The Best Small Bathrooms Design Ideas of 2021

Traditionally, if you wanted to make a tiny bathroom look bigger, you’d go for stark white, with lots of shine and reflection to bounce light. While the color white is still a great base, using high contrast colors in the shower or an accent wall helps pull the eye around the room, giving it a larger feel. 

Color can create an impression of flow, or texture as well. Finding new ways to incorporate cascades of ombre color or going monochrome can add another layer of fun to a high traffic room.

Color choices can also help make the bathroom a calm space, especially if you add in zen-like earth tones and spa-inspired decor along with bright light colors. This year, deep moody blues and soft honey yellows are taking a spotlight.

Natural light or bold modern industrial light can shift your bathroom’s atmosphere to fit your style. 2020 has seen a push for natural light in a big way. You can flip tradition on its head by adding a window over your sink, instead of a mirror. Add a countertop mirror, and privacy glass cling for a high-end look with perfect light. 

Bold minimalist lighting has also made an appearance. These lights ensure that the bathroom is bright and you can see everything you need while you use the space. Bare bulbs or stark geometric lighting patterns are a shift to a drastically modern look.

Sleek plumbing designs give your bathroom a futuristic look while conserving water and avoiding wasted space. Tankless toilets create a modern feel for a room you spend time in often. Tankless toilets also afford the space for over the toilet shelving that wouldn’t be as efficient with a tank. 

Minimalistic fixtures in sleek or dark colors play to the mind’s eye for contrast. Exposed pipes in your shower or an overhead shower head that creates a rainfall effect make the space relaxing and beautiful. Deep bronze or black fixtures against a bold white subway tile speaks out and shouts for attention.

Bring nature back to your home with houseplants on a shelf, or a full garden in your naturally-lit bathroom. A powerful trend we can keep an eye out for is the addition of natural components to bathroom designs. This concept adds greenery to our lives, but live household plants freshen the air and keep your bathroom smelling better. 

Try vining plants, like this pothos (also known as devil’s ivy), on a decorative trellis over your bathtub to create fresh living art in your bathroom. You can also research other plants that thrive in the humidity that is common in a bathroom in this post from Apartment Therapy.

Mixing aesthetics has been a popular design concept in family rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms for ages. 2020 will see this trend move into the bathroom. Mixing industrial with rustic farmhouse, or stark with mid-century chic is a great way to give an eclectic vibe without overbearing your bathroom guest with clutter. 

We’re all a tad quirky in our own ways, and this mixing of style is a great way to blend your style with a partner for a shared space. People may spend fewer minutes on their phone, and more time taking in the details if you mix your design components this way.

No one said that your favorite art pieces needed to stay in the hallway. Put a bold and funky pop art piece in your small bathroom to give it some bang. Try to coordinate your colors with the lightest tones in your painting, photo, or other art pieces, and then let the art pull in the focus on its own. 

In the eye of the beholder, all creation is art. Just because you find something that isn’t “fine” or “classy” doesn’t mean it doesn’t belong. The bathroom may be the best place for a piece of art that’s a little more risque than art in your traditional living room or hallway. Put that funky creation in the bathroom, and let it start conversations with your guests.

Plain square or rectangle tiles are boring. Spice up your bathroom with a rough cut, or non-traditional shaped tile. Combine shapes and contrast colors to distract from the size of the bathroom, and focus more on the function of the bathroom. Don’t fear white, or black, or shimmering metallics when you’re selecting a tile. Geometric tile shapes will carry the attention of your guests. 

Geometrics work for accent walls and even for decor items. You can find cute baskets woven in geometric patterns to help organize your things.

Geometric art, and combining geometric patterns with organic shapes creates a fun and interesting visual distraction. This year, honeycombs and similar modular hexagonal shapes have become popular decor trends. Get the most from this trend with fun hex shelves, trellises, and paintings or prints. 

It becomes commonplace to have touchless sinks, self-flushing toilets, and hands-free drying stations in business bathrooms. However, it could become standard in your home bathrooms too. Adding a water-saver touchless faucet to your sink can save you hundreds of dollars over the years with your water bill. 

The same goes for your toilet and shower options. Upgrade the water-saving effects and you can reduce the chances of overflow or accidentally leaving on the faucet with touchless censored systems.

With the toilet paper shortages in early 2020, the bidet saw a surge in popularity in the US. This crazy little cleaning tool has been used for decades in Europe, but it was a foreign concept to most Americans until this year. You can buy and install a toilet with a bidet built-in, or you can purchase an inexpensive addition to your current toilet.

Needing storage is unavoidable, and bathrooms tend to collect clutter. Hairbrushes, toothbrushes, razors, bottles of hair and skin treatments, accessories, bath bombs, you name it, there’s probably a junk drawer filled with it. Clutter makes small bathrooms feel smaller and more chaotic. 

If you want to hide the clutter, you can use shelves to keep it out of sight. Cute matching wicker baskets filled with the random stuff your bathroom collects looks a lot tidier than random things strewn all over the counter and linen shelves. If you don’t have the room for a floor standing shelf, you can try hanging a couple of shelves over the toilet, or in the window.