The Tile Tip That Can Make Your Small Bathroom Look Bigger

If you feel like a giant in a dollhouse when you step into your tiny bathroom, you probably wish there was a way to blow out the walls and make the whole thing more spacious. But that isn't an option for most people, even with the resources. So what are you to do without the ability to completely renovate and expand? Fortunately, there are design tricks that can make a small bathroom feel bigger, and one of the most effective involves tile. It starts with using rectangular tiles.

Rectangular tiles are the magicians of bathroom tiles. Their shape helps manipulate the eye into seeing more space than there actually is. But it's not just all about their shape. The way you lay the tile can change everything. Running rectangular tiles horizontally will elongate the walls, making it appear more expansive, which is great for compact rooms. Stacking them vertically adds visual height to those low ceilings that make a small bathroom feel even more cramped. To enhance the effect, continue the rectangular tiles onto the floor. Running them horizontally from wall to wall can really optimize the area and help it feel more open.

Before you go out and buy every rectangular tile you can find, there are some rules to follow when designing your bathroom, especially if your goal is to make it feel bigger. For starters, you'll want to determine whether you will be laying the tile horizontally or vertically. If you have low ceilings and need more height to open up the room, look for tiles that are 4-by-12 inches or larger, and stack them vertically. If your bathroom is narrow or feels tight, look for rectangular tiles that are 12-by-24 inches or 18-by-36 inches and run them horizontally to help widen the space visually. Larger tiles help eliminate too many grout lines, which can act as visual interruptions. You want the eye to seamlessly scan the wall to make everything appear larger than it is.

Once you have the right size tile and have decided which direction you want to run it, you'll want to do so from floor to ceiling. This can give the effect of higher ceilings by removing any horizontal lines that break up the room into smaller fragments. Choosing a lighter color tile can also help the bathroom seem brighter, airier, and more open. That might be it for the walls, but you don't have to stop there. One of the best small bathroom tile ideas to maximize style in tiny spaces, as well as creating the visual effect of more space, is to run the same tile across the main floor as you do on the shower floor. This also removes those visual barriers that break up space and gives you one seamless line, tricking the eyes to see more than what's there.