Furnishing a small bathroom is a challenge: here are some useful pointers

When thinking about ideal furnishings, you might imagine furnishing large spaces. But your reality may be very different. Amongst the environments that tend to be small are most bathrooms. A small bathroom, therefore, will pose a unique furnishing challenge.

But being small doesn't necessarily making huge sacrifices in this regard: there are bathroom layouts that manage to incorporate a shower or bathtub and still look beautiful, despite being small. Check out the ideas below:

Small bathrooms, but full of character

Even a small bathroom can have character and be pleasant to use. You need to research furniture and chose compact models with drawers and compartments in which to store all your things and to which you can add hooks and shelves. 

As for the look, you can help give a bathroom character by having portions of walls painted in different contrasting colours, or wallpaper. When choosing, you just need to be aware of the brightness of the room and the ease in which future combinations of furnishing will fit in.

Minimalist bathrooms

Often, the best way to deal with a really small bathroom is to reduce the furnishings to the bare essentials, opting for a minimalist style. This mean relying on concealed storage solutions or keeping bathroom items elsewhere.

It is undeniable, of course, that minimalist-styled bathrooms have a particular beauty. Often, they also come with suspended sanitary fixtures (making cleaning easier) - a real advantage in a bathroom!

Small bathroom but with a bathtub

If a bathtub is something you can't live without, first you need to consider the position for it, and then furnish the rest of the bathroom accordingly. If the dimensions of the room allow it, a bricked-in bathtub model can be built, usually close to the window.

Very popular these days, a freestanding bathtub provides a stunning vintage style. Tubs like this will make your bathroom truly unique.

A small bathroom with a small tub, could be a clever way to achieve a black-and-white effect that will not be too dark.

Freestanding bathtubs often have dimensions small enough to fit into even limited spots of the bathroom without taking up too much space. And they are perfect in very modern contexts.

Small bathrooms but with a shower

Even cheaper (and more eco-friendly!) than taking a bath, is taking a shower. And finding room for a shower cubicle will certainly be easier than finding room for a bathtub.

Sometimes, buidling a bricked-in shower cubicle can take up too much space and can feel oppressive: it would be better to resort to using modern partitions - perhaps made of simple sheets of glass - which allow light to pass and take up much less space.

Cubicles can be made of panels without a frame; or a frame can be made to match the surrounding furnishings.

Portions of the bathroom can also be isolated with sliding doors, also made of glass. This will ensure your bathroom remains light and bright.

And when there is very little space, the bathroom can be designed so as not to need a shower cubicle: this is done by using just a shower head. Where splashing is an issue, it is best to avoid using wooden furnishings and rather go for stainless steel and/or masonry solutions for the sink, shelves and other fittings.

How would you design a small but beautiful bathroom?