Ever walked into your pint-sized bathroom at 7AM half asleep and glanced at yourself in the mirror only to see rectangles of unforgiving shadows thrown by the recessed bulb and think “man, this feels like a cave”? I used to blame the square footage. Turns out I was mostly just painting it wrong.
My first studio flat featured a bathroom the size of…well, a larger airplane bathroom. Okay, fine, a little exaggeration. But only slight.
The previous occupant had painted the room and ceiling what I can generously describe as “hospital beige” and it absorbed any ounce of light that managed to squeeze through the frosted window. I suffered for six months before taking matters into my own hands…
Literally.
I bought some sample pots of paint and gave desperate some-Dan-really-pushes-himself-on-weekends-ing. Here’s what I discovered. Hint: it wasn’t white.
And it changed the way I paint small rooms forever. You’ve heard it before. You’ll hear it again.
When painting small bathrooms, go white. All. The.
Way. White. It’s been beaten into design-blog writer’s skulls so often, we can’t write about painting tiny bathrooms without mentioning it.
BUT WHITE DOES NOT JUST EQUAL WHITE. There are literally forty-seven different shades of white that can paint your small bathroom and most of them will leave it feeling more clinic than cloud. I tried three “safe” whites before I realised this.
The first shade looked grey in the morning and gave me the pale look of death whenever I woke up to brush my teeth. The second shade had yellow tones that clashed horribly with my brushed chrome fixtures. And the third shade?
Was actually fine, but so bright it made me feel cold even in the summer. The game changer for me was forgetting about “trying to make my bathroom look bigger” and started focusing on how I wanted my bathroom to make me feel. Think about it.
When you’re getting ready to face the day or maybe taking a relaxing bath after a long one, who cares if your bathroom looks huge? You care about how it makes you feel. I settled on a warm white that my paint chart labelled “Moonbeam”.
It was creamy and muted with just enough colour that the bathroom didn’t scream PEOPLE LIVE HERE BUT WE NEVER USE IT. The transformative effect was immediate. The room didn’t necessarily look “bigger”, but it felt airy instead of clinical.
Natural light gleamed off of the walls and ceiling. Artificial light no longer threw harsh shadows that made the room feel like a prison cell. Here’s the thing though.
The colour wasn’t magical on its own. Sure, it was light. Sure, it reflected the natural and artificial light we subjected it to beautifully.
But it also paired beautifully with my shiny chrome fixtures. That’s the part most blogs won’t tell you: when dealing with small spaces, every decision has to enhance the other decisions. Cool toned whites (think blue or grey undertones) are fantastic for making spaces look larger, but will clash badly with warm toned fixtures.
Brass, gold, and brown will never look good against blue-grey toned whites. If you’ve got all chrome, brushed nickel, or modernity-for-modernity’s sake fixtures? Cool whites are your best bet.
They impart a crisp, clean feeling that works wonders in tight spaces. I painted my friend’s bathroom “Glacier” last spring and it worked wonders with the silver-blue undertones. Her new shower fixtures, also silver-blue, suddenly looked purposeful and expensive rather than…cheaply matched.
Warm toned whites are better for baths with gold, brass, or wooden accents. Gold fixtures tend to lose their “ richness” when paired with blue-grey whites, but will still shine off of a creamy white. You don’t want to go too warm though, or you’ll lose the openness that a warm white can provide.
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Pale grey. Yep. Grey.
Grey is the colour I would have never, in a million years dreamed would work in a small bathroom. But holy crap does it ever. I have pale grey walls in my current place and it’s been one of my best choices to date.
The grey I chose has almost blue undertones to it. Like looking at fog kinda blue. It gives the room more depth than a plain white can and still feels mature without being…well, grey.
The key to grey is making sure it’s pale enough to reflect the light, but not so washed-out that it looks like you cheaply painted your bathroom white and didn’t want to buy another paint sample pot. This took me a…while to learn. But learn it I did through costly mistakes and swearing into my paint roller.
Tip: test your paint sample in every light scenario possible before you commit. That cheap £3 sample could save you £50 you’d otherwise spend on paint you hate. Stay with me now.
Soft blues. But only if you’ve got tons of natural light. I painted an almost-imperceptible blue (“Morning Sky”) into a powder room last summer and everyone who visits makes a comment about how “calming” it is.
Light blue has a magical way of making walls seem to recede just slightly, giving the illusion of more space. The downside? Bulbous fluorescent lighting will make your walls look sickly if you don’t tune the blue just right.
Bleach your whites separate if you go this route. Dark colours. We all saw this coming, right?
Bold and moody bathroom walls = admirable goal but difficult to achieve in legitimately small spaces. I’ve painted my fair share of dark bathrooms that look amazing in photos and home magazines. But when dealing with a super small bathroom?
Nine times out of ten you’re just setting yourself up for regret. I painted my first flat’s ensuite bright navy blue because I was sure I could pull it off. Sure, it looked amazing when I handed someone the keys and walked away.
But try living with that suckerness every morning. The unsung hero of any small bathroom is the ceiling. Most people don’t think about painting the ceiling at all.
But painting your ceiling the same colour as your walls (or just a shade lighter) really helps get rid of that “feeling” of where the ceiling ends and the walls begin. Suddenly your bathroom looks and feels taller. Bonus!
Now onto paint finish. Semi-gloss or satin finish paint reflects more light than matte finishes. Yes, the shiny finish will show imperfections in older homes.
But two things. First: the light reflecting properties of semi-gloss paint are well worth the sacrifice. Second: cleaning giant shampoo/bathing sauce globs of off matte paint IS A REAL CHORE.
There is no holy grail colour for painting small bathrooms.
What works for one bathroom may look cheap or feel totally “off” in another. Take into account your taps, your light sources, and – most importantly – what vibe you’re going for.
If white makes you happy? Go crazy. If you want a bathroom that looks and feels like a womb?
Luxurious matte navy is calling your name. The best small bathroom I ever painted was “Barely Peach”. Yup.
White with the slightest warm pink undertone. Shouldn’t work at all. Made the room feel bigger than any stark white ever had.
To this day, the homeowner texts me pics of her pretty pink bathroom two years later.
