How to design a compact bathroom

I hope you enjoy the tips and very on trend images our guest blogger, Anna,  has for designing a compact bathroom.  Welcome to Designing Home blog Anna. Do check out the links below for more bathroom decor inspiration.

Hello! My name is Anna and today I am really excited to be guest posting on this wonderful blog about how we can design a compact bathroom without going through a lot of trouble. For more bathroom decor tips follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google Plus.
 

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The bathroom is hugely important to the comfort of your home: just imagine living without a bathroom for a week and you will soon see what I mean! Therefore, it is well worth the effort and expense to plan, design and fit out a bathroom with the best possible products. After all, your bathroom is going to be a high traffic, intensive-use space for years to come!

Fitting Furniture?

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If your bathroom is particularly small and tending towards cramped, then you can choose smaller than usual fittings and furniture for your bathroom refit. These half-size items take up much less space but still allow for a complete and comfortable bathroom experience. You just will not be able to lie full length in the tub!

Shapely Bathroom!

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Rather than simply transplanting your ideal bathroom from your favorite magazine or website, make sure that you fit the elements of the bathroom into the available space of your existing, empty bathroom, taking into account any awkward corners and angles. By all means, allow yourself to be influenced by outside sources, but taking the time to tweak and rework the layout until it makes the best use of the available space will give your new bathroom a professional looking finish and polish.

Wet Room Popularity

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The wet room is a fairly new bathroom décor concept, and it works best in very small bathrooms. Not only do you maximize every inch of available space by stripping out internal divisions but you will be back on trend for bathroom décor fashions! Do be prepared to invest in excellent waterproofing and water tight storage units as the entire room will become steamy when in use, which can lead to damp setting into poorly prepared surfaces.

Go Up High!

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Opt for a tall and narrow décor and furniture scheme to minimise clutter and give you the maximum amount of storage while only using a relatively small amount of floor space. Another idea is to perhaps eschew a vanity in favor of a stand-alone pedestal basin. This will make your bathroom appear better proportioned as the pedestal looks tall and slim compared to the blocky squat profile of a vanity cabinet.

Reflect Large

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Always install the largest mirror that you can find, afford or fit to your bathroom wall! The larger the mirror, the greater the illusion of depth and width, opening up the whole bathroom to pleasing proportions.

Store and Pack it!

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Bathrooms always need plenty of storage, so make sure that you include it from the very beginning stages. You will be pleasantly surprised at how easily you will find hidden nooks and otherwise wasted spaces into which you can fit a small cupboard, cabinet or shelf when you begin to include storage from the design stage.

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I hope you found something to spark your  creativity.  I just finished a compact bathroom remodel which will  make a great next post topic. 

The Tardy Decorator

I can't believe I haven't written a  blog post since May.    I am posting regularly on my Facebook page which is quick and can  be accessed easily as I travel and relax  at my summer home. I don't think I am the only one who falls shy of projected output over the summer months. 

I am also tardy in completing my own home improvement projects. I wrote about my main bath reno last year in this post .  I made all the design decisions and purchased materials.  Now they all lie in my painting studio and have been beckoning for a year.  I joked with my husband, who is the contractor, that the choices will be past their prime by the time the room is completed. I'm already having second thoughts about the sink I purchased.  The new  completion date is fall 2013.  He won't commit to a specific month though! 

I am also re-decorating my guest room which has had nothing done to it in 15 years! It is a deadly beige right now and I've moved my black shaker bedroom set  into the space  and plan to work with a black and white design and possibly one or two  colour accents.    Here are some inspiration pics.

Tom Stringer Design Partners

I love the mix of organic and geometric patterning.  I already purchased narrow striped black and soft white sheets and have my eye on a duvet. I am not a lover of dark window treatments, but this room looks great with the geometric cut on the black roller shades.  There's  nothing like a tidy window treatment. BM Acadia white OC 38 is my choice for wall colour.  Stark white is too clinical for me. 

 

 Pinterest

I've seen this picture many times on Pinterest and I still love it.  It gives an idea of how fresh black and white looks with an accent colour. 

It is so easy to dream up the schemes, but when you do all the work yourself it usually takes awhile to get into the groove.  Right now my garden is taking priority.  I hope the guest room doesn't take as long as the bathroom!

Bathroom renovation woes

Sometimes having too many ideas is just as bad as having too few.  I am definitely swimming in the idea pond when it  comes to my main bath renovation.  Right now  the space  is a product of the mid eighties with white square tiles, gray fixtures and a white European vanity and upper cabinets.

  Everything has to go and we are taking out the tub to put in a walk in shower. I can't stop dreaming up new ideas, so I'm using this post as my own sounding board. Hopefully it won't be all personal and you, my readers, might find my sorting process of some help in any home changes you  have planned.

The look I like:

• overall design more contemporary than traditional
• simple, clean lines, not cluttered (lots of storage options)
• soothing, natural colours  which are not too cool -  warmish neutrals) 
• lots of texture (always a must in my house)
• weathered wood in gray driftwood tones  (a favouite since I was 20 and that's many years ago!) or light to medium wood tones - nothing dark and heavy.  I rarely follow trends in my own home decisions.
• brushed metal finishes, raised basin but not too high
• mixture of tile sizes depending on placement, no obvious/contrasting border

The inspiration shots:

 Dick Clark Architecture

This room is light, airy and has very clean lines.  There are options for storage,  but things could get cluttered because  everything would be exposed.  I  like the wood tone but the small glass mosaics may quickly become outdated. The square tiles are a little too predictable. So I'm left with the wood tone!

 

AMI Designs

LOVE the shape and colour of the vanity.  It has both open and closed storage so it fits the storage bill.  Hubby could  whip this up in several days!  I also like the grain in the larger floor tiles.  Looking good. 

Best Builders ltd

Floor and vanity fit the bill in every way.  Colour tones are my favourite, the wood grain tiles are fantastic and  you could run the same tiles up the wall of the shower and alternate with a small scale tile on the floor of the shower. It's good to keep the same tones in all the tiles used when you are working with a small space.  

 Garret Cord Werner

Tones in this vanity are a little warmer and I love the shape. All storage is hidden and  I'm attracted to the  textured wall and the full mirror with a ledge. 

 Best Builders ltd

 Love the color tones in this hideaway storage (slightly purplish).  This idea could be fitted into the right and left side of the vanity to look like doors.

I first saw this picture in a magazine and I've kept it.  I love the vanity colour and shape. It's very mid century modernish in styling and I have other pieces similar in my house.  It is an easy style to replicate (I know I am lucky to have my own furniture maker on the premises.)

 Claudia Leccacorvi

 I like the idea of using the textured stone as a backdrop for the vanity and mirror but it would work best if you have a defined space between two walls.  I don't. 

Houzz.

While this counter is  slightly too golden for my tastes, I like the layout , cabinets and the space for hanging a towel. One of the things you have to consider when you have side cabinets is how the light will reach the rest of the room if you don't have a ceiling light. . 

 Shirley Meisels

Then there's always white, but all the other vanities in the house are white so.... . maybe not.  I like the storage, the legs, and the wood grained tiles.

I'm getting there...  Stay tuned for more updates on this 2012 reno.