In magazines and films, we are now used to seeing fabulous bathrooms,
the size of a normal apartment and furnished with designer furniture.
Whirlpools, saunas and furniture of all kinds. But then you have to deal
with the usual long and narrow bathroom where it is difficult to move.
The only thing to do is to renovate it trying to make it more spacious.
With the right precautions you can get amazing results.
Renovating a long, narrow bathroom
Houses are often not exactly what you want them to be. Sometimes, due
to load-bearing walls and pipes, we are forced to leave the bathroom long
and narrow without the possibility of modifying it. But the solution exists!
The trick is to be able to make it as functional as possible by positioning
the bathroom fixtures in the correct way and thus optically creating more
space.
The first thing to do when deciding to renovate a narrow and long
bathroom is to take the measurements. The ideal would be to create a
map with the exact measurements of the walls and those of doors and
windows, highlighting the opening, in this way it will be much easier to
calculate all the spaces and better organize the bathroom.
Another important decision to make before starting the renovations is to
set a maximum spending budget. This will be used in order to choose the
materials to be used and, if necessary, to limit expenses a little.
Choice of sanitary ware
If the room has enough space, you can decide to put the tub, but if you
don’t use it often, a shower is better, much less bulky. This is a choice that
must be carefully considered, if there are needs or habits for which you
need a bathtub or if you can do without it and have a little more space
available. Maybe as in many homes there is a second bathroom where
the tub is already present so you can easily do without it. In any case, it
should always be placed at the back of the room to save space, just to
better understand the narrow part where there is usually the window.
The washbasin also deserves the right attention. Given the space
problems, the ideal would be to choose it on the wall, therefore without a
fixed support since these models are much more bulky. The absence of
both the support and the cabinet under the sink helps to optically enlarge
the space. Among the various models on the market it will not be difficult
to find one that meets the tastes and needs of each bathroom.
The thing to always keep in mind when renovating a long and narrow
bathroom is that the bathroom fixtures must all be positioned on the
same wall as the sink. Also for the other sanitary fixtures it would be
better to choose the suspended ones that give a more elegant
appearance and allow an optical expansion of the space.
This type of suspended sanitary ware are very practical also because they
allow quick and convenient cleaning. Lately they are a lot of design and
there are various models and prices.
Accessories and coatings
Next to the sanitary ware, if there is space left, you can put cabinets or
replace the shelves that allow you to exploit the space in height. When
space is scarce, you have to take advantage of every centimeter you have
available.
To try to make a long and narrow bathroom look much larger, a trick is to
apply, in addition to the classic mirror above the sink, a larger mirror on
the empty wall in order to give the impression of space and give light to
the room.
For the covering you can use your favorite color, as long as it is not too
dark, otherwise the bathroom would seem even smaller than it actually
is. Also in this case there is a trick, if you use a darker shade for the short
walls, compared to the others, the room will seem more square and
therefore optically larger.
The classic radiator can be replaced with a more modern and functional
towel rail heater. This will have the function of heating and can be used to
dry towels and bathrobes after a shower.
With these simple tricks, renovating a long and narrow bathroom will no
longer be a problem.
Lighting
Lighting is also very important to make a narrow and long bathroom seem
larger. In addition to the right lighting of the mirror above the sink, a
series of well-positioned spotlights can further enlarge the space. You can
also decide to put more light points with different powers in order to
have a light suitable for every situation and every moment of the day or night. Softer or stronger to meet the various needs that arise in the
bathroom.
