3 All Too Common Bad Small Master Bathroom Ideas

Feb 10, 2012 by Frank Scherer

Budgetary restrictions are challenging enough but then when you toss floor space and area limitations into the mix as well, coming up with real workable small master bathroom ideas can be a real problem.

Simply scaling down or “miniaturizing” things isn’t the answer either. Yes you can opt for smaller components in some instances but if you do it in total you’ll end up with the “dwarf effect”. A bathroom that looks and feels as if it was meant to be used by miniature people.

So for today designers facing the challenge of remodeling and decorating a small master bathroom, the operative term is “optical illusion”. Techniques that are employed to make it seem as though there’s actually more space and volume than they’re actually is.

At the same time though it’s important to keep in mind that in the end a bathroom has to be used for certain things, so it’s not just about making it “look” big. So while your bathroom may be small there’s still plenty of room for big mistakes.

Small Master Bathroom Floor Plans Gone Wrong

It all starts out with the planning process, and this is where you’re small bathroom ideas are finalized. The problem with plans though is that things can look great on paper but when you finally have them in their finished form even a small mistake turn out to be a glaring blunder.

Now it’s easy to make small changes when your project is going on but big changes are a whole other story altogether. Big changes really have to be done on paper before the tools are rolled out in the work get started.

So the first big mistake that most first-time remodelers make is relocating or moving around major bathroom components.

Toilets, showers, and sinks. It’s just so easy to do when you’re sitting at a desk looking at a floor plan.

“To see whether your bathroom should be reconfigured to make it more practical, you can buy one of the many simple computer programs for creating house plans and play with different layouts. Alternatively, make paper shapes of bathroom components (to scale) and move them around a scale drawing of the room space.”

However, what you have to keep in mind here is that any time you move something like this the plumbing and electrical wiring, if there is any, also has to be rerouted. All these things will work to run up the cost.

An unwillingness to compromise in one or more areas is yet another common mistake that homeowners make during the planning process. They’ll have something set in their mind and simply refuse to budge on it.

It simply must be included in and there’s just no way around it. Of course after all the work is done and the contractor has packed up and left they’ll have the results of their entrenches intransigence to live with but by then it’ll be too late.

So keep an open mind in the initial planning stages and try to accept the opinion of those who’ve gone before you. Nobody wishes for a small master bathroom but there are challenges in life that just have a way of presenting themselves.

So pretty much every decision that you make as you’re going through the design process to come up with a workable set of floor plans for small master bathroom will require at least some type of compromise.

Clever Solutions for Small Bathroom Storage Space Challenges

Because so many optional small master bathroom ideas tend to be decisions that revolve around cabinetry and shelving they tend to be some of more most problematic, and also where so many mistakes are made.

Try to understand from the outset that you really don’t need cabinets or shelving in a bathroom.

You can get along just fine. Now if that sounds hard to believe just take a trip into a bathroom at a busy restaurant and see for yourself that there’s not a single cabinet or shelf to be found.

So the story here is that you need to work up from the bottom. From the vantage point that each and every square inch of shelving and cabinetry you include in is entirely optional.

“When walking into a small room, we want to bring the eye upward and keep things simple to give the appearance of a space that has room to breathe. Adding a floor-to-ceiling shelving unit in a corner area is a great way to elongate the room and also condense the amount of usable or open space that is available in the bathroom.”

You see it’s a whole lot easier to change what you have to store than it is to make room to store it in.

At the same time though it is of course entirely unreasonable to suggest that anyone would design a bathroom in their home that included no shelving or cabinets at all..

Even if you did eliminate everything out of your bathroom that you would normally keep and store there you’ll still need some type of minimal shelving for decorating.Somewhere to decorative things on that make it a nicer place to visit.

So don’t make the mistake of trying to reinvent the wheel with your own groundbreaking small master bathroom ideas. Why? When there’s so many great ideas out there that have already been proven. Clever ideas that you can pick and choose from right off the Internet.

A Critical Exam of Bath and Shower Issues

Now when it comes to the potential for big blunders that you can find yourself regretting each and every time you see and use them, it’s for sure your bath or your shower. Now the operative word here is “or” because if your small master bathroom ideas include fitting both a bath and a shower in you have one of two problems.

One is that you’re setting yourself up to make your space problems even worse by creating some really cramped conditions… if you truly have a small master bathroom. “Or” your master bathroom really is a that small.

“Don’t forget the corners. A number of bathroom fixture manufacturers make pieces meant especially to slip into corners. Corner-mounted sinks and toilets can sometimes add more space to tight quarters.”

Rather you just think it is, because if you can comfortably fit both a full size bath and a full-size shower in with no problems then by definition your bathroom is not small.

What you don’t want to find out the hard way here is that one comfortably sized shower or bathtub was the better option than having a scaled down bath “and a shower” that are both uncomfortable to use.

It’s just so easy to do too is because there’s just so many great-looking and affordable feature laden small showers and bathtubs available on the market now. Also make no mistake about it but that the folks who market them are more than happy sell you one of each.

Jacuzzi tubs for instance are also now smaller, better designed, and more feature laden than ever before. They’re also more affordable too, and the same thing goes with showers and that for sure includes. Even the most up-to-date technology in steam showers as well.

The Bottom Line On Small Master Bathroom Ideas

So the bottom line here is that before you find yourself feeling frustrated with the limited floor space that you have to work with on your project, keep this in mind. That is that a carefully planned and well designed small bathroom that’s not just more usable but actually a pleasure to use, is far better than a poorly designed, badly plan large bathroom. Luxury isn’t all about space but what you make of it.