You can create the illusion that a narrow bathroom is wider and roomier than it is by using optical illusions. Light, mirrors, and simple lines are the obvious ways you can make a bathroom seem twice as large and spacious. The simplicity of tones also plays a crucial part in making a bathroom feel bigger. The less the eye has to process, the less busy space feels.
Striped Rugs
Stripes that stretch to the width of the room will make a narrow bathroom seem wider. Instead of buying new bathroom rugs, take your old bathroom rugs and cut them into strips, then mix the strips up as you sew them back into bathroom rugs. Your whimsical, striped rugs will create the illusion that your bathroom is wider.
Light Colors
Paint your bathroom white, then bleach your shower curtain and towels, and spray paint your bathroom soap dishes and toothbrush holders. By making everything white in your narrow bathroom, you will create the illusion of airiness, while highlighting any items of color, like your striped rugs.
Mullioned Mirror
Too many mirrors in a narrow bathroom will create a confusing infinity effect. But you can still have the feeling of a wider space that comes with a mirror, by spray painting a French window pattern on the mirror. Just take an old frame mirror, tape square paper on it with spaces in between to create a grid (let no tape cover the grid). Spray paint with frosted glass paint, then remove the paper. Paint the frame of the mirror in high gloss white.
Light Illusions
Your narrow bathroom will look wider if you diminish the light in the corners and focus it at the center. With the white decor, you don’t have to worry about the bathroom becoming gloomy. And the central lighting will make your bathroom feel wider
Faux Window
If you don’t have a window in your narrow bathroom, you can easily give it a faux window to create the illusion of more space. By using paneled picture frames, a landscape poster and breezy white curtains to hide a neon light, you can even make it seem as if sunshine is streaming into your bathroom. Follow the step-by-step instructions for creating a faux window to make your narrow bathroom look wider.
Eliminates Clutter
Clean surfaces will make your bathroom seem wider. Simply install a white mantle shelf at the end of your narrow bathroom, and hide your clutter in decorative white baskets. Because the shelf will reduce the length of the room a little, it will create the illusion that your narrow bathroom is wider. And the white baskets that keep all the clutter hidden will increase this effect.
Decorating with Molding
By lining the center, top, or bottom of your walls with the molding you can create the illusion that your bathroom is wider. Use the same crown molding as the base molding, and match it to a chair rail molding at the center. Or, for a simple homemade solution, Paint width lines at the top, middle, and bottom of the wall for the same widening illusion. Alternatively, Paint the bottom half of the room in white and the top in a sage or other light shade, and weave subtle width lines in both to increase the illusion that your narrow bathroom is wider.
