First off, that little cabinet I added to the wall a couple of years ago? It’s still my favourite detail about our entire bathroom. And I know that sounds crazy – it’s literally an IKEA cabinet that I painted a pale green to match the tiles.
But seriously, it made such a difference to how functional our *super tiny* bathroom is. Prior to adding that cabinet, things were just… messy. Okay so most people only really think of bathroom furniture in terms of the vanity itself.
And maybe if you’re feeling indulgent, one of those big mirrored cabinets. But ever since I realised there was SO MUCH more you could do with bathroom furniture, I began looking around at other peoples bathrooms.
Whenever Amara was a newborn, and I was spending upwards of half my day in the bathroom – either bathing her or locking myself in for two minutes of silence – I noticed how cluttered everything was.
When my sister moved into her house (and asked me to look after her plants for two weeks,) her ensuite bathroom was beautiful. Marble countertops, enormous rainfall shower head (*we’re talking higher than our monthly mortgage payment. *) – but there was nowhere to put anything. I spent those entire two weeks placing my contact lens case on the side of the sink, throwing towels over the shower door because we didn’t have enough hooks, trying to remember where the heck I put my phone last when I was halfway through doing a number two.
After that I realised that just because something is gorgeous, doesn’t mean it has to be practical too. That’s when I started paying attention to bathroom storage in everyone else’s houses. Do you know how once you really start noticing something, you see it EVERYWHERE?
My friend Saira has *this* towel ladder contraption thing and it seriously looks like it belongs in a spa. I even spotted it in the dentist offices bathroom when I took Amara to get her 6 month cheque up last month. They have adorable little chairs in the waiting room bathroom and I spent way too long staring at it while my daughter got her teeth drilled.
Started with a storage cabinet because honestly that seemed easiest. Ordered this tall white bathroom cabinet online that looked awesome in the pictures – modern, space saving. Fail.
When it arrived it was too skinny to actually store anything useful, too tall for our ceilings and leaned forward every time I opened the top cabinet door. Liam caught it two times before I gave up on it and returned it. The next one was super boring but it actually works.
Medium sized, good depth, three adjustable shelves. About £80 more than the first cabinet, but it’s been storing towels, cleaning supplies, extra toilet paper, and all of the bath stuff I keep buying but swear I will use one day. Sometimes simple really is better.
I will admit, I was sceptical about the bench. Like who SITS in their bathroom? Our bathroom is so tiny that when Liam is shaving and I need to brush my teeth, we’re both playing some weird game of dodge ball around each other.
Tilting that little padded bench into the corner created some room for one of us to sit down AND it’s great for throwing clothing on when I’m taking a shower and the shelf underneath stores my hair straighteners and all of those hotel toiletries I always seem to hoard. Speaking of towels, the bench also helped me solve my towel problem without me even realising it. Before that I would hang wet towels over the hook behind the door and they would never fully dry.
You Might Also Like
Instead, they’d just hang there in wrinkles. Tilting the bench in the corner gave me someplace to fold towels and lay them so they could dry away from everything else, and it looks way nicer than towels thrown everywhere. Where I went WRONG was the shelving.
Hung *these* cute little shelves that everyone on Pinterest was putting up – they were supposed to be reclaimed wood ones, but I’m not even sure they were wood originally. Within less than two months they bent so much that the shelves were actually curved outwards and the glass jars I had so lovingly placed on them fell onto the ground. Luckily none broke because Amara was still in the pull-everything-off-the-counter phase and I didn’t need glass involved.
So I replaced them with these bamboo shelves – super boring but they’re supposed to be able to handle humidity better and were half the price of the other ones. Three of them, at different heights showcasing candles, a couple small plants, and those storage jars that make me feel like cotton ball containers are designed with aesthetics in mind. The key is making it not look like you’re putting on a display – odd numbers work better than even, and by having them at different heights it doesn’t look so structured.
Actually it was the plants that made me start looking at furniture as more than just storage. My spider plant that loves our overly humid bathroom sits on *this* little plant stand I got at a car boot sale for £3. Painted it to match the wall cabinet and now it looks like I had an actual colour scheme planned instead of just “winging it.” Even started looking at mirrors as furniture.
Not just the typical rectangle hanging above the sink, but mirrors you can actually use. Found this cute round mirror at a vintage store for £15 and instead of hanging it, I’ve been leaning it against the floating cabinet. It reflects light throughout the room a lot better than the hanging mirror did, and I can move it around when I want.
Lastly, I caved and bought a rolling cart. Perfect for the little bit of space next to our vanity, stores every day things at the perfect height. I don’t have to half naked crawl under my sink to look for face wash or dig through a drawer to find floss while Amara impatiently waits for me to help her brush teeth.
Everything is visible, everything is reachable and I can simply roll it out from the wall when it’s time to mop the bathroom floor properly. I could not believe how much personality these additions brought to our bathroom. Our bathroom went from feeling like a hotel bathroom – clean but generic – to actually feeling like it was made for our home.
That cute little wooden stool that houses my hand cream and reading glasses. The cabinet that stores all of our cleaning supplies but has cute soap dispensers on top.
Even that towel ladder leaning against the wall makes it feel like someone actually put thought into this room.
It’s all about finding pieces that do more than one thing and complement what you already have rather than fighting against it. I almost bought *this* gorgeous antique washbasin that would have looked AMAZING in our bathroom but it would have fought EVERYTHING else we had going on in our super modern minimalist bathroom. Price wise you can actually spend as little or as much as you want.
All of my bathroom furniture was either from IKEA, thrift stores or Facebook Marketplace. What’s important is figuring out what you need BEFORE you go out looking. Do you need more storage?
A place to sit? Better organisation? A place to display all those candles you never light? ?
Buy one piece and see how much it changes how you use your space. Trust me, once you see how much better a bathroom can function with the right furniture you won’t look at a simple vanity again.
