No room for another cabinet? These 6 bathroom shelf designs find storage in the most unexpected places

You already know your bathroom doesn’t have room for another cabinet. What it does have is a handful of spots you’ve been walking past for years without really looking at them. These bathroom shelf designs show you what someone sees when they finally stop ignoring those corners, walls, and odd little gaps.

Four bathroom shelf setups shown together, from a light wood ladder tower in an attic bathroom and a leaning over-toilet ladder to dark floating shelves and a stepped bamboo shelf next to a bathtub — Bathroom Shelf Design Ideas Collage | Credit: @ourfirsthome_alton, @duramendesigns, @tucasabonitagt and @at_effs

Table of Contents

Bathroom Shelf Designs That Work the Spots You’ve Been Ignoring

Most American bathrooms are built with one vanity, one medicine cabinet, and that’s it. The storage runs out way before the stuff does, and adding another cabinet usually isn’t an option because the floor plan won’t allow it or you’re renting and can’t touch the walls.

Shelves fix that, but only if you put them where the room already has empty space. The six ideas below each find a different one of those spots. Some you’ve probably seen, some you probably haven’t, and one or two are going to make you look at your own bathroom differently tonight.

The Slim Fix for a Half-Bath With No Floor Space

Light wood ladder tower shelf standing in the narrow spot between a toilet and sink in an attic bathroom with sloped ceiling and small stone tile wainscot — Light Wood Ladder Tower in an Attic Bathroom | Credit: @ourfirsthome_alton

Attic and under-the-stairs bathrooms always have the same problem: by the time you fit in a toilet, a sink, and a shower, there is maybe twelve inches of floor left over. A tall slim ladder tower like this one takes up almost no footprint and still gives you four full shelves of storage. Load the deeper bottom shelves with rolled towels and keep the top ones for a plant, a jar of cotton swabs, something small. It gets you more usable storage than most medicine cabinets, in a slot that was dead space before.

Doubling a Tiny Sink Without Adding a Vanity

Narrow wood ledge extending the counter beside a small white wall-mount sink with brass fixtures in a terracotta tiled powder room — Wood Ledge Extending the Sink Counter | Credit: @duramendesigns

Those cute wall-mount sinks look great in a small powder room, but they give you about four inches of counter and nowhere to put the hand soap. Running a narrow wood ledge off to one side at the exact height of the sink basin solves it. Mount it so it butts right up against the sink and it reads as one continuous counter, not a separate shelf, and suddenly there is room for soap, a plant, and whatever else was ending up on top of the toilet tank.

Over-Toilet Storage That Needs Zero Screws

Natural wood leaning ladder shelf propped over the toilet with a trailing plant, rolled towels, a woven basket, and a reed diffuser in a gray tiled bathroom — Leaning Wood Ladder Over the Toilet | Credit: @tucasabonitagt

If you rent, you probably can’t drill into the tile above your toilet, but you can lean a wood ladder shelf against the wall and get the same storage for zero holes. The feet sit on the floor behind the toilet and the top rail rests flat against the wall, so the whole thing is stable without any hardware. Pile the lower shelves with rolled towels and baskets, use the top for a trailing plant, and the whole thing takes about ten minutes to set up and comes with you when you move.

Turning the Space Beside the Tub Into Useful Shelving

Stepped bamboo shelving unit beside a white tiled bathtub, holding trailing greenery, candles, apothecary jars, a potted plant, and stacked seagrass baskets — Stepped Bamboo Shelf Beside the Bathtub | Credit: @at_effs

The gap at the end of the tub sits empty in almost every bathroom because nothing standard is shaped to fit there. A stepped bamboo unit like this one is the fix: the top is a tall skinny column that holds candles and small jars, and the bottom steps out wider for the stuff that actually needs room, like stacked seagrass baskets of extra toilet paper or towels. Pick one with a wider base so your bath salts and bigger bottles stand upright instead of getting laid down sideways.

Dark Shelves That Make a Cream Wall Feel on Purpose

Three dark floating shelves mounted on a cream wall above a white toilet, holding stacked towels, backup toilet paper, lotions, and apothecary jars — Three Dark Floating Shelves Above the Toilet | Credit: @thread_ke

The wall above the toilet usually just has a framed print on it, which does absolutely nothing for your storage problem. Three dark floating shelves against a cream wall give you a full column of storage AND a bit of contrast the room was missing. Top shelf for towels you grab rarely, middle for backup toilet paper and lotions, bottom for cotton balls and swabs in clear jars. Space the shelves ten to twelve inches apart so you can actually pull things off without knocking into the one above.

For the Awkward Strip Between Toilet and Shower

White four-tier angled ladder shelf standing in the narrow gap between a white toilet and glass shower door with gray stone tile walls, holding woven baskets and apothecary jars — White Ladder Shelf Between the Toilet and Shower | Credit: @homebykatie_

Plenty of bathrooms have a sixteen inch gap between the toilet and the shower that nothing you’ve ever shopped for will fit into. A narrow angled ladder shelf, usually fourteen to eighteen inches wide, is built for exactly this spot. The frame leans backward at the top, which makes it feel less bulky in a tight space and keeps the lower shelves wider for actual storage. Stack woven baskets on the lower levels so hair tools and backup shampoo have a home that isn’t the shower floor or the sink.

Which of these spots in your own bathroom have you been walking past without really seeing?