Renter Friendly Bathroom Hacks That Make It Look Insanely Beautiful!

There was a time in the first place I put down on my own as an adult when I had to put up with a bathroom that you just want to shut the door on and forget about.

You had your white plastic toilet seat, a mirror with a naked bulb over it, and some tiles. They were clean enough, but a shade of beige so bland it was almost a mood. The mirror was no bigger than an A4 sheet and hung at a level that made you wonder how short the last guy must have been. There was no room for anything, no character to be found. It was the bare essentials – a loo, a shower, a basin – all crammed in as tight as the builder would allow.

I put up with it for three months or so before I was done.

So I made some changes. I didn’t have to put a dent in my wallet, I didn’t pick up a drill, and I certainly didn’t have to have a word with my landlord. When I left, I put it right back where I found it and my deposit came back with nary a peep.

This is what I did, and what I’ve picked up on when it comes to sprucing up a rental without any trouble.

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Why Bathrooms Are Worth the Effort

When it comes to a rental, the bathroom is the room you’re most likely to put up with. It’s for good reason: it’s a tight space and in many cases has an unappealing look you can’t do much about.

You might be tempted to re-tile or put in some new fixtures, but as a renter, that’s not on the table.

Still, you’re in there at least twice a day. It’s where your morning begins and where you wind down before you go to sleep. Make it a place that’s a bit more to your liking and you’ll find it puts a different spin on your day, and it doesn’t have to be hard or expensive to do.

What you’ll see here are some workarounds for the realities of renting. We’re talking no-strings-attached fixes. No need to talk to the landlord, no damage done, and you can put everything back the way it was when you leave.

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The Lighting Problem

Bad lighting is the single biggest thing wrong with most rental bathrooms and it’s the thing people are least likely to think they can fix.

The bare bulb or the single flat overhead fixture casts a flat, unflattering light that makes the whole room feel clinical and slightly grim. It’s also terrible for actually seeing yourself in the mirror, which is presumably what you’re in there for.

1. Add Plug-In Sconce Lights or a Vanity Mirror With Built-in Lighting

You don’t have to break the bank for a good wall sconce. The plug-in type that you can put in any outlet is a fraction of the price of something hardwired, and it’s easy to put where you want it to cast a nice, even glow on both sides of the mirror.

That’s how you do it right, the way you’ll see in any pro setting where you have to be able to look at yourself.

Or there’s the option of a mirror with its own LED lighting.

One of those that just plugs in will do away with the need for a run-of-the-mill mirror and the poor light from above. I put one in as soon as I could in my apartment; it was the one thing that made all the difference in the bathroom.

Don’t overlook the colour of the light, either. A warm white in the 2700-3000K range puts a bit of life in the room. Go with a cool or daylight bulb and you might as well be in a clinic. If your current overhead has a replaceable bulb, start there. For next to nothing, you’ll see an instant improvement.

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The Mirror Problem

A small, poorly placed mirror does nothing for a bathroom except remind you that whoever designed the space was not thinking about the people who would actually use it.

2. Replace the Mirror or Add a Larger One in Front of It

You’ll find that in most rentals, the bathroom mirror is put up with some kind of clip or adhesive, not bolted in for good. So if you have one with clips, just take it down, put it away where it won’t be in the way, and put a bigger one up in its spot with the same hardware or some heavy-duty Command strips.

When the mirror is affixed to the wall, your best bet is to put a larger framed one in front of it. You can prop it on the back of the sink if there’s room, or hang it over the top with a strip or two. A large round one, for instance, will do wonders for a small bath; it makes the room seem much more open and put-together.

Go as big as you can. It bounces the light around, gives the illusion of more square footage, and makes the whole thing look like you actually put some thought into it.

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The Storage Problem

No storage in a bathroom means everything lives on the edge of the sink or on the floor, which makes even a clean bathroom look cluttered and chaotic.

3. Freestanding Storage That Doesn’t Touch the Walls

Put a narrow, freestanding shelf by or on top of the toilet and you’ve got some good storage without eating into your floor space.

Or a ladder shelf in the nook of a room. A little cabinet. Some baskets on the floor in the corner. You don’t have to put a single thing on the wall for any of it, and they’re all yours to take when you move on.

Then there are the over-the-door hooks for the back of the bathroom door. The sort that just go over the top, not the ones you have to screw in. They’ll hold up a towel, a robe or a bag of your stuff and you won’t be left with so much as a mark on the door.

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The Cheap Fixtures Problem

The plastic toilet seat, the basic chrome everything, the builder grade fixtures that remind you with every use that nobody spent any thought on this room.

