Sketches of common bathroom floor plans.

Ask an Architect, Custom Residential

Common Bathroom Flooring Plans: Rules of Pollex for Layout

There are a few typical floor plans to consider when designing the layout for a bathroom in your house. These 8 lessons illustrate the mutual program options and describes the advantages and disadvantages of each. Of course, there are always exceptions, and a good designer can find a solution that meets your needs.

July 5, 2019

I've been in enough homes over the years to observe that designing and laying out a bathroom is apparently a tough nut to crevice for a lot of American product builders. Weird-shaped rooms; angled tubs, toilets, showers; and generally, spaces that are just plainly bad-mannered — these all seem to be hallmarks of poorly-designed bathrooms.

When planning a bathroom (either when building new or remodeling) there are plenty of rules of pollex to follow for bathroom layout. So, in the selfless interest of trying to make the bathrooms of America a lilliputian ameliorate, read on for some standard rules of bathroom design.

Side Note: This post covers the basics for single-family residential bathroom pattern. We'll look at bathrooms with a shower (¾ bath), or bathrooms with a tub (full bath), or even combinations of both. Bathrooms with merely a toilet and a sink, known as pulverization rooms, are a different animal altogether, and not covered in this post. Too, bathrooms in multifamily buildings (like apartments) are a whole dissimilar ballgame due to accessibility rules. (If yous'd like to learn more about either of these, let us know, we'd be happy to elaborate in a new post!)

Rules of Thumb for Bath Blueprint

Lesson 1: Start with the Basics

This is the good old "three-in-a-row" bathroom nosotros've all seen. It is around forty square feet (5' x 8') and here are the typical rules of thumb for how it works.

Typical floor plans for bathrooms.
Lesson 1: Start with the Nuts – Standard, and "The Banjo" Alternate

These bath floor plans are simple, efficient, and basically go the job done with no actress fanfare.

This is an efficient bath, and, it just plain works. At that place'southward an efficiency in plumbing cost, as all the plumbing is on i wall. Yet, that efficiency comes with the downside that the room isn't all that special, and it has limited counter space. Withal, information technology is a classic and always a bathroom powerhouse. And — wow — I just typed the phrase "bath powerhouse" — I'm checking off life milestones left and right today.

The other tweak to this one is the "banjo" acme which has a smaller countertop extension in a higher place the toilet. I'll be honest, I don't love it, merely I understand the value, and it can sometimes exist a good solution. I won't hate on you for going down this road, I promise.

Lesson 2: A Better 3-in-a-Row

With this program, you commit to the idea of one plumbing wall, but and so extend the bath (and hopefully widen it) a bit. Yous can easily go two prissy sinks in a more than public area, and and so have a pocket door into a toilet and bath/shower room. This allows for ii people to use this bathroom at once — making it great for a shared kid'southward bathroom — with some built-in privacy.

Typical floor plans for bathrooms.
Lesson ii: A Better Iii-in-a-Row

It can save on plumbing costs to have all the plumbing in one wall, and with extra length, you can fit 2 sinks, and fifty-fifty partition them off for easier sharing.

Conversely, this can too serve as a bathroom that does double duty as a full guest bath or a powder room.

Typical floor plans for bathrooms.
Lesson 2: A Meliorate Three-in-a-Row – Alternate

This is a keen choice for when, nigh of the time, the bathroom will function as a pulverization room, merely it still offers a shower for the occasional guest that needs it.

Put the sink and toilet in the room off the hall, and and then have a door into the shower room across. I find information technology a petty odd, but it is definitely a solution for someone who wants a room that looks similar a pulverisation room, yet has the ability to handle the occasional showering guests.

Lesson three: The Reverse Wall Bathroom

From a space point of view, this one usually takes up more room — only — it provides a far more generous layout. It will price more, equally in that location's more plumbing work and overall square footage, but it provides flexibility for how the space is used.

Typical floor plans for bathrooms.
Lesson iii: The Opposite Wall Bathroom

With the plumbing in 2 walls, layouts like these will typically price more. However, you get a highly-functional room with more than space to movement about.

There are variants from modest to large here. You can also modify the same 5' 10 viii' footprint that is in the classic 3-in-a-row and go "opposite-wall" hither, but I recollect you end up with higher plumbing costs and not that much amend of a bathroom. I retrieve this works best when you lot have a little more room.

Lesson iv: The Hotel Special

Hither's a tough ane: I understand the benefits of this, but I personally tin can't stand it. Hotels take establish that the standard three-in-a-row is pretty drab and has limited counter space. And then, they took the same footprint as the 3-in-a-row and put the countertop across the wall, opposite the tub.

Typical floor plans for bathrooms.
Lesson 4: The Hotel Special

Remind you lot of a typical hotel bathroom? Hotels often use this layout because there is plenty of counter infinite, but we find it pretty awkward to utilize, and the view of the toilet centered in the doorway is less than ideal.

Enough of counter infinite, sure, but it means you accept to put the toilet precisely in the flooring space that you'd need to actually take advantage of that counter; and, the toilet is in full view through that open door. Good luck hands opening the bathroom door; or, having more ane person in there at once. Use this layout simply if countertop space is your accented must.

Lesson v: The Compact, Five-Slice Primary

Master bathrooms tend to have two sinks, a toilet room, and a shower. Bathtubs are something that I just recommend if you know you're going to utilise information technology, or if it actually suits the space. Sometimes, though, you'll desire i — and, so, how tin can yous efficiently lay ane out?

Typical floor plans for bathrooms.
Lesson 5: The Compact, Five-Piece Primary

In an 8'x12' infinite, this master bathroom floor plan is efficient and is flexible plenty to adjust more i option for door and window location.

