BATHROOM LAYOUT IDEAS AND PLANNING TIPS
A good bathroom layout is settled on paper, well before the first tile comes off the wall. It decides where water enters and leaves the room, how the door opens, where daylight falls and whether two people can use the space at once. Get it right and every trade after it simply follows the drawing. Get it wrong and no tile or tapware choice will rescue a vanity that blocks the doorway.
Planning a bathroom in Murrumbeena, Carnegie or Malvern East? When you want a layout drawn for your own room, go to Bathroom Design.
01The shape of the room
02Clearances around fixtures
03Plumbing, door and window
04Bath, shower or both
Layout belongs to Design, stage 03 of 12. It comes before the quote, so the price reflects the room you actually want.
START WITH THE SHAPE OF THE ROOM
Walls you cannot move set the rules. Work out which one carries the plumbing, then place fixtures to suit.
Narrow rooms
Line the fixtures up along one long wall: vanity nearest the door, toilet in the middle, shower at the far end. Run the shower across the full end wall and the screen never swings into the walkway. One wet wall also keeps the pipework short.
Square rooms
Square rooms give you options. Fixtures can wrap two or three walls and leave the centre of the floor open. Think about the wall you see first from the door. Give it the vanity or a feature tile, not the toilet.
L-shaped rooms
Use the short arm of the L. A toilet or shower tucked in there gets privacy without a partition, and the main part of the room stays free for the vanity and for moving around. Check that daylight reaches the arm and that the corner does not become dead space behind the door.
GIVE EVERY FIXTURE ITS ELBOW ROOM
Plumbing requirements and Australian standards set the minimums. Comfort usually needs a little more. The quickest test costs nothing: mark the new layout on the existing floor with masking tape and walk through it before anything is ordered.
Toilet
Measure from the centre of the pan to the nearest wall or fixture on each side, and leave enough open floor in front to stand up and turn. Facing the pan away from the doorway also buys privacy at no extra cost.
Vanity
Drawers need to open fully while someone stands at the basin. A double vanity only earns its width if two people can use it together without backing into the shower screen.
Shower
Plan the space for stepping in and drying off, not just the size of the base. A hinged screen door must swing clear of the toilet and vanity, and the shower head should not spray straight at the entry.
Walkway
Walk the plan from the door. You should reach every fixture without edging sideways. If you cannot, the answer is usually a smaller vanity or a different door, not a smaller shower.
KEEP THE PLUMBING, OR MOVE IT?
The toilet waste limits a layout more than any other fixture, because it needs fall to the sewer. How much work it takes to move depends on whether the room sits on a timber floor or a concrete slab. Showers and vanities are usually easier to shift, although a new floor waste still needs the right grade.
Keeping the wet points
Demolition and plumbing stay simpler, and more of the budget goes into fixtures and finishes. Plenty of tired layouts can be fixed without moving a pipe: swap a bath for a walk-in shower, turn the vanity or reverse the door.
Moving them
This is worth it when the current layout really fails you: a toilet facing the door, or a shower you have to squeeze into. The pipework is relocated after demolition and before waterproofing, as part of Full Bathroom Renovations.
Door swing
A door that opens into the room takes up a surprising amount of floor. Reversing the swing or fitting a sliding or cavity door can free a whole wall for the vanity. Make sure the door clears the toilet and anyone standing at the basin.
Window position
Windows are harder to move than fixtures, so plan around them. Keep the shower away from a timber sill where you can, or allow for a tiled reveal. A vanity under the window loses its mirror, so only put it there if a side wall can take one.
BATH, SHOWER, OR BOTH?
Keep a bath if…
it is the only bathroom in a house with young children, or you actually use one. A bath along the end wall with a fixed screen can double as the shower in a tight room.
Go shower-only if…
the room is an ensuite, there is another bath in the house, or getting in and out of a bath is becoming a chore. Removing a bath usually gives the biggest gain in usable floor space. The Walk-In Shower Ideas guide shows what that space can become.
Fitting both
A separate bath and shower needs a generous floor plan and a clear wet zone. Grouping them together behind one glass panel keeps the waterproofed area compact. Tight on space? Start with Small Bathroom Ideas.
TURN THE LAYOUT INTO A BUILDABLE PLAN
Take your taped-out floor, your list of must-haves and your bath-or-shower decision to the design stage. We plan and deliver bathroom renovations across Murrumbeena, Hughesdale, Oakleigh, Chadstone, Bentleigh East and Ormond.
A question before you start? Contact us.
→Bathroom Design: get the layout, fixtures and materials drawn up for your room.
→Full Bathroom Renovations: the full strip-out, including relocated plumbing.
→Bathroom Projects: see how finished rooms put these layout decisions together.
→Bathroom Renovation Checklist: everything else to settle before demolition.