Designing a narrow bathroom can be challenging if you don't know the principles of interior design and furnishing. Even an elongated room of small width can be made comfortable, aesthetically pleasing and equipped with everything necessary. Design tricks will help you rationally arrange objects and visually increase the space.
The predominance of white in interior design visually expands the boundaries of the room, and the rich blue tint creates the mood Source australianwild.org
Features of layout and design
When designing a narrow bathroom, it is fundamentally important to think vertically. You don't have extra space on the floor to clutter it with unnecessary things. But there are walls right up to the ceiling - for high shelves and racks.
Don’t overdo it with the linear layout, so as not to inadvertently end up with a train car - make a few accents across it. This could be the bathtub itself against the far short wall, a threshold for transition between different colors of tiles, or a low ottoman in the corner.
Round shapes that smooth out the angularity of the room work well - round mirrors, radial corner pencil cases, photographs, lamps and panels of different shapes. Add dynamics: for example, place a large lush flowerpot with a tropical palm tree in the corner. Let it be something unexpected that you can catch your eye on and take your mind off the layout.
Space Saving Tips
To save space, place the bathtub or shower along a smaller wall. This will make the room seem wider. The washing machine can be placed under the washbasin. Make the tabletop from moisture-resistant material. Place a heated towel rail on the opposite wall.
In combined bathrooms it is necessary to install a toilet and a bidet. The space between the shower and sink is suitable for plumbing. Place cabinets and shelves on the walls. Products standing on the floor will make the space smaller and interfere with free movement.
Choosing an interior style
It’s hard to come up with complex design ideas in a narrow bathroom, but this is not a reason to refuse a beautiful renovation! Just choose the easier option, simplify, adapt and take into account the geometry of the room.
Narrow bathroom in modern style
If you plan to combine different shapes and materials, but at the same time prefer more restrained interiors, you need a modern style. Here, a wooden cabinet is in harmony with a stone countertop, bamboo with acrylic, plastic with chrome and glass. It is equally easy to fit into such a bathroom both a luminous shower cabin with hydromassage and a massive stone bathtub.
Narrow bathroom in a classic style
Even monumental and lush classics can be adjusted to fit a narrow bathroom, leaving only the main features. Take simple forms, and shift the emphasis to expensive materials - stone, valuable wood, gilding, aged metal. Molded and carved patterns are a good way to add contours. Use a symmetrical arrangement, but move the center from the middle of the room to the middle of the wide wall.
Narrow bathroom in loft style
A full-fledged deliberately rough and sweeping loft will not work in a narrow bathroom, but it is easy to adapt. Leave the main expressive accents: a bare concrete wall, open communications, an aged heated towel rail. To visually expand the space, use large frameless mirrors. Plumbing can be in the spirit of futuristic high-tech or retro style - it is enough to stick to one direction.
Narrow bathroom in Scandinavian style
Classic Scandinavian interiors use a lot of contrasts and geometry - just what you need for a narrow room. Black ornaments and colored posters on white walls visually expand the room. A strong technique is contrasting “chess” of tiles that flow from the floor to the walls and vice versa. And pleasant little things provide home comfort: beautiful jars and dispensers, candles and handmade soap, bright fluffy towels and a rug under your feet.
Narrow bathroom in Provence style
Provence is very decorative, and of all its diversity, a narrow bathroom requires the most compact techniques. Instead of pillows and curtains - pastel floral towels, instead of large vases and decorative dishes - stands and dispensers decorated with decoupage. Pale pastel tiles will suit the wall, and a light floral pattern along the central horizontal line.
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How to arrange a bathroom?
When planning a non-standard room, we recommend starting with creating a plan for a narrow room. The drawing will help you decide on the placement of plumbing fixtures and furniture and understand whether there is enough space for everything you need.
We select compact and functional furniture
The design of a narrow bathroom depends on the dimensions of the room.
- Large rectangular. The spacious bathroom has enough space for floor cabinets and spacious pencil cases. Do not install furniture in 2 rows on long sides, leaving a narrow passage. The most advantageous layout option is a corner one.
- Small narrow. When there is not enough space for a storage area, use every centimeter of space. Organize storage under the bathtub and sink using special fittings. Install racks or shelves above the toilet if you have a combined bathroom. Make use of space in corners.
The photo shows a large cabinet under the sink
There is no need to build a washing machine into the bathroom, but it is good to provide a convenient place for baskets with dirty laundry. Install them under a wall-mounted sink or hide them in one of the furniture modules - all the necessary accessories can also be found in a specialized store.
Furniture
There is usually little free space in a narrow bathroom, so you have to limit yourself to the bare necessities. You can use compact pencil cases. They are placed in the corner, between plumbing items, close to the door. You can save space if you buy a narrow washing machine or top-loading appliances.
Which plumbing equipment to choose
For narrow bathrooms, a wide range of sanitary ware is produced to save space.
Wall-mounted, compact and corner floor-standing toilets
Wall-mounted models are characterized by compactness and reliability. They are designed for weights of 350 kg and above. To install such models, you will need a special system with a metal frame, fastening, and a flush tank built into the wall.
