The best bathroom storage solutions, buys and out-of-sight hacks
Left, furniture and accessories by Dunhelm, top right, three-legged shower stool in acacia, €219, Medaworkshop, Etsy; reed vanity in Ruby Fern by Sonas, from €876.
Bathroom storage must be efficient, bordering on systematic to truly succeed. The average bathroom is simply too small for anything else. Let’s look at where new trending is meeting the best in classic bathroom storage hacks for 2026 and beyond.
Reaching for chic “wellness” vibe for your bathroom as feted on Instagram and every slippery paged magazine? First lighten the visual load of all the less appealing, disparate bottled stuff. The generous void under your bath might be interrupted by the volume of the tub, but there is plenty of room there for some slender shelving behind swing doors, drop-down drawers (hinged at the base) or simple sliders.
You could even just install an access point behind a magnetic tile or timber panel and leave your rougher cleaning goods on the floor under the bath. Having access to the plumbing could prove useful if you need to re-install a tap or fidget with the waste. Keep in mind is that putting any toxic cleaning gear close to the floor makes it accessible — too accessible for little fingers. Place a lock on it if you are in any doubt. Even visiting children could pry too far.
Intentional colour being seen all over the look books for 2026 is nuancing our bathroom design choices. Even where we’re shy of searing shades in tiling and paint, storage furniture and accessorising can do the work of accenting and dramatic colour-blocking.
Sonas bathrooms are signalling red as their colour of the season married to pill shaped units, curves and rounded corners. If you’re ready for a more characterful choice that the delicate pastels, blues, rubbed blacks and mint greens — snatch up some Ruby Fern, a beautiful calming red with a soft, dusty undertone.
More gallery than rocket red, it’s mesmerising in their floating reed vanity unit with its subtle fluted texture against a terrazzo tile floor. Swapping out a vanity, keep those plumbing positions as they are to save on installation costs. Sonas Reed (wall mounted) in Ruby Fern from €876 for a 600mm 2-door unit with basin, multiple retailers.
There’s no point flipping the bathroom storage before a serious purge. For an existing vanity or cabinet, do an honest inventory, based on your current habits and add about 15% more storage potential. Micromanaging the interior large drawers and deep shelves is the secret of every great organiser keeping bathrooms crisp, clean and functional.
The more specific you can be in assigning a type to your toiletries, the better. Where there are none, invest in a clutch of inexpensive retrofit dividers, slender plastic baskets, bamboo inserts (highly water resistant) or soft, fabric pouches from suppliers including Wayfair, Jysk, Ikea, HomeStore + More, and HomeSense.
No funds? Dig out every make-up bag/pencil case with top zip that you own. Give them a good clean, snuggle them up side-by-side, and use these to corral the in-drawer chaos. Expandable cutlery inserts are great for fiddly gaps.
No-drill and tension storage solutions are nothing new, but they are increasingly well detailed as we put manners on the space needed for self-care products, especially in and around the shower.
Doing a low-budget reset? Go no-drill with floor-standing, tension or suction mounted helpers. Ikea has long championed the cramped quarters of smaller bathrooms, and its Tisken tight-grip suction cup range are simple, sleek and so affordable.
All you need is a little glass or tile to fix them to surfacing for soap, bottle containers, towel racks and above all — some nifty little hooks (fantastic for the kitchen too incidentally); from €3.50 for two hooks, Ikea.com/ie. Don’t overload suction mounts — they all have a weight rating.
In shower and bath storage, choose quality additions the sit well with your existing colours in tapware and tiling to avoid a tacked-on finish. SimpleHuman are a by-word for user friendly storage design, and their tension storage towers can transform a tiny footprint in even a pokey corner shower.
