Key Points

Use light, monochromatic colors like white, soft green, or pale blue to make a small bathroom feel more open.
Pick large tiles and avoid bold contrasts to reduce visual clutter and keep the space flowing.
Light tones reflect more light and trick the eye into seeing a bigger room.

Bathrooms come in all shapes and sizes, and some are smaller than others. How you paint and decorate a small bathroom can help the space feel bigger without physically altering any of its dimensions.

"The key to making a small bathroom look and feel bigger is to avoid having heavy contrast between colors," Pamela O’Brien, the principal designer of Pamela Hope Designs, says, noting that everything from the floor to the ceiling should be a similar hue or tone to the wall color.

So, what colors should you use in a small bathroom to make it look bigger?

We asked O'Brien and other interior design experts for their favorite colors to use in the bathroom.

Meet the Experts

Isfira Jensen is the CEO and principal designer of Jensen & Co.
Pamela O’Brien is the principal designer of Pamela Hope Designs.
Armina Kasprowicz is the owner and principal designer of Armina Interiors.

White

All the design experts recommended white walls in a bathroom with different approaches. O'Brien likes white because it "feels and looks clean and comfortable. And if you have a lot of natural light, that can be a very lovely feel."

With white walls, she suggests not picking tile or cabinets with a contrasting color, like black, because it will make the room look smaller and choppier.

"I wouldn't do a black floor, a white cabinet, and a black countertop, because I feel that's just cutting the room into slices," she says.

White With Pops of Color

Pairing white with contrasting colors won't work, but you can add pops of color carefully to brighten the bathroom.

For instance, interior designer Armina Kasprowicz designed a bathroom with white walls, but bright, solid yellow tiles in the shower.

"It works because it's not being too busy with too many patterns or colors, but it brings the boldness of it into the bathroom to make it interesting," she says.

Light Green

Interior designer Jennifer Beget recently designed a small bathroom with light green walls, along with green tiles and cabinets.

She says this green-on-green, monochromatic technique "adds cohesion and keeps the small space from feeling choppy."

Light Blue

Light blue is also in the spa neutrals color family, and Kasprowicz used the color in various hues, along with white, in a small bathroom.

"The white makes the turquoise pop really, and that combination really looks very fresh, and it's still interesting," she says.

Interior designer Isfira Jensen recommends lighter colors because they reflect more light into the room, helping it feel larger.

"You're trying to create an illusion, trying to take your eye away from something," she says. "These light colors and just a few other things will help you think that, yes, it does look bigger than it is."

Gray

Kasprowicz mixed gray and white in this bathroom for a timeless feel. She used a gray marble tile that looks like one big surface, which is also one of the keys to making a smaller bathroom feel bigger.

Jensen advises against using small tiles or mosaics and recommends using larger tiles in the space to help make it look larger.

"You want to avoid visual clutter," she says. "So less square outlines means less visual clutter or else you're just going to see all these tiny tiny breaks, rather than expansive spaces."