Accessorizing Your Bathroom

Image source The Ruggable Blog

Accessorizing a bathroom is a fun way to add more interest but practicality to a bathroom as well.

Assuming your bathroom is fairly updated, neutral, and you just want to punch it up, here are some affordable upgrades that will do the trick.

Storage Options

There are many storage options that are nice enough to add visual interest as well as practicality to a bathroom. They can help you house necessities in your bathroom in fun and new ways. 

Open shelving towers can hold everything from pretties like glass jars filled with essentials like cotton balls, Q-tips, bath bombs or sea sponges. They can also help to corral products you use on a regular basis. One way to do this so it’s not a messy look is to find baskets that fit on the shelves of the tower. Be sure to measure to make sure there's room before you buy a piece or order storage containers to place on the shelf. Returns are not much fun!

Baskets or oversized jugs/ginger jars are great places to store extra toilet paper, use as waste baskets, or even hold dirty laundry. 

Storage baskets image source West Elm

Behind the toilet cabinets offer some great medicine cabinet options that allow for more space for frequently used items (especially if you don’t have a medicine cabinet). Here’s one I found at a consignment store that I outfitted with a few thrift store finds for pennies. Totally unexpected and fun.

Decorative Items

Area rugs can add an instant pop of color as well as practicality in a bathroom. I love the small Turkish rugs you can easily get on Etsy and Facebook Marketplace. They’re unexpected and show a bit more personality than a HomeGoods bath mat.

Shower curtains or glass doors. My preference whenever possible is to have glass doors installed in a bathroom. It enlarges the space and is relatively easy to maintain with the right products (like Bartender’s Best Friend as well as a great squeegee).

Toilet seats can even up-level a bathroom. Look at this beauty I used in Boston. Just makes the room look a bit more rich.

Toilet paper holders and hooks

Some other ways you can level-up can up-level a bathroom are by choosing toilet paper holders and hooks to hang towels, robes, etc. I’ve found some great things at Anthropologie, consignment stores and even thrift shops. Decorating small spaces requires patience, persistence and of course, creativity.

Selecting a toilet paper holder that can be attached to the back of a door helps to make the most of a small bathroom that has little to no wall space to spare.

Photography is a great way to add visual interest to walls as well. Be sure to keep the bathroom well ventilated though. I happened upon an old black and white photo from the 40s of Boston’s Old City Hall -- about two blocks from my Beacon Street condo. I purchased it and days later found two more black and white photos of Scollay Square (no longer exists) in Boston from the same time period. I bought those and reframed them to match the black frame of the first picture. I’m working on a photography wall of vintage prints of Boston here and am well on my way. Looking for smaller pics now to make it visually more interesting. I hung them very close together which makes the wall look more intentional and unified.

Wallpaper is also a great way to bring life to plain bathroom walls. There are many peel and stick options that are washable, easily removable and easy to install. Great if you’re not sure you want to fully commit but are intrigued by what a decorated wall could look like.

Image source @pagefehling

Loving your home’s interior space is more important than ever. Contact Nancy at nmichaels@nancymichaelsinteriors.com if you would like to schedule a 20 minute virtual consultation to discuss how she can help you fall in love again with your home.