Creating A Functional Space: Tips for Small Bathroom Revamps

I started this blog when we purchased our first home. But back in 2019, I participated in a 30-day design challenge hosted by Serena of Thrift Diving. It was that design challenge that sparked my interest in home decor and designing spaces that feel more functional.

The design challenge was to pick a space in your home and in 30 days figure out how to either tidy it up or make it more functional.

Before mentioning the space I picked, it’s helpful to know that the rental lease for our old apartment stated that as tenants no wallpaper, paint or nails could be used on the walls.

Keeping that in mind, I chose to revamp the bathroom. In this apartment, we had one small bathroom and it had to function for our whole family. Some of the things that made the space hard to use were the lack of storage ( we had no linen closets or coat closets in the full apartment) and how dark it felt.

The first thing I did was create a mood board of things I liked. If you don’t know how to create a mood board, you could also create a board on Pinterest and save the items and spaces that inspire you.

Next, I decided on a color scheme, since I couldn’t change the color of the bathroom, I looked for a color scheme that would complement the existing wall color.

The other thing I knew, was that I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on this revamp. So I wanted to use as much of the existing decor as I could.

Once I had my color scheme, inspiration, and general idea of what I was keeping in the bathroom I made a list of items I would need to buy or “shop my home” for to revamp the space.

• Hand Towels
• Storage Bins
• Small Baskets
• Countertop Organizers
• Plants
• Wall Art
• 3M Removable Wall Hooks
• Bath Mats

Here are the Before and After Images of the bathroom.

Knowing what I know now, I would have also added some peel-and-stick wallpaper to the bathroom. It would have made the space even brighter.