Help me decorate a tall, narrow toilet!

[chelseamorning]

I have a north-facing downstairs loo which I'm about to decorate. The ceiling is high and the room is narrow. Room dimensions: 86cm wide x 212cm long.

There is a window on the far wall with a loo below. There is a small sink on the right-hand side. There is a wooden dado around the room, about 50cm from the floor. The floor is grey ceramic tiles but I'm trying to persuade DP to put down some beige carpet to give it a more cosy feeling.

What colours shall I use to decorate? How can I make the room feel wider? Apart from a mirror above the sink, is there anything else I can do to introduce more light?

Any tips, please!

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The dado rail seems unusually low - would it be possible to raise it to around 80cm? And also put in a picture rail at around 2-2.1m? Then choose a paint range which does different shades of the same colour (Try Little Greene, or Paint Library). Then paint everything above the picture rail (including the ceiling) the darkest shade, the middle section the lightest and the lower section in a medium shade. You want the lightest bit where your eyes are, and you want to give the impression of a lower ceiling, and this will help. Put eyecatching things at eye level, pictures in reflective frames for instance, and yes a mirror over the basin will help. Personally I'd stick with the ceramic tiles in a loo rather than carpet.

Try a horizontal striped fabric at the window, ideally a roman blind. HTH

We recently moved into a house with a long, narrow downstairs loo with a window at one end.

We've just divided off about a third of it with a stud wall, and put in an extra doorway, to make a large cupboard. This has given us a really useful cupboard space (used for our washing machine and dryer, but would also be great for coats/toys/scooters etc instead). It also has the side effect of making the loo much shorter, and so wider feeling (ie more in proportion).

Would you consider doing this? It is a bit of work but you get a much better use of space at the end.

If not, I agree with fresh's suggestion of using different paint colours. A darker paint under the dado and a lighter one above will help bring down the ceiling. I think a picture rail could look a little odd in a loo but you could give it a go and see! I also would stick with tiles not carpet. But a nice fluffy towel for hand drying will help.

Could you put a Velux window in the ceiling (or is there another room above the loo)?

I think loos are a good opportunity to use fun wallpaper or bold colours that you couldn't live with in other rooms. (Unfortunately my DH doesn't agree, so our loo is white rather than the deep pink that I wanted [sulky emoticon])

Thanks so much for the replies. I'll take a look at some paint samples to see what will work, Fresh.

Minipie, we've just completed about a year of remodelling our house so I'm not planning on any more major work! A very interesting suggestion though and glad it worked out for you. However in my case, the kitchen is on one side of the wall, the garage on the other and a bedroom above. Creating a useful cupboard would be good but then the window would be in the cupboard and not in the WC. Shame as it's a good suggestion!

carpet is a big no-no. try a small area rug if you must. we are looking to decorate an understairs loo that makes yours sound massive! my feeling is a small loo is what it it is and you can't do too much to make it feel bigger (though there is some good advice here). I personally want to put in some wallpaper, for fun and character.

Your downstairs loo sounds a bit like ours - funnily enough it has become one of my favourite rooms. It has dark burgundy tiles with some big ornamental tiles interspersed and I have gone for matching towel and bin and I always try to have pink or red soap on the sink (wouldn't have been my choice of colour scheme starting from scratch, but it is surprisingly effective). We have put some interesting pictures on the walls and I have a collection of scented candles and always a small posy of flowers on the windowsill. We have a small rug on the floor (long and narrow like yours) to make it a bit more cosy - agree with what other posters say about carpet in loos. Visitors always comment - and I think it is good to remember that that is one of the rooms most visitors see.

Fill it with pictures, posters, photos, quotes from newspapers - I could've spent an hour in a small downstairs loo I used today it was so interesting!