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RenovatingDesign DilemmaBathrooms
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Narrow bathroom dilemma

Andrew Paulson
last month



Hi guys, looking for a bit of advice when it comes to refurbing my bathroom.


I've recently moved into a converted townhouse flat that needs modernising. As you can see the bathroom is pretty narrow (135cm wide) and the current sash window makes it difficult to fit a shower unit. I've gone round in circles on the best way to lay out this bathroom. Originally I thought I would put a walk in shower across the back and replace the window. Moving the toilet next to the sink. Problem is with that is that I need to reroute the waste pipe which means housing that in a box that would then lose me around 20cm width.


Now I'm thinking about keeping the layout the same but blocking up the window as it doesn't offer a lot of light and adding in a walk in shower that sits where the bath currently is. But the train of is losing a window.


Not sure if anyone else has had a similar issue?





Featured Answer
  • CWD
    last month

    Don't have this issue currently, but have been in many a tenement flat that has this exact bathroom layout. I think the tiling is really not helping - too much contrast and literally splitting it down the middle visually to make the room seem even narrower.


    Couple of solutions: have the shower across the window end of the room, with the toilet next to it - but have both of these raised up a step so that the waste pipe goes into the space below the raised section. Or can you put the wastepipe into the floor space? Or have the waste pipe boxed off and run through the shower space so that it becomes a seat/ledge in the shower - actually really useful for setting shampoo etc on - ledge can be high as you want - alternatively, box it in to the top of the shower to make a false wall where you then can also hide all the pipes and plumbing works for the shower as well as the toilet waste pipe. Ideally the toilet would face across the space, but if this doesn't work due to the direction of waste then you could bring it forward (keeping it facing the door) and build a short wall behind it for the cistern and then have a glass screen above the cistern wall, behind which you'd have the shower (with a gap to the side of the toilet to get into the shower). This would visually shorten the room as it would look like just a toilet and sink when you first opened the door, and this would help it feel wider too.


    Most flats I've lived in with this bathroom didn't have any such solution though, they just had the shower on the wall halfway along the bath and then a shower curtain arrangement to keep the water from going everywhere - with varying degrees of success depending on the shower curtain shape and the person taking the shower.


    Ultimately I don't think it's the worst layout but the tiling and decor could be improved greatly which would make a huge difference.

    Comments (14)

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