Have you ever dreamed of adding a bathroom, but you didn’t have the room? One of my favorite projects was designing a bathroom under the stairs in a tiny closet. It can be done with a little bit of creativity. This home had a large bathroom in the kitchen which took up too much space and besides yuck! So we opened up the kitchen and took away the coat closet to make this jewel of a bathroom. As you can see we chose a metallic teal which is dark, but reflects light to create a jewel effect. Don’t be afraid for bold or dark colors because if the space is really small, you’re not fooling anyone anyways. Besides this is a great opportunity to wow your guests. I really loved the teal, but it was not quite shiny enough for me so we added this gorgeous metallic copper penny round tile pictured below.

The next big hurdle in a small bathroom are the fixtures. I encourage you to get creative with sinks. We found this great sink on Wayfair, but you could find really cool vintage dentists sinks on Craig’s list.

The plumbing was silver so we spray painted it gold to blend into the design. Embrace the quirkiness of a space it can often be a great point of interest. Since the bottom of the stairs are unavoidable turn it into an art wall. We hung fun candid pictures of my client’s dog.

If you are going to have a dark walls consider using a light color other than white on the ceiling. We used a light cream color. It will lessen the contrast and be less distracting. Finally, we had a bit of space left under the stairs so a carpenter added doors to hide the bathroom supplies.

I hope this jewel box bathroom inspires you to consider bold design choices for powder rooms in unexpected spaces.