12 Small Bathrooms that Inspired my Renovation

photo via

Last week I shared updated photos of my complete bathroom renovation (check out the before photos) along with my tips for designing a small bathroom, and today I thought it would be fun to share the small bathrooms that inspired me.

First off, I’m a HUGE Pinterest fan, it’s hands down my favorite social media platform and I utilize it to gain inspiration, collect and organize my ideas and it really helped me nail down exactly what trends I liked the most when renovating and designing my apartment. In 2017, before I even started thinking about buying (or renovating) a home I really started to heavily pin bathrooms that inspired me (check out this 15 Best Tiled Bathrooms on Pinterest), and then when I finally closed on my apartment in 2018 and realized the size of the space I was working with I started focusing on small bathroom ideas.

I have a secret Pinterest board that I saved all my small bathroom inspiration photos to and I quickly saw a theme.

I loved the idea of a clean white bathroom, with tile from floor to ceiling. Not only would it make the small space look larger, but it’s neutral and great for when I want to sell.
I also loved the idea of white subway tile with black grout, because I was using subway tile in my kitchen also I wanted to make the bathroom a little different so I went with white grout in the kitchen and black in the bathroom.
Gold hardware was a MUST! It was pretty much the first thing I decided on for my space and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It fits my vintage vibe and makes me so happy.
Almost every bathroom I saved had a fun tile floor so that made my decision pretty easy. I ended up going with a very popular black and white tile and while I’ve seen it literally EVERYWHERE I kept going back to it so I knew it was the one I really wanted.

So here’s the finished product for reference and scroll through to see the 12 bathrooms that inspired all of my decisions!

If I had to pick one photo that really inspired me it was this one below. It has it all – gold hardware, floor to ceiling subway tile with black grout, black and white tiled floor and black accents!

photo via (Shop floor tile here)

The next few photos really solidified my decision to go with all white walls, a pattern floor and gold accents.

photo via (shop similar floor tile here)

photo via

photo via (shop floor tile here)

And while I do think the smartest decision for a small bathroom is a standing shower with a glass half wall, I wanted a tub really bad and fell in love with my shower curtain before I even closed on my apartment. I love how the tiled shower walls here make the space look separate from the rest of the bathroom, but also keep the open feel of the whole bathroom.

photo via

photo via (shop similar blue subway tile here)

photo via (shop similar floor tile here)

photo via (shop similar tile here)

photo via (shop floor tile here)

The photo below is a very similar color scheme to mine and before I decided on a black vanity, I was dying for a rustic wood color one similar to the wood accent wall here.

photo via

I wanted nothing more than a wallpapered bathroom, but since I live in a one bedroom, one bath unit I didn’t want to do anything TOO crazy decorating style just in case I turn around and sell it fast so I opted for a bold shower curtain, over wallpaper, but you better believe my next home will have a wallpapered bathroom! BRB going to write a post about all my favorites that I have saved.