Have you ever entered a room and literally stopped in your tracks? That’s what walking into my neighbour Karen’s powder room last month felt like. I was over there working on my kitchen backsplash (story of a lifetime) and needed to borrow her tile saw, which meant I got to use her powder room.
I anticipated walking into something akin to every other builder-basic beige bathroom. But when I pulled open that door, I actually uttered an audible “wow.” She wallpapered the ceiling and walls in this lush hunter green pattern scattered with tiny gold cranes. She had vintage-inspired sconces hanging that cast the warmest glow and had installed a tiny vessel sink on – I’m pretty sure – someone’s grandmother’s sewing table.
I stared. She stared back.
I might have even drooled on the floor.
I stepped out and yelled, “Karen, what the f*% did you do to that bathroom? !” She looked at me funny and shrugged, saying she’d got a little crazy while quarantining. Yet despite its diminutive size – it’s probably only four by five feet – her powder room had more impact on me than her fancy living room remodel from last summer. It made me think about why we often neglect these tiny bathrooms.
Clients will stare at you blankly if you suggest they spend money on their powder room when there are finishes to select for the kitchen and flooring to decide on for their bedrooms. But everyone who enters your home will use your powder room, and nobody wants to use a blah bathroom. Do you know how often guests will bypass your state-of-the-art dishwasher as they search for toilet paper in your bathroom?
After seeing Karen’s bathroom, I started noticing powder rooms wherever I went. I walked into the powder room at a quaint ranch-style home I was poking around at an estate sale in Roswell. (If you remember nothing else from this post, please remember I’m obsessed with vintage cabinet pulls.) I spotted palm frond wallpaper covered in coral and navy blue – the sight should have made me avert my eyes but somehow made me keener to look. Palm fronds the size of actual palm fronds cascaded throughout the wallpaper and set the tone for what was surely a circus-themed bathroom.
To say the homeowner embraced the guest powder room is an understatement. The estate sale lady told me three separate people stopped her to ask about purchasing that wallpaper roll while I was in there. It dawned on me then that powder rooms are the perfect opportunity to take design risks you might be too timid to take elsewhere.
Your mother-in-law isn’t going to linger in your powder room for twenty minutes chatting while she does her makeup, so if your design feels too bold, guests are more likely to admire your risky behaviour than grow tired of looking at it every time they run upstairs to brush their teeth. So when we decided to finally tackle our powder room last spring, I wanted to do something unexpected. Our powder room is located beneath the stairs on the second floor of our home, which means it’s a totally awkward size.
I hit my elbow on the doorway every.single.time. I enter. When we first moved in, I stared at sad beige walls and an ivory pedestal sink that looked like it was harvested from someone’s dentist office.
Practical? Yes. Pinterest-worthy?
No chance. The first thing I knew I wanted was wallpaper. There’s just something about pairing wallpaper with a pedestal sink that screams bathroom to me.
After agonizing over options at Sherwin Williams for what felt like hours, I finally settled on a beautiful navy blue paper with a subtle damask pattern and hint of sparkle. The cashier laughed when I pulled it from the shelf and said, “I don’t think that’s very bright for such a small space.” Um, yes it is. THAT’S THE POINT.
Here’s the thing about hanging wallpaper in a tiny bathroom. It sucks. You’re trying to measure around a toilet and sink with wallpaper that needs to match up perfectly and there’s zero space to stand back and admire your handywork.
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Let me tell you, I screamed four naughty words at that God-damn wallpaper and would have cursed much more if my unborn child hadn’t been hiding the words from view with kicks and punches. It took me nearly all day Saturday and most of Sunday to complete, but holy cow was it worth it. Chris actually complimented me too! (And by complimented me, I mean he nodded and said something along the lines of “cool roommate goals” when he entered the bathroom that Sunday.) But swapping out that gross yellow bulb fixture for two black iron wall sconces on each side of the mirror made the biggest difference.
Not only does the warm glow from those sconces make us not look like death smeared across our face every time we glance at ourselves in the mirror, but it also reflects off the metallic threading in my wallpaper and makes the room feel twice its size. Storage was tricky. Most people love pedestal sinks because they make tiny spaces feel larger.
The trade-off? You have zero storage beneath a pedestal sink. Even if you have a powder room, you need someplace to stash extra TP and nice hand towels.
I stumbled upon this skinny console table at an estate sale in Kennesaw and enlisted my handy friend (who shall remain nameless) to chop out vessel sink space for me. The entire thing cost me around $200, vessel sink included. Now I have storage plus counter space to display a plant and fancy-smelling soap that makes me feel like I own a boutique hotel.
Here’s another thing I learned: you can keep plants in windowless powder rooms if you choose the right plant. I started with a ZZ because those things are tough as nails, but recently added this tiny pothos plant that thrives beneath my sconce lighting. Something about that pop of green softens all of the dark drama.
Side note: The mirror I stumbled across at a garage sale for $12. I adore it. It has an ornate gold detail around the edge that would probably look outrageous in our master bath, but it fits darling perfectly in our powder room.
I learned the hard way that light-coloured towels do not work in high-traffic spaces used by multiple people. I bought some gorgeous light grey hand towels to complement my dark walls, and after two weeks they looked dingy – even after repeated washings. Lesson learned!
Gone are my nice towels and in are darker patterned ones that conceal every stain known to man and actually pick up colour from my wallpaper. Sometimes function > form, and that’s okay! So although this project took me roughly four weekends and cost me around $450 (don’t ask about that failed roll of black stripey wallpaper), it was 100% worth it.
Everyone who comes to our home mentions that bathroom. Not the kitchen, where I spent quadruple the amount on appliances last summer. Not our living room, where Chris installed some sweet custom built-ins (although they are rad).
Everyone comments on that tiny bathroom tucked away underneath our stairs. My friend Ashley completely redid her powder room with gorgeous black hexagon tile from floor to ceiling and accessorized with brass taps, towel bars, toilet paper holders – you name it.
While that all sounds simple enough, the combo is anything but basic.
Her bathroom looks like something you’d find in a downtown gastropub that also doubles as an ultra fancy hotel lobby. The secret? She painted her ceiling black to match her floor tiles.
Rather than making the space feel smaller, it warms it and makes visitors feel like they’re purposefully entering a smaller space versus a room you attempted to make look larger by trimming out the ceiling. Powder rooms should spark joy. Hell, every room in your house should spark joy – but we’re working with tiny bathrooms here.
Powder rooms are unique in that they don’t have to cater to your family’s every need like your master bath does, or be as low maintenance as your guests bathroom. Powder rooms are there to WOW your guests. Whether that’s through wallpaper, unexpected lighting, gorgeous fixtures, or even coordinating hand soap, pouring your heart into the smallest room in your house will make guests smile as they wash up before diving back into your crazy life.
Trust me. They’ll remember your tiny bathroom longer than you think they will.
