Tiny bathroom ideas that work in 35 square feet come down to four moves: side lighting at the mirror instead of the overhead, a counter with two things on it, textiles in one color folded one way, and everything else behind a door. My bathroom is 35 square feet; the toilet, sink and shower are positioned so you can touch all three from the center without moving your feet, and I've timed it. Despite this, people ask who designed it. The answer is that I did, in a rental, without a landlord noticing, for about $220, and the lighting was two-thirds of the difference. This post is everything I did in the order I did it: the two plug-in sconces and the timer, the counter rule, the medicine cabinet and under the sink, the textiles, the shower curtain and the rod, the mirror, the wall color a landlord allows, the floor, the shelf over the door, the hooks, the plant, what I didn't do, the ideas from the lists I'd skip in a bathroom this size, what it cost, and why a boutique hotel bathroom is mostly discipline.
The lighting first, because it's most of it
The existing fixture was a single overhead globe in a color temperature I can only describe as fluorescent sadness, and under it every face looked like a passport photo taken in a basement. I added two plug-in vanity sconces, one either side of the mirror, mounted with adhesive strips at 63 inches to center and 32 inches apart, cords run down the wall in a paintable channel to the outlet by the sink, both on a smart plug with a timer so they come on at 6 am with a warm glow and go off at midnight. 3000K bulbs, CRI 90, 450 lumens each, and the overhead globe got a 2700K bulb and is used for cleaning. Waking up to good bathroom lighting is life-improving in a way that sounds silly until you've had it. The $40 upgrade post is the single-sconce version; two is the boutique hotel version and it's $80.
The counter rule
Nothing lives on the counter except a soap dispenser and one small plant. Everything else is in the medicine cabinet or under the sink. The rule is: if I wouldn't put it in a photo, it doesn't live on the surface, and in 35 square feet the surface is 14 inches wide, so the rule is also arithmetic. The toothbrush lives in the cabinet. The hand cream lives in the cabinet. The thing you'd think has to be out, doesn't, and the counter with two things on it is what people mean when they say the bathroom looks designed.
The medicine cabinet and under the sink
The landlord's medicine cabinet, surface-mount, mirrored, with three shelves: the top for the weekly things, the middle for the daily things at eye level, the bottom for the small bottles. A $6 tray on the middle shelf for the things that roll. Under the sink, a two-tier pull-out organizer, $18, one tier for cleaning things and one for backups, and a tension rod across the front for the spray bottles. The hair dryer on a hook screwed inside the cabinet door. Every bottle in the room is behind a door, and the medicine cabinet's mirror is the mirror, so no second mirror is fighting for the wall.
The textiles
Two good-quality towels, always folded the same way, in thirds and then in half, always white, on one hook each at 65 inches. A small bath mat in a warm oatmeal. That's it, and the uniformity does the work: a tiny bathroom with three colors of towel and a printed mat is a tiny bathroom with a laundry pile in it. White towels also wash hot, which in a bathroom without a window matters. The third towel is in the closet, and guests get it.
The shower curtain and the rod
A plain white cotton curtain, hemmed to just skim the tub, with a clear liner behind it, on a curved rod that gives 6 more inches of shower without touching the walls. The curved rod is the single best trick for a tiny bathroom and installs with tension, no drilling; $28. The curtain runs to 6 inches above the floor, not puddling and not short, and it's white because everything in the room is white or oatmeal or the one plant.
Bulbs, in one paragraph
3000K at the mirror with CRI 90, because a face needs its true color and 2700K flatters and lies; 2700K in the ceiling globe for cleaning; 450 lumens per sconce, opal glass or a fabric shade so the filament isn't at eye level. Nothing cooler than 3000K in a room where you look at yourself, and nothing warmer at the mirror.
The mirror
The medicine cabinet's mirror is the only one, and the two sconces beside it are what make it a boutique hotel mirror rather than a rental one. A round mirror hung over a surface-mount cabinet, which I've seen suggested, is two mirrors in 35 square feet and reads as a mistake. If the landlord's cabinet has a cracked or foggy mirror, a $40 mirrored door replacement from the hardware store, screwed in place of the old one, is the fix, and mine had.
The wall color a landlord allows
Most leases allow paint that's returned to white; mine allows a color if it's repainted, and the bathroom is a warm off-white, one shade warmer than the landlord's cool white, which under 3000K sconces reads as cream and under the old globe would have read as beige. One quart, one Saturday, $22. If painting is out, a warm white is what the sconces do to a cool white anyway, and the bulbs are the cheaper version of the same idea.
The floor
The landlord's tile is a grey hex that's fine, and a peel-and-stick vinyl over it would have been the move if it weren't. Instead, the oatmeal mat and nothing else on the floor: no scale, no basket, no bin. A bin lives under the sink in the organizer. The floor of a tiny bathroom is the only floor in the apartment that shows all of itself, and it should have one thing on it.
