I had a BIG obstacle in my powder room….I couldn’t turn around in my teeny, tiny bathroom. This had been on my list of complaints since day one of moving in. I was eight months pregnant when we moved in and could barely fit through the door, let alone actually close the door while going to the bathroom. So unfortunately, for the last three years, we as a family made peace with the fact that we never close the door while going to the bathroom. Okay, not my proudest moment to admit this to friends and family. But maybe it’s a fair warning to apologize for my kids if they come over for a playdate and they don’t close the bathroom door….sorry, it’s what they learned to do.
I needed a solution that would create more space, but not a $10,000 solution that seemed to be the suggestion of every contractor I brought in. No ripping down walls, adding square footage, moving plumbing, etc.–this needed to be creative and affordable. I’m sure many of you can relate to this for many rooms in your house–so where do you start?
The first step to any design project, should be identifying the problem areas you’re setting out to fix and then start thinking about how you’ll actually fix them–obvious I know, but so many people fail to actually think about the specific problems and just focus on the pretty part. My problem area was scale. I needed to make this powder room look as big as possible.
First and foremost, the sink was over powering the room. I realized that the pedestal sink had to go before everything else. I literally had FOURTEEN inches of room between the doorknob and the sink. My pregnant belly had a mark from trying to squeeze between to wash my hands.
Next, the mirror with a ledge had to go, not because I didn’t like the mirror, but because it stuck out, it gave the illusion of a more narrow space. Not the best photo, but hope you can see how the ledge sticks out over the faucet.
And lastly, while the bamboo shade let in lots of sunlight, I felt that the color was too dark for the room. I wanted this room to be cheerful and as light as possible to make the room seem bigger.
Check back tomorrow as I reveal how I actually created more space in my powder room and I will show you what I did so that we could finally close the door and have some privacy.
ooh, i’m excited to see what you did! wonder if a pocket door sliding the other way was part of the solution? we used pocket doors upstairs quite a bit and they’re surprisingly space-saving.
Yes, I too love pocket doors. Unfortunately, there is no room on either side of the doorway for a pocket door. Glad you’re enjoying our posts! =)