The bathroom was small. Like, smaller than most people’s closets. I hated going into my bathroom for the first six months I lived there.
I didn’t have to worry about leaky pipes or toilets – thank god. What I liked about showering in that little box was it reminded me of getting ready in a telephone booth. Do you remember how you always have to stretch your arm to reach your toothbrush and your elbow gets caught in the toilet paper holder?
Welcome to my world. I’m not a highly organised person.
Ask anyone who has seen my desk.
But I did realise that when you’re forced to live, shower, and exist in a tiny space; it forces you to become resourceful or insane. I chose resourceful. The hard part is when you have 30 square feet to get ready in every little decision is going to be more important than it would be if you were redesigning a sprawling master bath where you could just spread everything out.
One of the first things I wanted to tackle was my medicine cabinet. The one that came with the flat was this pathetic, skinny cabinet that couldn’t fit anything thicker than a tube of lip gloss. I took measurements (and remeasured because I know I cannot trust my spatial awareness skills at 7 am) and found a nice recessed cabinet that’s about 4” deeper.
The install….well, let’s just say that I now understand why some people pay for contractors. It took me turning one hole into three holes in my wall, but I finally got it mounted. Now I had actual storage!
Shelving. Shelves that I could store my face wash bottles upright instead of horizontal like a jigsaw puzzle. One thing that nobody told me when I was measuring around my bathroom?
You should probably measure your products too. I bought this adorable bamboo shelf insert for inside the medicine cabinet, but then realised my foundation bottle was just too tall to fit! By millimeter too tall.
I still kept it, but now stash my foundation lying down like it’s going to sleep. The shower was a bigger challenge. There was nowhere to place anything but this small shelf in the corner.
It wasn’t deep enough to hold a full bottle of shampoo without it falling off as soon as you shut the door. I tried using suction cups holders. They worked for about a week before gravity took over.
Then I found these tension pole shower organizers that sit between your tub and ceiling. Best decision ever. Mine has three shelves and I can actually reach everything without having to contort myself into yoga positions on a slippery, wet surface.
I never thought I would care where to place the mirror until I moved into that bathroom. The owner had installed the medicine cabinet with a mirror for a very tall person. I’m 5’4” (on a good hair day) so I knew if I positioned the medicine cabinet in the same spot; I wouldn’t be able to see myself to apply my makeup properly.
Instead of going through the process of uninstalling it, I wasn’t that brave. I attached a small clamp on mirror with an extendable arm to my existing medicine cabinet. Now I can actually see what I’m doing when I’m putting on makeup.
It’s decreased the amount of times I look like I black lined my eyes by applying eyeliner during the San Francisco earthquake. Under the sink was basically a black hole where all my extras disappeared. I installed a pull out drawer system.
They’re not super expensive and pretty much require two sliding drawers you can buy at your local hardware store plus a lot ofpatient measuring on your part. Now I can easily grab my back up toothpaste without having to dig and remove every else thing in there first. Which is great because I still manage to buy three extra tubes of the same face cream since I forget what I already have hidden under there.
You Might Also Like
To towel-hook conundrum I had to engineer an option. I couldn’t put a towel bar across the wall in what would make logical placement, so I hung hooks on the back of the bathroom door. They kept falling!
Do you realise how much force it takes for a towel to not autumn off a door? Finally, I found these double hooks that have a slight inward curve. The extra clip catches towels better and now I can hang two towels per hook without them sliding over each other.
Small victories. One change I didn’t think would have such a huge impact was the lighting. When I first moved in, it was this awful, orange toned overhead bulb that made me look like a vampire victim in the morning.
Now I have LED bulbs that you can adjust the “warmth”. Cool light for mornings when I need to see exactly what I’m doing when I’m rushing around, and warm light for nighttime when I’m washing up before bed. I even bought one of those small battery operated light strips and attached it under my medicine cabinet.
When I have to make those dreaded 3 am trips to pee, I turn it on and no longer blind myself trying to see. Speaking of counter space. There was none.
I had to really analyse where everything would “live”. I stumbled across this super skinny rolling cart that squeezes between my toilet and vanity. It may be only about 6” wide but it came with three sturdy shelves and houses all my backup supplies and cleaner.
Pulls out when I need something and hides away when I don’t. The key was finding one that wasn’t too tall so it would fit under the sink overhang. I thought paint would make a big difference in my little bathroom.
Boy was I right. When we first moved in the walls were this gross beige colour that absorbed any light. I painted them a cool grey-blue.
It’s crazy how much larger it makes the space feel. Maybe it’s because it reflects off the LED lights, maybe it’s psychological. But whenever people come over they comment that my bathroom “looks bigger than it is”.
I even painted the ceiling the same colour. Supposedly, painting your ceiling the same colour as your walls tricks your brain into thinking the walls are taller. The biggest lesson I learned?
Don’t try to fit full sized versions of everything you own into a small space.
I switched to travel sized containers for my everyday products and store the big bottles anywhere else. My hair supplies are now in pump containers mounted on the wall in the shower – no more wrestling with bottles!
Everything I need to get ready is within arm reach. Leave the extra stuff in the rolling cart or under the sink. Was it perfect?
Nope. I still bump into the toilet when I grab things from the rolling cart. My husband and I have perfected a morning dance routine of moving around each other like professional dogs from a hectic kitchen.
But hey, it works! More importantly it doesn’t drive me crazy every time I step foot in there. And honestly, that may be the most important decorating lesson of all.
How your space makes you feel when you live in it everyday – not just when you’re looking at Pinterest.