Bidet and toilet - designer models
Narrow pedestal sinks, corner sinks, built into a chest of drawers or cabinets
In tight spaces, you can use bowl-shaped sinks or a lily pad to be installed above the washing machine.
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Set of mini-machine gun and sink. Many manufacturers offer similar “duets” for compact spaces.
Baths
The choice in this category of plumbing items is very large. If the room is quite long and not too narrow, as an option, you can consider large rectangular or oval bathtubs 170–200 cm long, 70, 75, 80, 86, 100 cm wide, or medium-length baths 150–160 cm, 70–75 wide cm.
Models with a width of 60 cm are rare. For very narrow rooms, sit-in bathtubs 100-140 cm long are purchased, which are often placed along the width of the room against the wall.
How designers use narrow spaces
Stylish design of narrow bathrooms
Design of a narrow bathroom in green tones
Asymmetrical corner models allow you to use a long bath even in a small room. For example, with a bathtub length of 150 cm, the length of the bowl can reach 180 cm. If space does not allow using this option, you can purchase a smaller asymmetrical model with a bowl narrowed on one side.
Corner asymmetrical bowl for the bathroom
The length of the round bowl is from 120 cm. They are installed at a distance of 50-70 cm from the wall.
Copper bath in loft style
Shower corner
Instead of a bath, you can install a rectangular or corner shower:
- Open models . These are structures without a ceiling. On two or three sides they are limited by the walls of the room, on the rest - by slats or cubicle doors. They are installed on the floor or pallet.
- Closed showers, hydromassage, hydromassage with bathtub boxes. There are many models in this group with different functions.
Open shower design
Hydromassage box with sauna
If there is not enough space for a shower corner and a bathtub, you can purchase a bathtub combined with a shower cabin.
Bath combined with shower
Another option for a combined bath
Color spectrum
In order not to go wrong with the decoration of any non-standard room, take any shade of white or beige as a basis. You can dilute the interior with colored decorations and accessories - they will immediately enliven a dull room. Light shades of blue and green give a feeling of freshness, lightness and space, and a little yellow will make the room warmer.
Materials and design
All materials in the bathroom must be extremely durable and moisture resistant. Especially in a narrow room where you essentially don’t even have a far corner. Tiles, washable paint and suspended ceilings are your main friends in finishing.
Floor finishing
Designers often recommend laying coverings with rectangular patterns on the floors of narrow rooms. Moreover, the texture should be strictly perpendicular to the walls - and then it visually moves them apart. For example, pay attention to the tiles, stylized as wooden boards - this is both practical and impressive!
Wall decoration
Paint the walls and ceiling the same color - this greatly affects the perception of space. This way, clear boundaries are erased and the room seems more spacious and square. Furniture of the same shade or with a difference of 1-2 tones will help enhance the effect.
As an option, short walls can be painted in darker colors or even make one of them a bright accent. Only then should it be a rich and deep color - blue, green or purple.
A bold trick is to cover one accent wall with photo wallpaper, especially since they are quite appropriate in the bathroom. For a short wall, choose the flattest possible pattern that will visually limit the space. And for long ones - images with a pronounced perspective, which seem to go into depth.
Ceiling design
Stretch ceilings made of PVC sheets feel best in a damp, warm bathroom. Be careful with gloss: it gives a feeling of volume upward, but in an elongated room it may seem even narrower. Pay attention to matte and satin ceilings, especially since there are no streaks or traces of water splashes left on them.
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Choosing a finish for a narrow bathroom
When choosing a color scheme in the design of a narrow bathroom, the main thing is not to forget one rule: dark colors should be at the bottom, and light colors at the top.
The easiest and most affordable finishing option would be laying ceramic tiles. For a small room, you should choose tiles that are not very dark, but preferably lighter, spring tones.
Less aggressive, red shades. Dark shades are acceptable in small elements and patterns.
If the decision is made in favor of painting the walls, then to visually expand the bathroom, you can use narrow horizontal stripes.
Small decorative elements on the walls in the form of a mosaic will also help expand the space. In the modern design of narrow bathrooms, photo printing is popular.
The drawings depicted on it, which lead the eye into the distance, are an excellent option for narrow rooms. The most advantageous colors will be blue and light gray. You should not choose dark or bright shades.
For the floor, you can choose tiles with geometric patterns. A triangular ornament will visually lengthen the floor, the wide side of which will be at the entrance, and the corner closer to the wall.
Square and rectangular patterns on the floor will help expand the space. Floor tiles should be laid diagonally.
To finish the ceiling of a narrow bathroom, you can use plastic or plasterboard panels laid transversely to the entrance.
A good solution for the bathroom would be moisture-resistant liquid wallpaper. With their help you can also expand the space if the structure of the wallpaper is not large.
Floor
Due to the small area, the flooring in the bathroom has a significant impact on how the interior as a whole will look. Light tiles, translucent self-leveling flooring, and monochromatic gloss seem to illuminate the bathroom from below, adding volume to it.
