Small Bathroom Layouts That Actually Work

A small bathroom has room for one good plan and several bad ones. The fixtures are fixed sizes, the drains come up where they come up, and a few inches decide whether the door clears the toilet or hits it. Small bathroom layouts that work are the ones drawn around those limits first and around tile and fixtures second.

This guide gives the space each fixture needs, four layouts that fit the bathrooms found in Toronto and GTA houses and condos, which changes mean new plumbing, and what to measure before you settle on a drawing.

How much space does each bathroom fixture need?

More than its own footprint. Every fixture needs clear floor in front of it and elbow room beside it. The National Kitchen & Bath Association publishes planning guidelines with a recommended figure and a smaller minimum for each one. They are a sound starting point; the Ontario requirements for your own job should be confirmed before the plan is final.

Two fixed sizes shape most small rooms. A standard alcove bathtub is 60 inches long and 30 to 32 inches wide, which is why so many older Toronto bathrooms are exactly five feet across. A common vanity is 21 inches deep, and slim models come at 18.

Which small bathroom floor plans fit a typical Toronto house or condo?

Four plans cover most small full bathrooms. Which one suits your room depends on its proportions, on where the existing drain stack sits and on whether the household still needs a tub. Start from the plan closest to what you have, because it reuses the most plumbing.

A condo bathroom usually starts as plan 1 or 2 and stays close to it. The drains pass through a concrete slab into the unit below, so the toilet in particular tends to remain where the building put it. Our condo and apartment renovation page explains what the corporation has to approve.

Which layout changes need new plumbing, and which do not?

Anything that stays on its existing drain is a simple change. Anything that moves to a new spot on the floor means opening the floor or the ceiling below, and relocated plumbing is one of the things that can bring a permit into the job. The list runs from least to most disruptive.

1. Swapping a fixture for one the same size. New toilet, new vanity of the same width, new tub in the same alcove. The pipes stay.
2. Changing the vanity width or going wall-hung. The sink drain and supplies shift a few inches inside the same wall. The wall is opened; the floor is not.
3. Replacing the tub with a shower in the same alcove. The drain moves a short distance and the floor of the alcove is rebuilt with a slope. This is also when the walls get a proper membrane; see our guide to bathroom waterproofing.
4. Moving the sink to another wall. A small drain and two supply lines are routed through new framing. Manageable in a wood-framed house.
5. Moving the toilet. Its drain is the largest pipe in the room and has to slope all the way back to the stack. Whether that is possible depends on which way the floor joists run and how deep they are. In a condo it is often not possible at all.

One number to check before a toilet is ordered: the rough-in, measured from the finished wall to the centre of the floor drain. Twelve inches is the common size, and 10 and 14 inch versions exist for older houses. Our Toronto renovation permits guide covers where the permit line falls.

What saves the most room without moving a wall?

Thinner fixtures and a door that stops swinging into the room. None of these adds a square foot, but each one returns floor that the old fixture or the door arc was using, and three or four of them together change how the room feels to stand in.

Wall-hung vanity

The floor runs under it, which makes the room look wider and makes mopping easier. The wall needs solid blocking behind the tile to carry it.

Tall cabinet instead of a wide vanity

Storage goes up the wall in a 12 to 16 inch wide column, and the vanity can shrink to the width of the basin.

Round-front toilet

A round bowl is roughly two inches shorter front to back than an elongated one. In a five-foot room that is the difference between a door that clears and one that does not.

Recessed niche and mirrored cabinet

Both use the depth inside the wall instead of the room. Neither can go where a drain stack, a duct or an exterior wall's insulation is in the way.

Fixed glass panel in place of a framed enclosure

One sheet of glass with no door needs no swing space and no track to clean. The shower has to be long enough that spray stays behind it.

Large tile with few grout lines

It does not change the plan, but fewer lines across a small floor make it read as one surface. Our tile installation page shows how the layout is set out before the first tile is fixed.

Which way should a small bathroom door open?

Whichever way keeps the door out of the clear floor in front of the fixtures. In a five-foot room an inward door of ordinary width sweeps almost half the open floor, and that arc cannot hold a towel bar, a hamper or a person. Each alternative has a condition attached.

The shower door follows the same rule. A hinged glass door needs clear floor to open onto, so in the tightest rooms a sliding panel or a fixed screen is the safer drawing.

What mistakes make a small bathroom feel smaller?

Most of them are decisions that looked fine one at a time. A layout fails when the pieces are chosen separately, in a showroom, and meet for the first time on site. Each one below can be caught on the drawing, before anything is ordered.

• A vanity bought for its look, then fitted. Four extra inches of width come straight out of the toilet's side clearance.
• A freestanding tub in a five-foot room. It needs cleaning space all the way around it and leaves a gap nobody can reach.
• The toilet facing the door. It is the first thing seen from the hall. Where the drain allows, the vanity takes that position.
• No exhaust fan plan. A small room steams up fast. The fan should sit near the shower and be ducted to the outside, not into the attic.
• One ceiling light. It casts a shadow on the face at the mirror. Light at the mirror and a separate one over the shower work better; our renovation lighting guide covers placement.
• Towel bars as an afterthought. They end up behind the door or over the toilet. Mark them on the drawing with the blocking they need.
• Dimensions taken from bare studs. Backer board, membrane, tile and adhesive together take well over an inch from each wall they cover.

What should you measure before choosing a layout?

The room as it really is, including the parts behind the finish. A plan drawn from the listing's floor plan or from memory is usually wrong by the two or three inches that matter. Take these before meeting a contractor, and expect them to be checked again once the walls are open.

1. Length and width at floor level and again at chest height, since old walls lean.
2. The position of the toilet drain: distance from the back wall and from each side wall.
3. Which wall carries the drain stack. It is usually the thick one, or the one shared with the kitchen or another bathroom.
4. The window: sill height, width, and how far it sits from each corner.
5. The door: clear opening, which way it swings, and what is on the hall side of each wall beside it.
6. Ceiling height, and any bulkhead or slope that lowers it over the tub or shower.
7. The direction of the floor joists, if you can see them from the basement or through a ceiling access below.
8. Where the heat comes from: a floor register, a radiator or a baseboard heater all claim wall or floor.
9. The route from the front door to the bathroom, for a one-piece tub or shower base that has to be carried in.

Which layout should you choose?

The one that keeps the toilet on its drain, gives every fixture its clear floor and gets the door out of the way. In most five-by-eight rooms that is the row plan with either a tub or a shower, improved with a wall-hung vanity and a better door.

Art Style Construction plans and builds bathroom renovations in Toronto and the GTA. Finished rooms are in the project gallery. To have your bathroom measured and its options drawn, request an on-site consultation.