Powder Rooms: Small Yet Mighty

Despite its typically tiny footprint, the powder room has the potential to see heavier guest traffic than any other bath in the house, particularly if the homeowners are big on entertaining. 

Of course, it would be easy enough to just cram a builder- grade toilet and pedestal sink into the room, shut the door and call it a day. However, treated thoughtfully, the powder room can be the designer’s amuse-bouche – a bite-size stunner ideal for showcasing creative flourishes that might be too much in a larger room. 

There are nearly endless approaches for powder room and half-bath design: the client might crave something understated, elegant and soothing as a master spa-bath in miniature, or perhaps they want to go bold with a daring space that stands out as an exclamation point in the home. 

This month, Kitchen & Bath Design News asked selected designers to show off some of their favorite powder and half-bath projects, from the fresh to the fearless.

Harmonizing Old & New

“It’s the one place you can really pack a punch,” says Nureed Saeed, of powder rooms. Saeed is owner and creative director of full-service interior design firm Nu Interiors, a uniquely bi-coastal firm serving both California’s Bay Area and New Jersey, specializing in kitchen and bath renovations.

Packing a punch in limited space was the brief for a powder room in a West Coast 1920s colonial – that is, the cramped 3’x3′ one-time-closet with accordion doors and a raised floor. “The house never had a powder room until a previous 1980s renovation shoved one into a closet,” Saeed explains. The awkward step-up floor concealed plumbing grafted into a space it had never been (and had no business being!).

As the powder room was part of a larger home renovation that included the nearby kitchen and dining room, Saeed was able to poach a few additional square feet from the dining room, which allowed for an expanded – though still tiny – 3’x5′ footprint. Relocating the plumbing to the correct place in the basement allowed her to lower the elevated floor, further opening the space.

The obvious star of the room is the vibrant geometric Kelly Wearstler wallpaper, which calls back to the softer green hues featured in the kitchen. The flooring, by Fireclay Tile, offers another playful geometric touch with its Moroccan-inspired interlocking star and cross shapes, while the subdued matte gray hue and corresponding painted trim prevents too much visual noise. A floating concrete sink and wall-hung Duravit toilet save space while allowing for ease of maintenance and cleaning.

The revamped powder room met with approval from more than the homeowners – “Even the client’s former-contractor father approved!” Saeed remarks. 

A second powder bath project was coincidentally also located in a 1920s colonial – on the East Coast this time.

“The clients were young people relocating from the city who wanted to modernize the home without destroying the history,” Saeed explains. She further describes them as “a really cool couple, always ahead of the curve,” noting that they were among the first U.S. owners of an electric Tesla vehicle and were passionate about sustainability.

Prior to the renovation, the house only had one upstairs bathroom shared by the whole family. Because there simply was not enough square footage in the home to fit everything on the family’s wish list – which included a family room, expanded kitchen, mudroom and powder room – Saeed proposed and designed a 1,400-sq.-ft. indoor-outdoor addition. Situated at the back of the home, the more modern two-storey addition provides a fascinating visual contrast to the existing structure without eliminating its history.

The new powder room was designed to intentionally straddle the historic and contemporary elements of the home. “I tried to merge old and new, which is a lot of what I do,” notes Saeed. “I went with a subway tile because it wouldn’t feel out of place but would still be pulled forward in time by more modern wallpaper.” The wallpaper, a collaboration between Heath Ceramics and Hygge & West, is contrasted with a moody, saturated accent wall color that references the more modern gray-green kitchen.

The Young & The Dramatic

“The fun thing about working with all couples is, you learn something all the time,” remarks Meredith Weiss, founder and president of Long Island-based firm Merri Interiors. “I feel from young couples especially, they want it to feel like their house – not some random boring adult house. They take a little bit deeper of a plunge and tend to be more fashion-forward.”

Powder rooms are an ideal venue to showcase a young couple’s boldly independent taste. One such family engaged Weiss’s services for a first-floor remodel encompassing the kitchen, living room, full bath and half bath. “She had taste that was classic but trendy in other ways – simplicity, not too modern, timeless and dramatic,” says Weiss. “I knew she had good style based on her accessories and how she had her nails done; she always had a different manicure. I felt immediately that I could match her style.”

The powder room was conceived as “almost a reverse photo negative” to the rest of the floor, which featured light neutrals with dark accents. Accordingly, the powder room also features all neutral colors, but utilized in such a way that the space is dark and dramatic – all beneath a black ceiling. “A white ceiling would have outlined just how small the space is,” Weiss explains. 

A dark and abstract floral wallpaper carries the moody atmosphere down from the ceiling, terminating at wainscoting in a wood-look elongated tile in “a neutral light color for contrast while maintaining warmth,” Weiss says, adding that the wallpaper and tile combine to create a subtle biophilic nod.

Touches such as black sink legs and a gold and black light fixture tie back into kitchen accents, creating a sense of unity despite the contrast.

