In most bathrooms, the ability to get ready for your day and have enough space to move around can often be a challenge. Your bathtub and shower area can often be an area that is forgotten when considering space saving, and utilizing a shower curtain can save valuable space.

Shower curtains are versatile, can change with your decor, and don’t require a lot of space to open and close a shower door. If you have been trying to find more space and make your bathroom look larger, consider ashower curtain with these helpful ideas.

20 Genius Ways to Make Your Bathroom Look Bigger with Shower Curtains

1. Use Shower Curtains to Add Fashion

Shower curtains have come a long way in home decor

Remember when shower curtains weren’t fashionable and they only came in a few colors and styles? What was once associated with college dorms and small apartments have now become fashionable and attractive. Depending on your bathroom decor a ruffled fabric will work nicely with your romantic-inspired bathroom or a high contrast colored variety will match the rest of your sleek and modern bathroom nicely. Shower curtains can be pulled back to add visual space to your bathroom interiors and pep up your interior’s styling.

2. Use Shower Curtains to Increase Your Bathroom Size

Shower curtains can enhance any bathroom

Who doesn’t need more space in their bathroom? Shower curtains are a great option for bathrooms that don’t want to install glass enclosure doors or don’t have enough room for the swing of the door. Many shower curtains install on low profile tracks on the ceiling to enable the curtain to stay open while making your bathroom feel larger. Also, consider adding a valance or hang a decorative fabric for a formal approach to your bathtub/shower area. These curtains can also have a liner placed behind the fabric curtain to ensure water doesn’t damage the valance and decorative curtain.

3. Use Shower Curtains to Add Drama

Shower curtain can hide hard and cold tile unlike a clear glass doorShower curtain valance ideas for a formal bathroomAdd drama to your bathroom with rich drapery fabric

Shower curtains can also serve another purpose, adding drama and setting the scene for a gorgeous bathtub/shower wall. Consider draping fabric from the ceiling to add softness to a hard ceramic tile or boring bathtub/ shower area. A dramatic bathroom shower curtain is perfect for a guest bathroom or even a master bathroom that needs a dramatic, more grown-up feeling, eye-catching focal point. Use decorative sheets, fabrics, and even window treatment material to beautify your shower area. Hang fabric from the ceiling to add visual height and make your bathroom look and feel larger. Add colorful wallpaper, and decorative bath accessories to complement your bathroom shower curtain. Think of your shower as a window wall and you will be surprised at the creative possibilities.

Photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.

4. Get an Extra Long Floor to Ceiling Shower Curtain

Taking shower curtains all the way from the ceiling to the floor is a great way to make your bathroom seem bigger. It doesn’t matter which pattern or print you use for your shower curtain, using an extra long shower curtain adds drama and impact to your bathroom design. If you’re getting a single-color shower curtain, try to stick with light shades to keep things from looking cramped. Mount curtain rods close to the floor and choose shower curtains long enough to puddle on the floor for a sophisticated look. (via Yellow Brick Home)

5. Buy a Patchwork Shower Curtain for a Big Look

Keeping patterns and prints large on your shower curtain can help keep the shower curtain from making your bathroom look small. Just because you’re trying to make the bathroom look larger doesn’t mean that you have to keep it white. Keeping the bathroom in neutral shades may make it look larger, but it can make it look plain, too. This do-it-yourself patchwork shower curtain gives your bathroom design an eclectic, bohemian look. The great part is you can modify the fabrics in the design to match any color scheme you want to use. (via Sew Can She)

6. Match the Shower Curtain to the Walls

Matching the color of your shower curtain to the walls can help give your entire bathroom a unified look. Without any color changes to break up the space, your bathroom will look like one large whole instead of many fragmented elements. Keeping the shower curtain the same color as the walls allows you to include a print or pattern without breaking up the look of the space too much. Sticking with a vertical pattern can help accentuate high ceilings. (via Fabric.com)

7. Go with a White on White Shower Curtain

Sticking with white is one of the most popular ways of making a room look larger than it actually is, and it’s a popular color in bathrooms because it makes the room look sanitary. White is also the most reflective color that you can use in an interior design, meaning any artificial or natural lighting that hits it will naturally be bounced around the room to give it a light and airy feel. Choosing a shower curtain with a small accent trim like this curtain from Room for Tuesday lets you go with a white-on-white look while still adding a soft touch to break up the space. (via Room for Tuesday)

8. Use All Caps to Make a Shower Curtain Statement

If you want to keep your bathroom looking big, one way to make a statement is to choose a shower curtain with a big typeface of a funny or inspiring quote. Impact font keeps this look big and bold. Using a graphic font for your shower curtain focal point instead of a pattern makes your shower curtain look whimsical and contemporary. This statement shower curtain from A Beautiful Mess will make you laugh in the morning no matter how sleepy you are. (via A Beautiful Mess)

9. Go with Large Horizontal Colorblock Stripes Shower Curtain

Vertical patterns make your bathroom look taller, but large horizontal stripes are a good way to make your bathroom look wider. If you want your bathroom to look colorful without looking small, the key is to keep each section of the color large so it doesn’t break up the look of the room too much. Bright tropical colors are a good way to set off a white background in the bathroom, too.