Here is an efficient way to get all of those program elements into an 8' 10 12' space (less than 100 square feet). This gives you lot options for door layouts and for window locations, as well. If yous want to add some actress space to this, you tin can hands pull the tub into a wider infinite and accept it be gratuitous-standing.

Lesson 6: The Shub

This is a hot topic in our role (!!). People carve up into factions of either "pro-shub" or "anti-shub" — expect, you lot probably accept no idea what a "shub" is, do you? Here at Board & Vellum, we've coined the portmanteau, shub, to cover the situation when a shower contains a tub. Fans of this point to the compact design and the general aesthetic, and detractors think you'll exist freezing cold in a big open shower and tin't imagine how you lot tin can clean around a free-standing tub. Regardless of how you feel, here's how it more often than not tin can lay out.

Typical floor plans for bathrooms.
Lesson six: The Shub

And so-called "shubs" (showers with a tub within) are a hot debate topic: some people are fervently against this layout, and others have slap-up reasons why they similar it, such as efficiency of space, and the functionality of how they like to bathe.

The do good is, y'all can get down to a half-dozen' broad space (or even v' if you're OK with a cozier space) — simply actually, that's a piddling insane. Information technology can exist equally short as 12' (although only with one sink), or if you can tuck the toilet off in a separate room (platonic) information technology'll piece of work amend. You lot see these frequently in townhome designs, every bit space is at a premium. Personally, I think if you're down with the realities of what a shub means, and then I'thou hither for you. Just don't enquire Sara in our office what she thinks. ;-)

Lesson 7: The Minor, Square Bath You've All Seen

I hate this bath. At that place, I said information technology. I just exercise not similar corner showers.

Typical floor plans for bathrooms.
Lesson 7: The Small, Square Bath You've All Seen

We can't stand this layout — everything is cramped, and it feels like an afterthought. But, here it is.

Some people may like corner showers; and, well, that's fine for them. Simply I'yard writing this, and so I'g here to tell you lot that this bath is just crude. It feels tiny. But if you're curious how it lays out, in that location you become.

Lesson 8: The Super-Tiny Bath That I Don't Hate

I've written about this earlier, and there are lots of tips to getting it right.

Typical floor plans for bathrooms.
Lesson 8: The Super-Tiny Bathroom That I Don't Hate

Sometimes, you really don't have the space for a more generous bath infinite. This layout gets you a iii/4 bathroom that that works well even in the tight space..

Simply here'due south a compact fashion to get in a existent ¾ bath without too much hurting.

Lesson 9: In that location'due south E'er an Exception

For every rule of thumb described to a higher place, there'south always a bathroom that we arroyo that has some weird exception that just doesn't fit into these rules. A good designer will be able to aid fit a comfortable (and not odd) bath layout into even a foreign space. You can sneak a long counter under a sloping roof; or, deal with a window correct where y'all want your mirror, or even tuck an attic access hatch behind a tub.

Ten Tips For Designing a Great Small Bathroom – Board & Vellum
Lesson nine: There's Ever an Exception

The roofline of this home comes downwardly steeply over this counter, just with the sink and mirror off-eye, yous can still take advantage of counter infinite and storage below.

Double vanity with sliding mirrors over windows. – Remodel in a Tudor-style home: Morning Light Master – Board & Vellum
Lesson ix: At that place'southward E'er an Exception

In this exception, windows occupy the wall where mirrors are needed, merely the pattern allows for the best of both worlds with sliding mirrors hanging on befouled door hardware.

Seward Park Gables – Board & Vellum
Lesson 9: There'south Always an Exception

The door behind this gratis-standing tub is an access hatch to the cranium space beyond.

Design is an exercise in agreement the rules of pollex and so building or expanding upon them to create something great. Button the limits of what your bathroom tin exist, and make it improve than the vast bulk of bathrooms out there!

Common Codes for Bathroom Design

In the interest of providing some more than rules of pollex, here are some common codes and typical dimensions to consider:

  • A normal tub is 2'-6" by 5'-0". However, you can get ones wider — 3' is common, and a shorter 4'-6" is common enough. For a soaking tub, you'll desire at least a footprint of 3' x half-dozen' (although some vessel tubs tin can exist smaller or more than meaty).

  • A good 2-person shower is 3' 10 vi'. A nice one person shower is iii'-half dozen" square. Technically, a shower merely needs to be two'-half dozen" in each dimension. That'due south only "fine," in my opinion, when the other length is at least iii', and then you can heighten your arms to launder your pilus easily.

  • For a unmarried family residential awarding, you only need two'-half dozen" of width to fit a toilet. If y'all have accessibility concerns, then bump this to iii' broad.

  • A wall-hung toilet tin can save y'all about a human foot in floor space. I love toilet rooms that are 2'-eight" to 3' wide, by 4'-0" long, with a wall-hung toilet on the short dimension.

  • A double vanity for a chief bath tin exist equally narrow every bit v'. Yet, you'll see narrower ones at places like IKEA, but I remember they're a affect likewise tight. Yous can sometimes get away with one trough sink (with two wall-mounted faucets), but ideally, is at to the lowest degree six' wide.

  • Bathrooms designed for aging in place, or for people who need grab bars or more accessible design, warrant more than room in almost every direction. While all of these layouts can be modified, the classic three-in-a-row is the hardest to make truly accessible.

So at that place y'all have information technology, a barebones lesson on basics bathroom design. Laying out a bathroom is one of the most rewarding parts of my job, and if this helps reduce the amount of new sad bathrooms being built, so I'll be a happy human being.