish that would be expensive across a full bathroom: a stone top, a good tap, a proper tile. The whole room takes a fraction of the material, so the money goes further and shows more.

Bath or shower?

If nobody in the house takes baths, taking the bath out is the biggest single gain available. The space it frees is what makes a level, open shower possible, and the room stops being a corridor beside a tub. If you do want a bath, keep it honest: a straight bath with a fixed glass screen and the shower over it, rather than a shower curtain, and the wall behind it tiled to the ceiling.

What rarely works in a small room is trying to have both a bath and a separate shower enclosure. Each ends up undersized, the enclosure door fights the bath, and you have paid for two things that are each worse than one good one would have been.

The work was completed whilst I was on holiday. The quality is great and I am so pleased with it, it's just how I imagined it would be but better!! It also feels bigger too.
Steph Carlin · Small bathroom

Storage that was designed in, not bought later

The storage in a small bathroom is decided at the drawing stage or it never happens properly. Drawers under the basin hold more than a cupboard the same size, because you see everything from above rather than reaching into the back. A shelf recessed into the shower wall replaces the caddy hanging off the riser. A mirror cabinet holds what used to sit on the windowsill. Where there is a spare strip of wall, a tall unit the depth of a hand gives more than any basket.

Cloakrooms under the stairs are the extreme case, and they are almost always solvable with the right pan and basin. The parts that need thinking about are ventilation and a sensible waste run, not the ones people worry about.

When two small rooms should become one

Plenty of older houses around Nottingham have a small bathroom and a separate WC side by side, each with its own door off the landing, and neither big enough to do much with. Taking out the wall between them is a bigger job than a refit, but it turns two cramped rooms into one that can hold a bath and a proper walk in shower.

Landing before the work, showing two separate doors side by side into a small bathroom and a separate WC — Arnold, before. Two doors off the landing, two rooms too small to use well.

The finished bathroom with a freestanding roll top bath on chrome feet under an obscured glass window, white wall tiles and a dark stone effect floor — The same footprint as one room, with a freestanding bath at this end and the walk in shower at the other.

It is worth saying that the second WC is something families miss more than they expect, so it is a decision to make with eyes open rather than a default. We would talk it through at the survey. The full job is on the projects pages, alongside the other small rooms in this article, and the small bathrooms and cloakrooms pages set out what each service includes.

If you would rather see how a large tile, a wall hung vanity and a fixed screen actually feel before deciding, the Arnold showroom has full bathroom displays, and appointments are free.

Small bathroom ideas that actually work, from the people who fit them

Start with the layout, not the tiles

Get everything off the floor

Fewer lines, bigger room

One wall to look at, everything else quiet

Bath or shower?

Storage that was designed in, not bought later

When two small rooms should become one

Questions we get asked

The work behind this article

More from the journal

How long does a bathroom renovation take?

Wet room or walk-in shower: which one suits your bathroom?

Talk it through with someone who fits them