10. Add A Textured Shower Curtain, Not Color

To keep a monochromatic white bathroom interesting, be sure to add some texture to your shower curtain for a more airy and romantic feel. Frilly ruffles are a great addition to a semi-sheer shower curtain to make you feel like you’re taking a soaking bath on top of a cloud. (via Create/Enjoy)

11. Use A See-Through Print Shower Curtain

For small bathroom spaces, sometimes the best way to keep a shower curtain from making your bathroom look cramped is to use one that’s see-through. Pair a transparent shower curtain material with a fun graphical print to help keep it from feeling like you’re taking a shower in plastic wrap. (via A Beautiful Mess)

12. Include a Dark Outline on a Light Shower Curtain

Pairing a white shower curtain with a white wall can make the room look bigger, but it can also wash everything out and make it hard for the eye to focus on any focal point in the room. To avoid this, choose a white shower curtain with a dark border outline or trim. This helps set the shower curtain out visually from other light-colored items in the room and gives you an accent color that you can use in other areas. You can also incorporate this dark trim color in bathroom rugs or countertop accessories to help unify the look into one large cohesive space. (via Cypress Street Home)

13. Go with an Iridescent Shower Curtain Look

Along with using white to help reflect light in the bathroom to make it look larger, you can also look at reflective surfaces. Choose an iridescent material or any other reflective material such as sequels or holographic sparkles to bounce light around the room and create the optical illusion that it’s bigger than it is. Iridescence is a great way to add just a little touch of color to an otherwise light-colored or neutral bathroom. (via POPSUGAR)

14. Use An Ombre Shower Curtain to Lead the Eye

If you’ve got a small bathroom, you’ll have to use some visual tricks to make the room appear larger. Ombre is a design technique that starts with one dark end of a gradient and gradually lightens. The eye is drawn to the lightest lights and the darkest darks in the room, so having both on the shower curtain at opposite ends helps draw the eye upward, making the room feel spacious. Ombre is also a good way to include some darker colors without them being overwhelming. (via Wonderful DIY)

15. Use an Accent Color in Your Shower Curtain

Keeping your bathroom mostly pale or white can help keep the room from feeling claustrophobic, but it doesn’t exactly give you much to work with in terms of putting your own personal touch on the space. Install a DIY indigo-dyed shower curtain to act as your accent wall or focal point in the room. This allows you to add a bold custom color without overwhelming the space. (via In Color Order)

16. Stencil a Geometric Design on Your Shower Curtain

If you’re going to go with a pattern on your shower curtain, the best way to help the pattern make the room look larger instead of smaller is to keep it geometric. Geometric designs let you go with a slightly smaller pattern while still giving the room an organized look. Combined with a neutral wall, this stenciled look can help your room feel contemporary and spacious. (via Cutting Edge Stencils)

17. Use Colorful Patterned Shower Curtains to Brighten Dark Bathrooms

A dark color palette in your bathroom can make the room look closed-in and small. Help make it look bigger with a bright pop of color by incorporating dramatic, colorful prints. These types of shower curtains are especially helpful in decorating alcoved tubs and shadowy areas that might seem dim or cheerless otherwise. (via Home Design Lover)

18. Go with a Clear Shower Curtain

If you’ve got a truly tiny bathroom, the best way to make it look bigger is to make the shower curtain completely transparent. This allows you to see into the shower and all the way from one end of the room to the other for the maximum visual space possible. (via Apartment Therapy)

19. Use a Botanical Print to Bring the Outdoors In

Since they remind visitors of the great outdoors, botanical prints are an intriguing way to make a room feel bigger while also making it feel cozier at the same time. Botanical prints come in a wide variety of different aesthetics to fit your bathroom no matter how the rest of your home is decorated. (via DIY Network)

20. Keep Graphic Designs on Shower Curtains Big and Simple

Using solid-colored shower curtains is the easiest way to keep the shower curtain from making the bathroom feel small, but a plain shower curtain in any color can be boring. If you’re planning on using a graphic design, be sure to use a large image to help keep the room from looking cluttered. Check out this Swiss cross shower curtain design from The Wicker House for an example of how to pull this minimalist look off. (via The Wicker House)

They take up a lot of visual space and are often the focal point in the bathroom, so picking out the right shower curtain is important if you’re trying to make your bathroom look larger. Choosing light shades, bright colors, transparent materials, and organized prints can help keep your shower curtain from cramping your style. Shower curtains have gotten a bad reputation in the past for being utilitarian, boring, and ugly. Instead of thinking of the past with shower curtain reputations, use these helpful ideas to inspire your bathroom. Go ahead, get more space in your bathroom with these ideas and see how your bathroom will instantly look better!