Small bathroom colour ideas: 10 top tips

Choosing colours for a small bathroom like a cloakroom or ensuite can often be tricky. We’ve come up with 10 top tips to make your space feel bigger.

Small spaces bring their own unique challenges, especially when redecorating and refurbishing. One of the quickest and easiest ways to refresh a cloakroom or ensuite is to give it a brand new colour scheme. So, which colours should you consider and which should you avoid?

Take a look at this short video for some quick pointers.

Small bathroom colour ideas

As smaller bathrooms typically receive less natural light than other rooms in your home, try avoiding saturated or dark colours.

Handy hint: Find out how to use a colour wheel where I explain colour jargon like “saturation” and “tints”.

As a starting point, a white tint gives you the option of using this shade without it feeling cold and unwelcoming. If you’re in the mood for something darker, try a light grey paint. Combine this with the white tint to create some high contrast areas. The lighter grey will still provide a bright and airy feel.

To help inspire you, we’ve come up some more small bathroom colour ideas in the form of 10 top tips, straight from the interior designer’s handbook!

1. Two tone

One way to spice up a bland and uninspiring small bathroom is to decorate in warm and cool contrasting tones. In this example (below), we’ve created a Mexican-themed space, with cool blue metro tiles round the lower portion of the walls and a warm, earthy orange around the upper half.

Spice things up with warm and cool contrasting tones

Of course, you can be more subtle with your two tone colour palette. Pastels are very much on-trend at the moment, and a blush pink and baby blue combination would work really well, as seen in our Touch of Blush style guide.

2. Earthy palette

One of the top trends in recent years, a more organic bathroom space will help you reconnect with nature—even if you live in the middle of the city!

You can easily achieve this style with an earthy colour palette, which includes limewash paint, plus natural materials and textures (like wood or stone).

Reconnect with nature with an earthy colour palette for your bathroom

3. Metallic finishes

This small bathroom colour tip is just precious! Aside from your walls and floors, it certainly pays to consider the metallic finishes in your bathroom. These days, you’ll find plenty of intriguing finishes to help bring added sparkle and colour to your bathroom, including brushed brass (pictured below), antique bronze and gun metal.

The Calatrava brushed brass basin mixer tap from Mode Bathrooms will bring a touch of bling to your bathroom

Metallics can take many forms in your bathroom, from prominent fittings like taps and showers, to the less obvious elements, like accessories and wastes. They will help reflect light and make your bathroom feel larger.

4. Playful patterns

Another way to bring visual interest to a small bathroom is through the use of patterned tiles. Playful motifs and subtle colours can really help brighten up a space, while your choice of grout colour can also have a big impact on the overall look and feel.

For further small bathroom colour ideas, why not take a look at our latest guide to the top bathroom tile trends?

Bring patterns into play with these fabulous Morris aqua pre-scored tiles from Calcolo

5. Go green

Looking to leave your friends green with envy? As a natural yet vibrant colour, it’s no surprise that green bathrooms remain incredibly popular, so why not consider this for your small space?

In this cloakroom (below), we’ve opted for green glazed metro tiles, which reflect light, making the space feel larger. They are also great for traditional style bathrooms, producing a classic “metro” look, especially when combined with a chequerboard floor.

These metro tiles from Calcolo will give your bathroom the green light for style

Find out more about creating a Vintage Chic bathroom.

6. Colour splash

One of the most obvious ways to re-energise a small bathroom is to paint the walls a bright or rich colour.

If you’re looking to bring more vibrancy to your décor (perfect for bathrooms you are in and out of quickly, like cloakrooms or ensuites), consider active shades like red, orange or yellow.

With the cloakroom below, we chose to paint two of the walls with Graham & Brown’s colour of the year, Alizarin. With an air of drama and luxury, this opulent shade helps create a cosy, cocooning effect, paired perfectly with sparkling gold accents.

Splash the colour to make a big difference in a small bathroom

7. Coloured basin

To bring a pop of colour to your small bathroom, why not consider a coloured basin? Colourful suites fell out of fashion sometime between the 1970s and 1980s, with white becoming THE colour of choice for toilets and basins. However, with homeowners becoming more adventurous with their bathroom designs, colourful ceramics are now making a comeback.

Whatever colour you’re looking for, you’re bound to find a sink that makes a real style statement, just like this jade green countertop basin from the Mode Bathrooms Ellis collection.

The Ellis jade green countertop basin from Mode Bathrooms will bring a bold pop of colour to your small bathroom

Find out more about all the colourful countertop basins available at Victoria Plum.

8. Wall coverings

While tiles may be the first wall covering you think of when decorating your bathroom, shower wall panels offer a great cost-effective alternative and are available in a wide variety of colours, patterns and styles.

We’ve used soft yellow wall panels from Mermaid to brighten up this small shower room, for a space that’s warm, welcoming and sunny all year round.

When life gives you lemon wall panels, make a beautiful bathroom with them!

9. Painted ceiling

If you’re in desperate need of some small bathroom colour ideas, things are looking up! Well, at least your friends and family will be, when they notice your beautiful painted ceiling.

Whilst it’s a surface we often dismiss, and simply paint white, your bathroom ceiling can be used to your advantage. You can choose to paint it the same colour as your walls or even a contrasting colour (as below), to bring real visual interest to your small bathroom space.

With a painted ceiling, things are looking up!

One thing to bear in mind: If you are using darker colours around your walls, try to use a lighter colour on your ceiling. In this instance, a dark ceiling could make the space feel enclosed and oppressive.

Discover more ideas for your bathroom ceiling.

10. Colourful furniture

The last of our small bathroom colour ideas, but certainly not the least, is the addition of colourful furniture. Once upon a time, bathroom furniture came in a handful of monochromatic shades. However, (as we’ve already mentioned) UK homeowners are getting ever-more adventurous, demanding more and more colour options.

The Ascot furniture range from The Bath Co. was launched in response to this demand, with pink, indigo and green colour schemes, along with always-on-trend grey, adding a fresh burst of colour to small bathrooms up and down the land.