What about a warm blue or light lavender (matching your shower curtain)?

After having had bathrooms of all colors - cranberry red, cobalt blue, sky blue, sage green, butter yellow, cotton candy - I think a warm white might be the way to go. Not sterile, bluish white or yellow, creamy white - just a warm white. Accessories, towels, shower curtain can be easily changed for pops of color and mood, and the lighter color will open up the room and be more calming.

I think with those floor tiles you need a color with a warm base - how about Sweet Daphne (Benjamin Moore). It's sort of a neutral spring green.

And I know you didn't ask but if you could figure out a way to put your things in storage bins that fit in the vanity so you can get rid of that plastic shelving unit that is jammed in next to the toilet, the bath would look a lot better.

I like the light lavender idea, or perhaps a light green that is more in the olive family than your sample that you are not happy with. Either will complement your shower curtain. Also, paint the mirror frame either to match your cabinets or perhaps a darker hue of what you choose for the walls.

To make the room look larger, the best thing you could do would be to remove the storage drawers by the toilet. That area looks really crowded. Can you fit the drawers inside the sink cabinet? And maybe put a shelf or two on the wall above the toilet. You can make room there by switching to a towel ring instead of the existing bar.

If you really need to keep the stuff in the plastic drawers accessible, go shopping for a similar storage piece that is narrower and if it is the same height as the vanity, great!

I would do one of two things: Either get a color from an accessory or the shower curtain that you really like and have it matched or pick one of the many designer colors from Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Martha Stewart, etc. These colors tend look really nice on the wall and narrow your choices from literally thousands of shades to a few hundred. Good luck!

I would go with white. We have beige throughout our rental, too. The ceiling, like your bath, is white. I've been itching to paint the whole thing white to make it feel cleaner. I think it would brighten up the floor, too.

Maybe some shallow shelving on that slanted wall with organizers. Walmart has some nice wire ones on the cheap now for the dorm people. Works just as well for us regular folk!

The sticker on the toilet tank...we had that, too. A razor blade and some hand lotion will work that right off. :)

I would go with a warm white and go with a modern hotel style. Change the shower curtain to a simple fabric one, maybe with a dark stripe, then get rid of the plastic drawers. If you absolutely must have storage, remove the towel bar and mount shelves instead. Wood tone shelves would look really nice. You can even find one that has the bar underneath so you can still put a towel there (but why people put towels above toilets, I have no idea).

Another way to make the bathroom look bigger is to replace that mirror with something smaller. It's just way too big. It butts up against both the vanity and the light, and draws attention to how cramped that area is. You should give the vanity and light some empty space.

I would go dark, not light. I once used Morning Coffee from Benjamin Moore in a small powder room with white trim. Dark walls can make a small, bland space seem large and warm.

I'd also get rid of that light above the mirror. Ugh!

What about painting the vanity a dark brown to match the wood of the mirror? And then choose a nice warm white for the walls - something like Benj Moore Navaho White or Linen white. And pick up a color from the shower curtain for your towels.

Also, a good tip for getting started with choosing colors generally is to search the AT archives. There have been lots of posts about good colors, naming specific colors and that's a good place to start.

I would go with white. That way you can add any accessory to make it look great. I would switch out that mirror and replace it with something a little nicer and change the lights. Good luck.

I have almost exactly the same bathroom as you do. I have a lavender that has a touch of dove grey which works really well. In my experience, a cool color contrast to the warm tiles feels crisper. Even though I like warm colors, only having warm colors in a room makes things become 'mushy' with lack of contrast, especially if you choose all light colors.

You can get under sink pull-out wire drawers like this, which fits to the right and left of the plumbing:
http://www.containerstore.com/shop/bath/cabinetUndersinkStorage/drawersPullOutTrays?productId=10017300&N=77922

They are a life saver for me.

When you are done painting I would evaluate the color of your mirror frame and cabinet and go with one of them and then also install a nicer towel rack to go with it. Maybe a shelf/towel rack combination would work too. In my bathroom the towel rack is opposite the toilet, which would free up the space above the toilet for a picture or small shelf.

Good luck!

I'm partial to light gray. It's the one paint color that was in my home when I moved in 6 years ago that I still really like. It looks crisp and clean with white trim. You can keep it very neutral with accessories, or add bright pops of just about any color, and change accent colors whenever you want. (I have gray in my kitchen with beige-y tile like yours, and it looks fine.)