To avoid the “corridor” effect, a narrow room can be divided into zones: lay small mosaics next to the toilet and/or sink, and larger elements of similar colors along the bathtub, or vice versa. It is better to choose square, 6- or 8-gonal tiles.
To expand the space, it is recommended to lay them diagonally in diamond shapes. Large drawings and noticeable contrasts are very undesirable (unless they serve as a distinction). Floor tiles should be larger in size than wall tiles.
Walls
When decorating the walls of a narrow bathroom, you should adhere to a calm palette and smooth halftones. The cramped the room, the smaller the tiles needed for cladding. A light glossy surface, horizontal borders, and large mirrors will help to visually “open up” narrow walls. A bathroom that is too long can be zoned using different finishing options - different colors, shapes, materials.
In addition to glazed ceramics, sea pebbles, plastic panels, vinyl photo wallpaper (excellent if with a perspective or panoramic view), brick, and decorative stone are suitable as wall coverings. It is desirable that these materials look natural and do not attract too much attention.
Ceiling
From a practical and aesthetic point of view, one of the best ways to finish a bathroom ceiling is a stretch PVC film. It can be glossy, with a slight pearl or silk shine, a light matte texture, and if the rest of the interior allows it, then with photo printing. For example, a realistic image of green branches, sun rays against the sky or a night scene with constellations, if there is internal lighting, may well imitate a real window in the ceiling.
Bath or shower?
It is better to install the bathtub itself in a narrow bathroom along a short wall - it will become that saving horizontal line. Instead of decorative legs, lay the bowl with tiles to visually weigh it down and create a podium effect. Corner, oval and curly models are beautiful, but are unlikely to fit in a narrow bathroom.
Steel makes noise and cools quickly, but is cheap, while artificial stone is significantly more expensive, but has almost no disadvantages. Acrylic is best suited for casting complex shapes, but its surface is sensitive to mechanical damage. Cast iron is practically immortal and holds heat better than anyone else, but such bathtubs are very heavy with all the attendant problems of transportation and installation.
If the bathroom is not only narrow, but also small, consider installing a shower stall. Now there are many models of different shapes, sizes and with different additional functions - up to hydromassage, sauna effect and light music.
The most compact cabins have only two partitions that are adjacent directly to the wall. Plan the arrangement in a similar way to a linear set in the kitchen - so that the cubicle, toilet, sink, washing machine and cabinet stand on the same straight line and do not block the passage.
Bath placement options
The design of a long bathroom with a small width involves installing plumbing along the wall. However, you can, sacrificing the ability to take a bath while lying down, install a compact seated model along a narrow wall.
Plan of a compact bathroom with a small width Source designdachi.ru Option for arranging furniture in a small narrow bathroom Source dobrynya-master.rf Installing a bathroom along a long wall Source avatars.mds.yandex.net Solution for narrow rooms Source avatars.mds.yandex.net More one option for very narrow spaces. Huge mirrors “save” the design Source cdn.archilovers.com
Storage systems
Use the most compact and narrow furniture possible, especially if you place it along the wall. Forget about hinged doors and pull-out units that take up the entire passage. It’s better to replace them with sliding structures and open shelves with baskets - it’s important not to go beyond the horizontal.
Use corner cabinets and shelving - this space is usually not used anyway. Build a cabinet or washing machine under the sink to save space. And be sure to use organizers, sets of stands, boxes of different sizes and other little things - this will help maintain order.
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Selection of plumbing
When there is very little space, you should prefer the most compact models.
Most suitable for a narrow room:
- corner sink;
- wall-hung washbasin;
- shortened bathtub, shower stall;
- toilet with hidden cistern, bidet.
A bidet will be placed next to the toilet - if possible, then they are placed side by side, along a short wall, and opposite - a corner or short bathtub or shower stall. The sink can be placed in a very miniature size - if it is wall-hung, then you should consider the option of placing it above the washing machine or cabinet. Depending on the size, the shower stall occupies the entire narrow wall or part of it. If the width is two meters or more, then the furniture is placed differently - the bathtub itself is placed along one long wall, along the other - all other appliances - toilet, bidet, sink, washing machine, etc.
The place where they take a shower is sometimes not designed as a cubicle, but is simply separated by a glass partition. In this case, it is important to properly organize the drainage so that puddles do not form in the room.
Lighting and backlighting
The best choice for uniform overhead light is a series of spotlights along short walls. They distribute the flow well and visually expand the room. We recommend abandoning the central chandelier, which will further emphasize the disproportion, and one lamp above the door - this is simply ineffective in a narrow room.
In modern interiors, use LED lighting to decorate the bathtub, shelves and cabinets. This is not only another much-needed expressive horizontal, but also immediately adds to the atmosphere. And be sure to illuminate the mirror around the perimeter or with two small wall lamps - this is practical.
Narrow bathroom - photos of real interiors
Even the narrowest and longest bathroom can be made comfortable. Fortunately, the range of furniture, plumbing fixtures and storage systems has long allowed this. We have collected different design options especially for you - look and get inspired!
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