A unique ceiling color is featured in a second powder room project for a different young family: navy this time. “These were very fun people with an unfun house,” says Weiss. “It was out of date and just not theirs. Their style was classic but fun and not old.” 

The navy-colored ceiling crowns a climbing botanical wallpaper in an eye-catching scale, but the real showstopper is further down. “Certainly no one walks into a bathroom project thinking they’re going to purchase a gold floor!” says Weiss, of the gold back-painted hexagonal glass floor tile. “Because it’s glass, it feels very dimensional.”

Custom Creativity

“In general, we want the powder room to feel like it’s an extension of the home, but it’s a chance to create a bolder feel in the space,” says Ariana Lovato, founder and principal designer for coastal California firm Honeycomb Home Design. “We always treat it as an opportunity to make an impact.”

The undeniable star of the powder room in one new-build project in San Francisco is the floating walnut vanity, which boasts unique rounded corners. “We landed this project through Instagram,” says Lovato. “She reached out specifically asking about our cabinet line.” The line in question, Honey Cabinetry, offers semi-custom and fully custom options in an intimate boutique experience. For this project, the client requested a custom vanity, and Lovato worked with her cabinetry team to deliver the rounded edges that the client craved.

“The powder room is a lot darker and moodier than anything else in the house,” notes Lovato. “They wanted it to feel like its own little special room.” Dark chevron tile and a minimalist mirror with edges that nod to the shape of the vanity allow the custom piece to take center stage, complemented by light sconces from Visual Comfort in brass with an alabaster shade.

Another project, located in the Bay Area, also features cabinetry from the firm’s custom line, in rift-sawn white oak. This powder room, part of a whole-home remodel, was located just off the play area for the family’s four young children. “They wanted it to be fun for the kids, but easy to keep clean,” Lovato explains. “It’s itty-bitty, just a sink and toilet.”

Striking black Savoy Swiss Cross tile from Ann Sacks travels up the vanity wall and creeps across the ceiling – an unexpectedly sweet and playful use of a typically severe color – while the vanity top, vessel sink and brass sconces maintain a bright and clean feel.

Nuanced Neutrals, Thoughtful Textures

Another West Coaster, Megan Siason – the mind behind award-winning firm m studio interior design – tackled a whole-home remodel with a complicated goal, which was particularly reflected in the powder bath.

“Interestingly enough, the original home for this powder bath started out as a small, less than 1,000-sq.-ft. home in La Playa/San Diego, CA that was completely torn down and built to approximately 5,000 sq. ft.,” she relates. “The clients are repeat clients of mine who, after completing their primary residence, decided to purchase the home across the way to ensure that no one else would buy and build upwards to obstruct their view of the harbor, Downtown SD, Shelter Island, etc. It’s quite a view.”

The motivations behind the build and design made for a bit of a tricky design direction. “What made this space (and the entire home) somewhat challenging was that the clients could not tell me or the contractors whether they would plan to rent [the home] out short-term or long-term, or sell during our overall process,” Siason explains. “Since this home was not intended to be their primary residence…we were very careful to designate finishes that were not just universal, but intriguing, eye-catching and (to be very frank) wallet-friendly!”

The goal for the powder room became to create a space that would be neutral, yet anything but boring, with “economical, yet subtly captivating and easy-to-maintain finishes throughout.” Siason adds, “Of course, with my focus on creating spaces where people can thrive (and not yet knowing who these people would be!), I wanted to create a space that felt inviting, where literally anyone would feel welcome regardless of their personal style or design preferences.”  

Siason endeavored to create layers of texture and movement within a neutral color palette. A wall of light textural porcelain tile contrasts with a painted accent wall in a darker, deeper tone. Hexagonal porcelain floor mosaic tile “offers some movement against the more neutral palette,” while “the graining in the wood veneer wall mounted vanity is another layer of soothing texture to ground the rounded vessel sink.” 

The resultant space is “super neutral, yet pleasant…that feeling when you walk into a spa that’s not overdone in marble (I still love marble!), but that feeling of ease and restfulness without any pretension.”

In Vogue, In Between

Difficult to classify and not always given the love it deserves is the 3/4 bath. Smaller than the average primary or master bath, this bath typically offers a functional toilet/sink/shower trifecta and, in many homes, serves the needs of kids, in-laws and guests. Of course, especially where guests are concerned, this means that the 3/4 bath needs to pull double duty as a style statement and a functional space.

Such was the challenge faced by Ariana Lovato of Honeycomb Home Design when creating this mid-century-inspired half bath, part of a whole home remodel in upscale Santa Barbara suburb, Hope Ranch. “We had a lot of fun,” Lovato says.

Taking style cues from renowned post-war California designer Cliff May’s work, the freshened bath features a custom vanity by Lovato’s in-house cabinetry line, Honey Cabinetry, against a wall of vertical subway tile in a soothing blue-green colorway. Terrazzo flooring by Concrete Collaborative carries over into the bath and shower nook from outside of the bathroom, lending a sense of continuity to the space.