Another idea: add some natural textures to the room (i.e., a fabric outer shower curtain, swap out your plastic drawers for wood or something woven, etc.)

I have a bathroom about this size. We removed the towel bar and replaced it with shelves. To hang towels to dry, we put a second shower curtain rod (one of those tension rods) on the back wall of the shower. This is great for hanging handwashables, bathing suits, wet towels, etc. and they are out of sight behind the shower curtain!

Hi, I recently painted my bathroom a deep grayish plum called Tropical Dusk (Benj.Moore), similar to the dark plum squares in your shower curtain. It is absolutely stunning, sophisticated, complex, NOT at all pastel (which I don't care for, that's just me), inviting and is now the favorite color in my apartment. And I'm a paint freak who constantly repaints different colors, but this one's definitely a keeper! My friends love it too, so much so that when they come over they like to hang out in the bathroom because the color is so comforting. And it does NOT make the room look smaller at ALL. http://www.benjaminmoore.net/samples/1432.html

We have an all beige home, too. We used a medium dusty teal in one room, and a bright cheery periwinkle in the other. Love them both.

My favorite bath color has always been a really light aqua. It works well with brown. It works well with white. Works great with yellow. Works with red. Orange. Green. Purple. I don't think you can go wrong with a light aqua..."Watery" by Sherwin Williams is an aqua shade I really like...classy rather than garish.

Apachejaz: That is a brilliant idea. We've been stuggling for 4 years in our small bathroom to come up a with a workable towel hanging solution.

To the problem at hand - just painted our bathroom Benjamin Moors 'Feather Gray" and we really like how it looks and feels in our small bathroom. The color shifts between blue, gray and lavender - http://www.flickr.com/photos/maryja/7265833464/in/photostream

I have found green difficult to work with on walls. Your sand-colored floors would go well with a very cool, pale blue gray...giving a a beachy or spa feel. But they could also be balanced with a tinted white with a shot of pink in it -- a seashell color. Benjamin Moore has a white they call Cameo that is great in a bathroom.

I have a similarly small bathroom and had to make the tones in the tile and countertop and toilet work together. No easy feat. In the end, the bathroom was painted a light neutralish cream. The color is Muslin Wrap by Valspar. The towels have accents of coral and turquoise. It's easy to deal with. Not terribly exciting but clean and fresh. I'll let the new owners deal with a exotic color choice.

Oh, and get a new light fixture for above the medicine cabinet. You can wire a new one up in about 15 min. Trust me, I've done 4 of them in my bathrooms. HUGE difference.

I think a light-to-medium gray would look great with the white vanity and trim, and wouldn't clash with the floor. I know the tile is warm, but matching warm-to-warm tones makes it feel dated (like the tan you have now). Add fresh pops of color to the gray/white neutral backdrop. This one needs more than paint color... I'd also get rid of the plastic drawers, add a cabinet or shelving above the toilet, replace the vanity light, get modern cabinet pulls, paint the mirror frame white to match the vanity, and *definitely* ditch the cheesy plastic curtain and get a fabric one with the liner!

Here a some fun bathrooms: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/small-bathrooms_1-169049

There are a few pictures in which one or two whole walls are devoted to simple, large, frameless mirrors. Paint less, create more optical space. Why not? Paint the remaining wall bits white and enjoy!

We recently bought a house with a small bathroom with tan walls, similar to yours, and an exposed wood ceiling. We went with a nice soft white for the walls. It makes the room seem much bigger and lighter, and then we have pops of color in the shower curtain and towels.

I painted my previous rental bathroom aqua- walls, trim and ceiling - because it was moldy and gross. Landlord remediated the mold and I painted because he left and did not paint. I wouldn't recommend painting the trim and ceiling all the same as the walls because you feel kind of like you are underwater, but the aqua was really, really nice.

This is an interesting thread to read through simply for the fact that I think a lot of landlords are getting good deal on that tile in particular and it's popping up not just in my own duplex rental but in a lot of other rentals my friends are taking up residence in. You guys are giving me some good ideas with what to approach my landlord with if I ever get around to asking permission to paint our own slightly-pinkish-beige walls. (Once I finish repainting the yellowing trim back to a nice white... grrr...)

I love Martha Stewart's Lagoon for the bathroom. Interestingly, I have the same flooring and find the blue/green of Lagoon nicely balances out the pinky tone of the tiles. Paired with white fixtures and accents I like that it looks crisp and clean all the time.

green & related colours are not good choices for walls of bathrooms or spaces where grooming occurs.