Made using quality stainless steel and anodised aluminium, these engineered rails and baskets have a permanent feel even installed without fixed mounts. Choose from tension rods, over door/panel hanging caddies or handsome wire frame corner storage. Tension rods are perfect for even higher 2.8m ceilings, secured by robust springs and super grippy rubber feet. We love the 2.7m rod with adjustable shelves (it should last the lifetime of the shower enclosure). From €180, superhuman.ie.
Biophilic design that injects natural, curvy-swervy notes into those planes of cool crisp tiling has been around for decades. There’s one comforting organic material holding fast in what Tiktok dubs “bathscaping”.
Wood finishes speak of the design language of a spa-sanctuary — the leading trend in S/S 2026. In the latest water-resistant laminates, timber inclusions (even pretenders) can gentle any new or renovated bathroom. Match to appropriate humid loving houseplants that thrive in mixed shade, and add peg-rails, floating shelving, and woven front cabinets.
Earthy colours are persisting in more rustic inclined tile choices, and wood sits so comfortably against these faux stone beauties. With marble, and figured porcelain, sleek, painted timber and gloss types are a natural pairing. My choice is the timber shower stool. Perfect for balancing your chosen products during a shower or set by the bath to cradle your favourite towel or robe. €219 medaworkshop, Etsy.
A taller, floating two-legged vanity not only lets light fly, but also allows you the option of sliding bosomy baskets below a single or double drawer — another trending natural inclusion (natural or resin — who’s going to know?). I’m very taken with the authentic tribal weaves of the Dharma Door — a casual, slightly asymmetric flop in jute, hemp, and palm-fibre baskets crafted by FairTrade artisans.
Decorative and useful, bucket and gourd shapes are perfect for rolled towels, spare toilet rolls or occasional laundry. Prices from €39, thedharmadooreu.com. Colourways in new storage furniture including matt white, sage greens and duck egg blues conjure an airy, meditative, Scandinavian vibe.
Marry these to pale laminates like ash and beech and warm neutral tiling and paint. Floating shelving? Try simple box-frames that can display a small sculpture, painting, or plant or two on the top surface, fixed vertically or horizontally. The trick with open shelving is to habitually curate the contents. If you cannot behave, keep the chaos behind closed doors.
Whatever its styling, the best bathrooms of 2026 lack fuss. With accessorising, shelving and cabinets, decide how “present” you want them to be. Consider the addition of an inexpensive, extra wall cabinet for your bathroom in white without hardware (handles), with simple “bump” operation. In a slender depth, you would hardly know this medicine cabinet descendant had arrived, but 15cm-20cm depths of shelf in 40cm to 60cm wall-hung hiding will swallow a dozen ghastly plastic bottles.
White will effortlessly pick up on sanitary ware. B&Q’s Imandra white gloss cabinets from €113 could be slipped in anywhere, diy.ie. Deploy this accent trick with a simple L-shaped metal shelf too, picking up on existing tapware (stainless steel, black, brass). Pared back, calming design, can sit out in unobtrusively even around the sink apron. Joseph Joseph has the best compact liquid soap dispenser bar none for less than €25 a piece with non-drip nozzles. Buy refill soap/shampoo/gel bags to avoid piling up one-use plastics every month.
Going slender to squeeze it in, the vertical 30cm to 50cm wide storage cabinet remains the unsung hero of every typical, diminutive bathroom. If you like everything out of sight, teamed to a well-detailed vanity with two drawers, this may be all you need. Wall-hung or floor-standing, cabinets can snuggle close to the loo by as much as 10cm without appearing cramped, the eye is drawn up, up and away.
Match the colourway of your vanity, multiply light with a body-length mirror, or go with a harmonising or contrasting colour. Reeded glass is still causing ripples in 2026, and the Mossjogn wall cabinet w shelves/glass door, anthracite from Ikea is a bargain for €80 with a grab-and-go open shelf at the base, ikea.com/ie. Airy, semi-opaque glass cabinets like this are perfect if you’re drawn to the maximalist fashion for heritage wallpapers and tile drenching with intense colour working the walls.
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