A large share of the bathrooms we design in Los Angeles and South Florida aren't large. Craftsman and Spanish-style homes on the Westside were built with modest secondary bathrooms. Condos and older coastal buildings in South Florida often have primary baths under 50 square feet. Small isn't a problem to solve — it's a set of real constraints that reward a more disciplined design approach than a large bathroom needs.
The instinct with a small bathroom is usually to reach for tricks — big mirrors, all-white everything, tiny tile to "expand" the space. Some of that helps. But the bathrooms that genuinely feel good in a small footprint are the ones where the layout and material decisions were made specifically for the constraints, not borrowed from a larger room and shrunk down.
Rethink the layout before the finishes
In a small bathroom, every fixture placement decision has an outsized effect. Swinging doors are often the first thing worth reconsidering — a pocket door or a door that swings outward into a hallway can reclaim several square feet of usable floor space inside the room. Wall-hung toilets and floating vanities free up visible floor area, which matters more for the sense of space than the actual square footage does. And rethinking whether the room needs a tub at all — many small primary and guest bathrooms are better served by a well-designed shower than a rarely used tub that eats a third of the floor plan.
The walk-in shower is usually the right call
For small bathrooms, a curbless walk-in shower is one of the highest-impact layout decisions available. Removing the curb and using a single continuous floor material through the shower and the rest of the room eliminates a visual break that makes small rooms feel more divided than they are. A glass panel instead of a full enclosure keeps sightlines open across the room. Wall-mounted or recessed fixtures — rather than fixtures that project into the walking space — keep the shower from visually shrinking the room further.
Bathrooms
One material, used with intention
Small rooms are the one place where using a single material floor-to-ceiling — the same tile or stone on the floor, the shower walls, and even a half-height accent wall — genuinely works better than mixing several. It removes the visual "stopping points" that make a small room read as busy. That doesn't mean it has to be plain: a large-format stone or a subtly veined tile in a continuous run reads as considered and calm rather than boring. Where we do add a second material, it's usually just at the vanity — a warm wood or a contrasting stone that gives the eye one point of contrast against an otherwise unified room.
Storage that doesn't compete for space
Recessed niches built into the shower wall during construction do far more for a small bathroom than any surface-mounted caddy or shelf ever will — they hold what needs to be held without adding visual bulk. A floating vanity with drawers, rather than a pedestal sink or open shelving, keeps the floor visible and gives real storage without a footprint. A medicine cabinet recessed into the wall behind the mirror, rather than a surface-mounted one, adds meaningful storage without making the wall feel crowded.
Bathrooms
Light and mirror placement matter more here
In a small bathroom, poor lighting is more noticeable, not less. Sconces at eye height on either side of the mirror do more for how the room feels than any overhead fixture. A mirror that runs close to the full width of the vanity — rather than a small centered mirror with visible wall on either side — reads as more generous and reflects more light back into the room. Where the ceiling allows it, a skylight or solar tube in a windowless bathroom changes the character of the room more than almost any other single decision.
If you're working with a small bathroom and want a layout that actually earns every square foot, explore our bathroom design work or get in touch with us here. You can also call us directly at 310-428-2645.
