Have you ever attempted interior design and decor in a phone booth? Half bathrooms. Phone booths.
Do it. That is how decorating a half bath feels. Half bathrooms are: tiny.
Closed off. Only contain a toilet and sink.
They usually lack windows.
How in the world do you decorate these sad little rooms without making them feel cluttered? When my friend Sarah told me her powder room was “a small space where good intentions go to die”, I sympathetically nodded. Her powder room had become a container for…stuff.
She tossed a decorative basket in there for extra toilet paper. Planted a sad little faux plant that was slowly dying from lack of sunlight. Stuck one of those over-the-toilet shelves that made the ceilings feel even shorter than they were.
Guests who used Sarah’s powder room regularly came out feeling defeated. What I didn’t realise when I set out to decorate my own powder room is that small bathrooms are deceiving. You think because it’s small you can slap stuff all over the place, but it’s actually the opposite!
Small bathrooms require you to really think about each and every piece you want to include in your space. Trust me, a charming little soap dispenser looks gigantic in a small space. Artwork that looks “just right” in the store will become an anchor in your bathroom and weigh the whole space down.
My powder room journey began with what will forever be known as: the wallpaper incident of 2019. I chose this darling wallpaper with a subtle vine print and cool grey undertones. SO PRETTY IN THE BOOK.
After covering all four walls of my miniature half bath in the stuff, I took one look at myself in the mirror and realised wallpaper patterns that are beautiful in larger doses become severe when you’re inches away from them for 2+ minutes at a time. And that, my friends, is when I learned tip #1: When decorating a small space, LESS IS MORE. Don’t get me wrong, you still want your space to have personality but be picky about what you choose to include.
I took down the dang wallpaper (it took me three weekends of steaming and scraping…let me know if you want to do that fun task for me.) I painted the walls a warm, bright white. Then I hung artwork. ONE piece of artwork.
Instead of covering the entire wall with frames and objects, I hung one black and white photo of water droplets on glass (about 16×20). Doing this made my space feel double the size because your eye only has one thing to focus on rather than a million tiny things. Mirrors, mirrors, everywhere mirrors.
Almost every article I read about small bathrooms told me to hang a big mirror. But darling, not just any mirror will do. Round wall-mounted mirrors that are 10-12 inches in diameter? adorable.
But do not work in a small bathroom if your counters aren’t huge. They don’t reflect enough surface area to make a difference. I had an obnoxiously long rectangle mirror that takes up two-thirds of the wall above my sink.
It reflects so much light and colour that it actually creates the illusion that there’s another room on the other side of the mirror. *BONUS* When you hang a large mirror, don’t get a bulky frame. I ruined the illusion by getting a thick wooden mirror frame that sucked up all the space it could reach (don’t do this!). I had to upgrade to a thin brass mirror that is almost frameless.
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Cost me an extra £75 but so worth it. Half bathrooms are the worst at storage. You NEED storage for extra toilet paper, towels, and/or toiletries.
But you CAN NOT have actual cabinets taking up floor space or shelves dominating your walls. My largest “storage” winner is a skinny floating shelf mounted above my toilet. I painted it the same colour as the wall so it essentially blends into the wall.
On this shelf, I can fit a small woven basket (fake grass baskets are for prison cells, remember) and ONE decor object. It’s hidden enough to store “real life” necessities but doesn’t scream: “LOOK AT ME I HAVE STORAGE”. On that shelf, I keep a small basket that contains extra toilet paper and a miniature bottle of bathroom cleaner.
But when someone is just walking by they think, “Oh that’s a cute little basket. I wonder what’s inside?” Hang a nice soap dispenser above the toilet too. Once again, people need places to put their soap.
You can’t have a decorative soap dispenser on the countertop because countertops are sacred in small bathrooms. Hang one from the ceiling! If your sink has a cabinet beneath it, hang the soap dispenser from there.
SHOP HALF BATH DECOR: Upgrade your lighting fixtures. Hang a small pendant light about 18″ down from the ceiling. This creates more ambient light for when you’re washing your hands + it mimics the vibe of sitting at a cute restaurant.
You’ll also want this pendant light to provide direct light on your mirror so everyone who uses it thinks you have amazing lighting (lies, but they don’t need to know that)! I hired an electrician to change this fixture for me (cost me about £120), but you should definitely be able to do this yourself if you’re handy. Place one plant in the corner of your half bath.
If you’re lucky enough to have a window, a few fake flowers will cheer up the space. If you’re like me and have 0 natural light, stick to architectural plants that can handle low lighting and don’t have lots of intricate flowers and vines. Snake plants are my jam.
They don’t take up a ton of room and they don’t die on me. win. win. Choose your colours wisely. Bathrooms are a GREAT way to experiment with different colours that you might not otherwise use in your home.
BUT…small spaces like half baths can get overwhelming if you choose the wrong colour. After painting my mum’s half bath a deep blue (she saw it in a magazine and loved it), we quickly realised how that dark colour made her tiny bathroom feel like we squeezed it into a jewellery box.
We ended up painting over it with a warm grey with a hint of blue still in it.
Add finishing touches. Meaning, add a few decorations that have some physical weight but aren’t huge. A candle, pretty soap dispenser, small vase with one stem of flower.
Your entire space doesn’t have to match and be symmetrical like a perfect snowflake. But if you bring something into your half bath, it should look like you meant to leave it there. I toss a cute dish towel in a brass towel ring next to my sink instead of hanging an actual hand towel.
It instantly looks cleaner and takes up less visual clutter. Pro tip: Hang your towel ring on your vanity cabinet instead of the wall. That way you keep your walls looking streamlined.
Trust me when I say my friends and family think my powder room is bigger than it is. And that, friends, is all we can ask for when decorating these tiny spaces.
