A Bath and a Half: Five Smart Ideas for Making Good Use of Your Half Bathroom

Many homeowners are easily frustrated by the concept of the half bath—it isn’t large enough to hold all of the amenities, but it still takes up room in the house. While a half bathroom might not be a full-service room, you can still get plenty of use out of the room by getting creative with your décor choices and storage options. If your half bath could use a little help, keep reading to find some inspiration that will help you make the most of your space and start seeing your bathroom as half full, rather than half empty.

Contents

Combine Storage and Style

A great way to make the most of your limited room in the half bathroom is to get creative with your storage. Over the toilet shelving is perfect for keeping things like towels or extra soap accessible, but you can also combine these items with décor pieces so it isn’t strictly storage. You can place plates, little potted plants, wood lettering, and other fun décor items so they are dispersed in between the storage items to really pull together the look of your bathroom. If you don’t want your storage items showing, get stylish bins or containers to hold items so they don’t have to be on display. Your shelves will be more eye-catching if they have stylish items mixed in with the necessities you have on display.

Combine Storage and Style

Create an Accent Wall

Your half bath can feel even smaller when it is boxed in with dark colors on the walls, and no personality throughout the room. To add interest and texture, you can add a tiled accent wall behind the sink. This is an area that commonly gets dirty and streaked with water. Tile is simple to wipe down, making it easy to give the bathroom a quick clean with minimal effort. Creating an accent wall like this will also make it so you don’t have to re-paint or tile every wall in the bathroom. Creating one wall that serves as the focal point will allow you to add subtle décor to the other walls without any major remodeling.

Accent Wall

Sink Strategies

Depending on how many bathrooms you have in the home, your half bath might need serious storage help, or you might focus more on the aesthetics than utility. If you have plenty of storage in the bathroom but just need a little more space, the Hamilton plumbers at the Plugged Piper Drain Service suggest that you go with a pedestal sink and ditch bulky vanity cabinets. On the other hand, if you need extra storage for your half bath, consider installing a vanity that will help you hide stuff like cleaning products and extra toilet paper that you don’t want on display.

Sink Strategies

 

Balance Wall Decor

Though the room is small, there is likely some empty wall space. Although you might want to inject your personality and taste into the décor, don’t go overboard. If the room already has a lot of wall storage, a mirror, and hooks on the walls, don’t make the room feel even smaller by plastering pictures or art over every inch of free space. No décor at all makes for a boring bathroom, but too much stuff on the walls makes a small bathroom feel even smaller and gives the appearance of clutter. Choose a color scheme that you like and choose a few items to place on the wall. These days, storage bins, wall hooks, and shelving is so fashionable that it can serve as colorful and stylish décor without any enhancement.

Wall Decor

Mirror Mirror, on the Wall(s)

As mentioned, you want to create an accent wall to bring together the look of the bathroom and avoid overcrowding when it comes to décor. It’s usually easiest to make your accent wall the wall where the mirror will hang. Hanging a decorative mirror on your chosen accent wall helps with texture and style, however you can also hang smaller mirrors on opposing walls to make the room feel bigger. As the mirrors reflect off of each other and any light in the room, it will make the bathroom appear bigger than it actually is. As mentioned, you don’t want to cover the entire wall, but you can make a small collage of mirrors that will add interest to the room and open it up a bit.

Mirror Mirror, on the Wall

While you may not be ready to tackle all of these changes at once, even one change at a time can help make your half bath more functional and fashionable. You no longer need to lament over the uselessness of your half bathroom—there are plenty of storage solutions and décor ideas that will help you transform the bathroom so that you no longer feel shortchanged with the space you have.

Erin Emanuel