People often equate luxury with size—but bigger isn’t always better. Small bathrooms and the small showers within them can be even more enchanting and spa-like than their larger counterparts. Limited space lends an unmatched coziness to tiny showers. And with the right tiles, doors, and hardware, that intimacy truly feels lavish (rather than cramped). Here, six small showers that make an oasis out of minimal square footage.
A Vibrant Orange Shower
.jpg)
The most striking of the three bathrooms in Edoardo and Giulia Anna Milesi’s colourful Bergamo, Italy, home features a bright orange shower with rectangular ceramic tiles laid vertically to accentuate the height. The Archos architects outfitted the vibrant shower with contemporary chrome fixtures, like a rain faucet, a handheld sprayer, and two soap holders. Pale wood millwork and a festive woven rug complete the space.
A Moody Tub Shower
From the original Mexican kitchen tile to the custom wooden platform bed frame, there’s a lot to love about this little Austin bungalow, which Benjamin Stelly of interior design studio Stelly Selway moved into during the pandemic. But the best part is the moody tub shower that he painted Behr Light Truffle to match the freshly coated walls. He also turned a canvas tarp from a tractor supply store into an industrial-chic shower curtain.
Also read: 5 earthy bathroom designs that embody textural charm
A Caramel Checkerboard Shower
With alternating matte and glossy zellige tiles, Shelley Young of Tandem Design created a caramel checkerboard shower in the tight downstairs bathroom of an upstate New York farmhouse. “It was just one moment where we could get a little crazy,” she says. “It’s such a small space, it wasn’t going to take up too much of your eyesight. I love the checkered tiles and I love the mix and match. It just got playful.”
A Sea Blue Shower With Natural Light
While updating a tiny home in Milan, Anna Foresio and Pietro Carlino of Fo.Ca Studio decided to make the bathroom even smaller to let more natural light into the living area. But the miniscule bathroom size didn’t keep the design duo from building an alluring shower with undulating sea blue tiles, a handy niche, and a long, narrow window.
Also read: 9 modern bathroom ideas to try for a spa-like oasis
A Speckled Sage Tub Shower
In a minimalist Park Slope pied-à-terre, interior designer Margaux Lafond made sure all three bathrooms felt like a vacation for her China-based clients. The inviting shower in the guest bath inverts a classic tile trope, featuring large-format speckled sage rectangles on the walls and small-format gray-green squares on the tub exterior and floor. The smoke-toned glass shower door reads green from all the reflection.
A Retro Tub Shower
It’s difficult to make a rental feel luxurious, but Juan Carretero of Capital C Interiors managed to achieve a sense of richness in the bathroom of his compact West Village apartment by painting its ceiling bottle green. He embraced the existing checkerboard tile stripe, brought in some plants, and hung a colour-block HAY shower curtain to give the tub shower some personality. “That’s really all you can do in a rental,” he says.
.png)
