We’ve all been there: walking into your bathroom and feeling like you’re not at home. More specifically, you feel like you’re staying in a hotel room. Sterile and temporary are the words that come to mind.
This used to happen to me every single time I entered my bathroom. When I moved into my current flat two years ago, it had all the hallmarks of a nice bathroom: white subway tile, ample lighting, and a nice-sized mirror that didn’t distort my face like a crazed pumpkin. What it did not have?
Anything on the walls. Zilch.
Nada.
Not even one sad hook holding up a towel. To be fair, I was renting. Landlord was great about making changes to the flat but I didn’t want to hole up the place when I first moved in.
So I improvised. And you know what? Some of my favourite bathroom hacks were out of necessity.
You don’t need to paint the walls bright orange or permanently glue things to the ceiling to make your bathroom your own. CASE IN POINT: REMOVABLE WALLPAPER. I had pinned this gorgeous wallpaper for, oh, ages.
Rich greenery on creamy-white background. But then I talked myself out of it. You know how that goes.
What if I hated it? What if the glue didn’t stick? So instead of covering an entire wall, I bought one roll (about £25) and slapped it on the wall behind the toilet.
Trust me when I say this one move made people ACTUALLY COMMENT ON HOW “PRETTY” my bathroom was, rather than letting me know they peed in it and left. PRO-TIP: Peel-and-stick wallpaper is tricky and requires a perfectly clean and smooth surface to stick to. I tried this once and ended up with bubbled wallpaper within DAYS.
Take the time to wipe down the wall with sugar soap and let it dry completely. Then, slowly apply the wallpaper one small bit at a time, smoothing out air bubbles as you go. I use a plastic scraper thing to smooth, but honestly, a credit card would work just fine.
The best part? When I moved out I peeled it down with no sticky residue or damage. Ta-da!
Ok, so maybe wallpaper isn’t your thing. Take it from my friend Sarah. She’s also a renter and her attempts at the peel-and-stick wallpaper convinced her it wasn’t the best option for bathrooms.
Too busy, she said, for her teeny powder room. Point taken. Instead, she opted for creating a gallery wall with Command strips (aka those 3M hanging strips that promise to hold your stuff without ruining your walls).
Trust me, I was highly skeptical until I saw Sarah’s wall. She printed off a bunch of vintage botanical prints from the internet (got three great ones for less than £10 total after printing!) then layered in some affordable circular mirrors from HomeGoods. Round mirrors, hexagon mirrors, even one sunburst mirror she found at a thrift store for £3.
The mirrors help reflect light around the room (making it feel bigger!) and the prints add spots of colour. It took her an afternoon and cost her less than £40. BEST PART?
She enlisted her young daughter to help hang, meaning it’s always been a project her entire family loves. Pro tip: Think about humidity when putting together a gallery wall in your bathroom. I learned this the hard way when I tried using printed paper pictures directly from a printer.
Within MONTHS they curled up from the humidity every time I turned the shower on. Now I either laminate all my prints at home or have them printed directly on photo paper. Yes, it costs more, but will also definitely last.
Ok, speaking of humidity: enter floating shelves. Holy grail for my bathroom. I have three small ones hung up with these super heavy-duty Command strips (rated for 7.5kg each).
I keep small plants on them – small pots of pothos, a snake plant, even a ZZ that actually seems to love the humidity in here. Greenery makes a space feel alive and helps soften all of the hard corners. Now, hanging those shelves and knowing what to actually put on them took some trial and error.
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My first set of floating shelves were stacked with heavy ceramic pots and filled with glass candleholders. DON’T DO IT. During one unfortunate evening, I woke up to one of the shelves crashing down at 6am on a Tuesday.
Scared the bejesus out of me and broke my fav candle. Lesson learned. Go lightweight when choosing what to put on floating shelves in the bathroom.
Stash small plants (in plastic containers!) and roll up towels. Or skip the towels and go with apothecary jars filled with epsom salts and towels wrapped around the jars. Can’t hang shelves?
Try tension rods! These are LIFE CHANGING if you have a strict landlord. I have one tension rod separating two bare walls in my shower area that I keep draped with an eucalyptus garland.
Fake ones, btw. Learned my lesson trying to keep a real plant in the direct line of spray. It looks SO fancy and spa-like but I didn’t need to pound a single nail into the wall.
Another hack for tension rods? Use them to hang lightweight art. I stretched some thin wire between two screw points in my bathroom and hung a collection of small prints and photos.
It looks curated and intentional, not cheap like you’re scared to put holes in your wall. Speaking of curtains…mirrors are one of my favourite things to play around with when sprucing up a bathroom. Mirrors are MAGIC when it comes to making a small bathroom look and feel bigger.
Here’s what I love about this setup in my current bathroom: I hung three round mirrors in all different sizes, then spaced them out asymmetrically on one wall. They’re all attached to the wall with Command strips. Much more interesting than hanging one large mirror would have been!
PS, I found these mirrors at a million different places and prices. One was from IKEA (£12), one was from a car boot sale (£2), and then I found one online that was more pricey (£35) but is SUCH a great shape with a gorgeous brass frame around it. Love that I mixed them up!
Sink all costs into matching everything and you lose the personality out of a space. Ok, let’s talk lighting. Nothing makes or breaks artwork on your walls like lighting.
Seriously. Those big, harsh sun-like bulbs that hang over most bathrooms are awful for making your wall decorations pop. Instead, I hung battery-powered LED strip lights behind my floating shelves.
Nothing says boutique hotel like warm glowing lights highlighting your beautiful stuff! Not only were the strips inexpensive (about £20 for two packs) but they last FOREVER on one set of batteries. Ok, so I wait until I remember to change them.
But they really do last and work great! Psst…another colour pro-tip when it comes to bathrooms: they can be bold. I painted my walls (with much negotiating with my landlord, might I add) a dusty pink colour that sounds weird AF but honestly looks great next to all white fixtures.
Makes the whole room feel more luxurious. If you can’t paint, cheat with large swatches of fabric. I once hung an oversized piece of vintage fabric on my bathroom wall using small Command hooks along the top.
Added texture and colour without permanent commitment. Bonus, I took it with me when I moved. Moral of the story?
WALL DECOR FOR YOUR BATHROOM DOES NOT HAVE TO BE PRECIOUS.
Remember: this is a room that gets steamy, sprayed on, and hugged by your most fragrantroommates. Humidity and moisture aren’t always kind to your typical pieces of artwork.
Don’t be afraid to get fun with photo prints, buy posters and have them laminated at your local printshop, or fill your walls with mirrors. Mirrors don’t care about water spots. Oh, and one last thing.
Start small. My favourite changes to my bathroom happened because I was patient, allowing myself to slowly add pieces I loved over time. That botanical wallpaper ended up inspiring me to add the plant shelves, then the mirror collection, then the fun lighting.
It all just snowballed because I took my time. Don’t try to change everything at once. It never looks natural that way.