4. Swap the Toilet Seat

If you’re a renter, there’s a bathroom fix you haven’t put on your radar yet. It doesn’t cost much and it makes all the difference.

Put in a wooden or soft-close toilet seat. You can have it up in five minutes without even breaking out a tool set, and you can take it with you when you leave. Just put the original in a closet, make the switch, and before you hand over the keys, do it in reverse. The new one is yours to bring to the next place.

When you have a wood seat in an all-white-tiled room, it doesn’t look like what the builder put in. It looks like you made a choice of style. Don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s no big deal.

5. Change the Showerhead

It’s the same idea as with a toilet seat. For the most part, you can just unscrew a showerhead with your hands or a wrench.

Put in a new one and put the old one in a drawer. A rainfall model that works with a standard fitting is hard to come by for much money, and it will make an ordinary shower feel like you put some thought into it.

Now, don’t expect the head to do anything about water pressure or temperature; that’s up to the pipes in the building. But there is a world of difference in how a quality showerhead feels, and you’ll be done in ten minutes.

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The No Decor Problem

A bathroom with nothing on the walls, no colour anywhere, no texture, just flat tiles and plastic fixtures, feels temporary even when you’re trying to live there properly.

6. Removable Wallpaper on One Wall or Behind the Toilet

You can put a whole new spin on a bathroom with just one wall of removable wallpaper. Go for something with a bit of character, be it a botanical or geometric print, and you’ll see the room’s mood shift in an instant.

The spot behind the toilet or the one facing you when you come in are fine options; they make their presence known without making the place feel cramped.

But do your homework before you put it up.

In a bathroom, you want to be sure the product is made for the kind of humidity you’ll have. An off-the-shelf roll might start to let go at the edges once the room has been steaming up for a while. Stick with a vinyl or some other moisture-resistant type and it will stand up to the conditions.

7. Add Plants

Put a plant in a bathroom and it has a way of feeling more put-together, more alive, than if you don’t.

If the room is well-lit, you can have your pick of houseplants. But in a windowless bathroom, you’re limited to a few hardy types: pothos, snake plants, or a ZZ. These are the ones that will do well in the dark, not merely put up with it.

You don’t need much to make an impact. A plant on top of the tank, a little one on a corner shelf, or something in a hanger by the door will do the trick. It’s what separates a space that feels like it has some life in it from one that doesn’t.

8. Towels and Textiles as Decor

You can do this at no cost, provided you have some good towels and are just not putting them to use.

There’s a world of difference between the standard rail your apartment has and, say, a basket on the floor with some rolled-up towels or a few on an open shelf. It feels much more put-together. And a bath mat that goes with your tiles is like a rug for the rest of the house; it ties the space up.

Then there’s the shower curtain. If you have one, it’s probably the most noticeable thing in a rental bathroom.

The one they give you is usually a plain piece of white plastic, if they even put one in. You can put up a fabric one in any pattern you like in half a minute, and it’s yours to take when you move out.

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Making It Feel Cohesive

The individual hacks above do real work on their own. What makes the bathroom look genuinely beautiful rather than just better than it was is when they work together as a considered whole rather than a collection of separate additions.

9. Choose a Colour Story and Stick to It

Two or three colours maximum, and let them run through everything. If your towels are white and your plant pot is terracotta and your shower curtain picks up both, the bathroom reads as designed even though nothing permanent has changed.

If your towels are blue, your mat is grey, your plant pot is green and your shower curtain is something else entirely, the room looks like a collection of individual purchases rather than a considered space.

Pick the one fixed element you can’t change, usually the tiles, and build your colour story from there. White tiles go with almost everything. Beige tiles suit warm tones. Dark tiles can handle contrast.

10. Decant Your Toiletries

This sounds minor and is not minor.

A bathroom counter covered in different branded bottles, various heights, various colours, various labels, looks cluttered no matter how clean it is. The same products decanted into matching pump dispensers or simple bottles immediately reads as intentional and calm.

Matching dispensers for shampoo, conditioner, body wash and hand soap cost very little. A small tray underneath them turns the collection into a display. The counter goes from chaos to something that looks like a hotel bathroom, which is usually the aesthetic people are actually trying to achieve when they say they want their bathroom to look beautiful.

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A Final Thought

You wouldn’t have recognized the bathroom in my very first apartment by the time I was done with it. I didn’t put a hammer to any of the walls or anything, but I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to let a rental be just a rental.

When the landlord came for the final walk-through, he went right in and didn’t make a peep. That was as it should be. I left all my touches behind and the rest was in the same shape I put it in.

One thing: don’t leave your toilet seat when you pack up. You’ll be using it at the next one.

I’m out for now. But if you’ve got a trick for a rental bathroom that you can vouch for, put it in the comments.