What is the best paint color for a small bathroom? According to basic design principles, light colors such as white, crème, pastel blue, gray or yellow will visually expand a room, while dark colors such as a deep red, green or brown, will make a room feel smaller.
"Lighter colors reflect light easily, which gives the room a bigger appearance," says Piercy. Unsurprisingly, a classic white paint is the perfect choice when it comes to creating the illusion of a bigger bathroom.
White walls are a great way to open up a small space, and they can act as the perfect neutral backdrop for colorful decor. A white color is not only a classic clean look, but it's also the perfect color when you're dealing with a windowless bathroom or one which doesn't get a lot of natural light.
Soothing neutrals in blue, green, and gray will help create a relaxing, spa-like vibe for your bathroom. Look for colors inspired by nature like soft sage, sky blue, and ash gray. If you prefer warmer colors, opt for a pale yellow, warm beige, or even a delicate blush color to give the space a welcoming glow.
And when bathrooms or powder rooms lack natural light, embracing darker shades is often the best option. If you paint a room lacking natural light a true white, it will fall flat, feeling dull and uninviting.
Light yellow, cream, beige, and gray are also favorites of prospective home buyers. We recommend avoiding reds, pinks, and greens as paint choices if you want to get top dollar for your home.
A bright shade of yellow creates the illusion of light in any windowless bathroom. Pairing the color with white makes the overall room an uplifting oasis.
The streamlined architecture of a modern bathroom pairs well with certain bathroom color schemes—think crisp whites, pretty pastels, and bright and bold hues, as opposed to more muted tones. Traditional spaces look great painted in nearly any color.
Include lots of natural light. Small bathrooms can often appear dark. Natural light makes the room look brighter and opens up the space so it appears larger. If you only have a small window, install a skylight or solar tunnel to bring more natural light into the room.
Behind the Vanity
The vanity is in many ways the de facto focal point of a bathroom. We're constantly facing our vanities, and backing one with an accent wall makes perfect sense.
Shades of gentle gray, off-white and natural earthy tones can be used to create a simple and classic backdrop that is calm and easy to live with. Large format tiles in neutral shades mean fewer grout lines, so they can be a great way to boost the sense of space and make a small bathroom look bigger.
Texas-based realtor and investor Benjamin Ross advises against painting your bathroom any primary color whatsoever. Saturated hues of red, blue, or yellow are visually shocking in a bathroom, he says. He prefers neutrals like shades of whites or grays and then, if you'd like, opt for bright accents on towels or rugs.
Lighter paint colors like off-whites, light neutrals, pales, and pastels give the illusion of larger, brighter rooms.
Digital Lavender, Luscious Red, Sundial, Tranquil Blue and Verdigris are the color names for 2023. Who chooses the names of the new colors? Names are selected by the WGSN and Coloro color team, before being verified by our in-house Equality Vision Team to ensure a proper translation on a global scale.
Forest green is the lucky color for 2023, a color that can represent both – earth and water. But as we discovered, everything is based on the balance in Feng Shui, which is why other colors can help complement the lucky color of 2023.
Graphite nickel is 2023's finish du jour
Consider it the elegant glow-up of once-trendy matte black fixtures. This sleek charcoal finish is a close relative to blackened steel with its cool undertones, but with more edgy and sophisticated dimensions.
There's no rule that every bathroom in your home has to be the same color or be decorated in the same style.
As a general rule of thumb, you should never paint your entire home one singular color. That isn't to say that you can't use the same color in some capacity throughout your entire home; however, it shouldn't be the primary wall color in every room.
Satin is more durable and shinier than eggshell and is ideal for a bathroom. It's also easy to clean. Use it for the walls, ceiling, and even the trim, because many satin finishes are tougher than they once were. Semi-gloss is even tougher and a cinch to clean.
Cracked Shower Glass and Rusty Metal Fixtures
Like an old medicine cabinet, cracked glasses and rusty metal fixtures all give the impression of neglect—not to mention, date your bathroom years.