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Who among us doesn’t want great storage in our bathrooms?! We’ve designed hundreds of bathrooms, and I can only think of a handful that storage wasn’t a top priority. They are hardworking spaces that often have to store a lot of things – from spare toilet paper to medicine and makeup and hair tools and towels and toothpaste on and on and on. Yet most builder basic bathrooms are equipped with a single cabinet, and if you’re lucky, maybe a drawer or two.
As a rule, most everyone wants a bathroom that looks beautiful, clean, and calm – which means we need to create spaces to tuck all of the junk that will otherwise accumulate on the countertops and detract from that calm vibe.
The bathroom is the one room where you have to store a lot of essentials yet you usually don’t have enough places to do so. This creates quite a dilemma! You really need to get creative in finding storage unless you are one of the lucky few with a large bathroom. So today I’ve gathered a collection of beautiful and practical Bathroom Storage Solutions to help you keep your bathroom organized and clutter free.
We’ve rounded up 5 of our favorite solutions for small bathrooms. We have a combo of tips that will make your space function better (space-maximizing) and some that will help it look and feel more spacious. While these are great for small bathrooms, they are equally awesome for huge bathrooms as well!
Be sure to scroll to the end for our favorite bathroom storage products!
Take Advantage of Vertical Space
Our default is to want to store things just below the countertop, but if you think vertically, there is so much space to be found. Some of our favorites…
A vertical shampoo niche in the shower takes advantage of the space between wall studs. Having 2 – 4 boxes means plenty of space for bottles, razors, loofas, and bars.
A vertical storage tower gives amaaaazing storage. Keep it narrower than the base cabinets to keep things from getting lost in the back.
The cabinet over the toilet (aka head knocker) has gotten a bad wrap. In a smaller bathroom it can feel especially overbearing. One trick we love is to have an open shelf installed below the closed door cabinet. It helps the cabinet feel a bit lighter and gives you a chance to display a few cute items and tuck away the less cute things (looking at you, tampon boxes).
Depending on what is happening on the other side of your bathroom, we’ve also been known to steal a foot from an adjacent space to build in extra storage! You can tuck in a linen cabinet if the room behind your bathroom won’t miss it! Glass doors up top help it feel more open, but feel free to do a solid door if you know you won’t realistically keep it tidy. Know thyself.
Floating Vanity
Smaller bathrooms can quickly feel tight and overwhelming when clunky vanities are crammed in. Consider a floating vanity with drawers. While you’re technically “losing” a few inches of storage along the bottom, drawers are much more efficient than cabinet doors since you can see and reach everything inside. Adding great small storage bins or acrylic trays inside makes even better use of every inch. The floating vanity also gives the illusion of more space.
Clever Cabinet Storage
So many ways to get creative here, these days you can find a drawer install for almost anything. U-shaped drawers like this one take advantage of the space that is normally wasted around the P-trap. It also helps keep bottles and doo-dads from toppling over.
Concealed hampers are another favorite if your hampers need to live in the bathroom. Tucking them away in a cabinet rather than having them hanging out on the floor helps eliminate visual clutter, making the space feel larger. We also use this same idea to tuck away a waste basket inside a hamper!
And the all time favorite from the ladies – the pull-out grooming tool organizer. Adding this bad boy and power inside the cabinet allows for hair tools and all of their unruly cords to live inside the pull out, rather than sitting on the countertop for eternity while they cool. There are even special components that shut off the power when the drawer is closed, so you don’t have to worry about burning the house down with your hair straightener (a la Rachel on Friends).
Tiled Walls
Friends, this is a designer trick if there ever was one. Wrapping a room in tile, especially white or light-colored tile, tricks the eye and makes the room feel larger. While you can definitely do this with a colored tile, white will always be the king of making spaces feel larger.
The trick here is that we want the eye to keep moving in a continuous motion around the room. Every time the eye is interrupted the space begins to feel smaller. It’s a similar principle that makes a cluttered room feel smaller than a minimal room. The rooms are the same size, but all the visual interruptions convince our brains that the cluttered space must be smaller.
Frameless Glass Shower Enclosures
Nothing like a bulky metal frame to draw attention to something and make it feel smaller. Remember what I said about visual interruptions?! Frameless glass allows your eye to keep right on moving through a space, making the whole room feel larger.
There you have it, our favorite design solutions to maximize storage and make your bathroom feel more spacious!
Grooming tool top insert and base pull out cabinet
A great alternative if you can’t fit in a grooming tool organizer, this silicon heat proof bin lets you put your hair tools away in a drawer while they’re still warm!
My all time favorite woven storage basket
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