Summer is a time for entertaining and house guests. Turn your attention to the smallest room in your home where you can make a dramatic impact without breaking the bank.
With these tips you will impress your guests with your creativity and unique sense of style while also providing a haven for them to refresh. Powder rooms allow you to experiment with a color or pattern that you love but may not go well with the rest of your home. You can go wild in this space like no other and splurge a bit without a big outlay.
Whether you play it safe or indulge your fantasies, your guests will thank you for a beautifully finished room with thoughtful comforts just for them.
1. Wallcoverings: Scale it up
A small room should not necessarily have a small scaled print. Large scale patterns and murals will make a small room like a powder room look larger, which may seem counter intuitive.


2. Choose a Statement Mirror
The photo above shows how an elegantly shaped mirror creates a striking silhouette against the backdrop of the wallcovering. If you cannot stretch to wallpaper then, even a rich, darker paint color will dramatize the shape of your mirror and create an impact.

3. Be Creative with Lighting
Lighting is a very important part of the design of any room and it is always best to have different layers of lighting. In other words, even if you may be stuck with only a recessed downlight in the ceiling, adding a lamp will provide mood and softer lighting closer to the face where you need it.

Or convert your recessed downlights to pendant lights for a contemporary look:

4. Vanities: Think Outside the Box
Vanities can be made more interesting by using and converting an old vintage chest. Using a vessel sink makes this easier to make the necessary holes for the plumbing. You could paint the chest and change the hardware as long as the vanity has a great profile and hopefully some useful storage space.
Adding a stone top will protect the surface. You can often find a remnant of stone from a stone fabricator that works well for this purpose.

5. Wonderful Ways with Artwork
In this powder room, I used a triptych of an architectural spiral staircase to wrap around the walls of the room and create some drama.

This is another example of using large scale designs in a small room.
A beautiful mid century glass chandelier added a note of sparkle and glamor to an otherwise contemporary minimalist design.
6. Don’t Forget the Fifth Wall: the Ceiling
An often forgotten element in any room is the ceiling. In a powder room you can be very creative in such a small space.
Paint it dark to reflect the light from a stunning chandelier or add shine and sparkle with a silver or gold paint.
In this powder room I used a gorgeous glass bead wall covering from Maya Romanoff.


Good luck and most importantly have fun!