The shelf over the door and the hooks
A tension shelf over the door, 8 inches deep, holds the backup toilet paper and the spare towel in a basket, above eye level where nobody looks; $24, no holes. Three hooks on the back of the door for robes, on the door's own hardware. One hook per person by the shower for the towel. Nothing on the wall beside the toilet, which is the wall people put shelves on and the wall that makes a tiny bathroom feel like a pantry.
The plant
A cast iron plant on the corner of the counter, which is one of the two things allowed there, because a bathroom with no window and a light on for an hour a day still keeps a cast iron plant alive. The dark apartment plants post is the rest of them; in the bathroom, one, small, in a white pot, and it's the only green in a white room, which is why it works.
The morning and the evening, which is why there are two settings
At 6 am the timer brings the sconces on at full, 3000K, and the mirror shows a face with its jaw and its actual color, which is the makeup test the old globe failed daily. At 10 pm the smart plug drops them to 30 percent on a second schedule, the globe is off, and the bathroom is a warm small room rather than a bright small room, which is the difference between a bathroom you use and one you're in. A tiny bathroom has no room for a second light, so the same two sconces do both jobs and the plug does the switching; the renter bathroom lighting post is the long version of the plug and the bulbs.
Adhesive mounting, since it's a rental
Strips rated for 5 pounds each, two per sconce, on a wall cleaned with rubbing alcohol and dried; press for thirty seconds, wait 24 hours before hanging the fixture, and the sconces have held for two years through two summers of steam. The cord channel is the same adhesive. A tile wall takes strips better than paint does, and a textured wall doesn't take them at all, in which case two small screws and a dab of spackle at move-out is the answer nobody's landlord has noticed. My landlord has no idea the sconces exist and I intend to keep it that way; they'll come with me, as they came from the last apartment.
The guest version of the same bathroom
Before a guest: the third towel on the second hook, a clear spot on the counter beside the plant, which means the soap moves 3 inches, and a small tray on the tank for their things. A bathroom this size with a guest's toothbrush on the counter is at capacity, and the empty spot is what says there's room. The guest post is the rest of the apartment; the bathroom takes ninety seconds.
What I didn't do
A ladder shelf, which holds three towels and takes 12 inches of a 35-square-foot room. Floating shelves above the toilet, which are a pharmacy. An over-the-door pocket organizer, which shows every bottle and stops the door closing. A bath tray, because there's no bath. Wallpaper, which in a windowless bathroom peels. And a bigger mirror, because the mirror is the cabinet and the cabinet is the storage.
Tiny bathroom ideas from the lists I'd skip
Bold tile, which is a renovation. A pedestal sink for "space," which removes the only storage. A glass shower door, which is a renovation and a squeegee. Open shelving styled with matching jars, which is the counter rule broken vertically. A statement light fixture on the ceiling, which puts the light in the wrong place. And "add a pop of color," which in 35 square feet is a pop of clutter. The boutique hotel bathroom is white, warm-lit from the sides, and empty, and every one of those ideas is against one of the three.
In one paragraph
Two plug-in sconces beside the mirror at 63 inches on a timer, 3000K; two things on the counter; every bottle behind a door; white towels folded one way on hooks; a curved rod and a plain curtain; one plant; nothing on the floor but a mat; nothing on the wall by the toilet. About $300, no holes, and a 35-square-foot rental that reads as a hotel.
What it cost
Two plug-in sconces, $80. Two bulbs and the smart plug, $30. The cord channel, $8. The under-sink organizer, tension rod and tray, $30. The curved rod, curtain and liner, $52. The over-door shelf, $24. Two towels and the mat, $60. Paint, $22. About $306, with nothing drilled and everything removable except the paint, which the lease allows. The sconces are the $80 that people ask about, and the rule about the counter is free.
The weekly ten minutes
Sunday: the counter's two things lifted and the counter wiped, the mirror wiped, the towels swapped for the clean two and the used two into the wash, the mat shaken, the medicine cabinet's middle shelf straightened. Ten minutes, and the bathroom is the photo again. A tiny bathroom gets messy fast and clean fast, and the clean-fast half is the argument for having almost nothing in it.
Why it's mostly discipline
The bathroom is 35 square feet and it will be 35 square feet after any amount of money; what changes is whether the surfaces are empty, the light is on the face, and the colors are two. A boutique hotel bathroom is small too, usually, and it looks the way it does because someone decided nothing would be on the counter and the light would be beside the mirror. I decided the same thing in a rental for the price of two sconces, and I touch the toilet, the sink and the shower from the middle of a room that people ask who designed.
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