Almost all of the design ideas I see for bathrooms are for square footage that is roughly equal to the main floor of my whole house. And most articles mention how space was ‘borrowed’ from a nearby closet or bedroom, which is not an option because of where our bathroom is located – I suppose we could ‘borrow’ from the foyer and just eliminate the front door, who needs a door to the street anyway?
The small bathroom designs all seem to be for powder rooms. Are small bathrooms just inherently unable to be well designed? I don’t really want a bigger bathroom, and I don’t need a separate shower or anything, but I would like a bathroom that is comfortable and visually pleasing. I want a place to put my stuff – everything ends up in the cabinets below the sink because it’s too tall or bulky for the medicine cabinet and not appropriate for a drawer.
Any ideas?
Replies
Depends on what you call "small". A typical 3-piece bathroom is only 5x7 or 5x8- how much "smaller" are you trying to get here?
Bob
Not that small! Our bath is about 7'x8', with an 8.75 sq ft chunk out of one corner. So no, there isn't room for a steam shower with separate soaking tub, the there is room to move things around a little and perhaps come up with creative storage.
If you have wall space try to make a built in cabinet. open walls and reframe add shelves and measure for door
Something I seldom see, is to build cabinets into what is normally the stud space of the wall, (can stay within the 14-1/2" spaces, or remove a stud here and there (depending on load)) or completely replace the wall with a shallow cabinet (if it's a non-load bearing wall).
Dear Aimless,
Your question is excellent. Many people don't have palatial bathrooms, but they still want them to be attractive and functional. In fact, we might like to use your question in the Q&A department of Inspired House. I wasn't able to email you directly, so could you please email or call me so we can talk about it?
Enid Johnson
Senior Copy Editor
Inspired House
800-926-8776 ext. 3830
[email protected]
A few years ago, Fine Homebuilding profiled Patrick Camus, an architect in the southern US, who renovated his small bathroom. It matched the measurements of mine almost perfectly - the only difference was the position of the door. I followed his design and my teenagers and I have been very happy with the results. Small can not only be beautiful, it can be very functional.
Martin,
Thanks for the tip - I'll do a search on Fine Homebuilding and see if I can get a copy of that back issue.
I just recently finished doing my 'tiny' bathroom. Its not even 5x7 and it's one of two bathrooms (the other one is just as small). Its something I live with and the price I have to pay for having an 1890's Victorian.
Some notes from my recent remodel:
Its an old house, so we obviously have the classic radiators. They take up a lot of floor space so we removed it and put in a European style panel. This gets it off the floor and has a much lower profile. It at least makes it seem like there's more floor space.
The door used to swing into the bathroom. With it so small, this always made it awkward getting out as you had to back up into the last little open floor space in order to get out of the way. Having a young child, I also thought this could be a safely issue if they fell and blocked the door -- there's literally no place where they could move or be moved out of the way. Now that it swings out, its easy to get in and out of the bathroom.
We used a pedastal sink. There really isn't room for a tradtional vanity (and if you wanted a his/her one, then you'd have to get rid of the toilet to make room). The pedastal sink also has the benefit of making it appear like there's more floor space. I can't tell you how much bigger it looks with the new radiator and pedastal sink!
We also used a simple color pallete. Some nice textured blue tiles (easy to spurge at the tile showroom when you have so little to tile!) and everything else is white. The ceiling is the same as the walls. The wainscot is just a gloss white (well, there's a reed/grass shade for the window from Smith and Noble).
To keep in touch with the historical origin of the house, we found an antique medicine cabinet with nice beveled glass that looks like it's always been there.
My wife gets the I.H. mag on occasion, and I'm a subscriber to F.H. And I must admit, I pulled out and reread the following articles: 'Installing a pedastal sink', 'Installing a bathroom fan' and 'Installing wainscot' (that issue came right after I started the work on the bathroom!). Its nice to refresh yourself on some helpful tips, even if you've done it before. And I also used a handful of the advertiser's products as well: the radiator, the bathroom light/timer switch, etc.
I'd post a photo if anyone is interested. I'm almost embarrassed to post the full dimensions.
Thanks for all the great ideas MJ, and yes, please post pictures, and dimensions!
I've tried talking my husband into a pedestal sink on the grounds that it will make the room feel bigger, but he is strongly against it, so I'm going to have to work around that one.
We live in a compact 20's bungalow and have had to get creative with space for bathrooms. One, a former 1/2 bath off the kitchen with an adjoining garden porch with a utility sink was turned into a walk-in slate shower room -great after a day at the beach or aggressive gardening-with wall mounted shower fixtures and a commercial style wall-mounted toilet, the sink in the adjoining porch lets it function a flexible bathroom for us. An extruded aluminum commercial door (I know, it sounds awful but take a look) with etched tempered safety glass allows for additional natural light and privacy
The 2nd, a new bath in a former underdeveloped lower level, was outfitted like a compact "head" in a boat. Both are constrained by tiny dimensions but are able to function quite well and are attractive to boot.
Hope this gives you a couple of ideas
Cheers,
Tad
Edited 9/13/2005 1:44 pm ET by DamonDesign
Tad,
Thanks so much for sharing your photos, you have some great ideas there. I had seen one of the pics of the nautical bathroom in the "space for guests" thread, but I liked seeing it again, as well as the others. One question about the garden shower - it looks like the toilet is in the same space. How do you keep your toilet paper from getting wet?
We need a tub in our bathroom because of our two young children, so we've been considering a 4' soaking tub. The footprint will be the same as a large shower, but we'll be able to bathe the girls (and use less water).
Thanks again for your great ideas. Maybe I'll have some before and afters to share at some point.
Hello aimless, ;-)Thank you for the positive comments-I realize some of my ideas are very specific to my home and needs yet sometimes one can grab an idea here or there for one's own home.It cracks me up how some folks are so concerned about the toilet paper-the holder is basically an open hook in which the TP roll just slides right off. The shower isn't used that often but actually is the best (strongest) shower in the house. I think the idea of a Japanese style soaking tub is great-I would definitely include a hand held shower fixture to the faucet unit, also I recommend that the tub is raised to make it easier for you (your back) to help bathe the kids.I hope this is helpfulGood LuckT