Small bathroom ideas a fitter can actually build

Wall hung toilet and basin

Lifting the toilet and basin off the floor makes a small room feel larger because you can see the floor running to the wall. It also makes cleaning far easier. A wall hung toilet needs a concealed frame inside a boxed or stud wall, which also hides the cistern and gives a useful shelf on top.

The frame needs a solid fixing and a route for the waste, so we check both at survey. In most family bathrooms in our area it is possible without moving the soil stack.

Shower bath or walk in shower

In a bathroom that is the only one in the house, a shower bath is often the right answer. It keeps a bath for children and resale while giving a proper showering area at one end, with a fixed glass screen rather than a curtain.

If there is another bath elsewhere, replacing the bath with a walk in shower gives a far more open room. A low profile tray and a single glass panel take up much less visual space than a bath and screen.

Niches and built in storage

Shower shelves and baskets clutter a small room. A recessed niche built into a stud wall, or into the boxing that hides pipework, keeps bottles out of the way and flush with the tiles. It needs planning before boarding, because the niche has to be tanked and tiled with the rest of the shower.

A mirrored cabinet recessed into the wall, or a vanity unit with drawers instead of a pedestal, adds storage without stealing floor.

• Tiled niches in the shower wall
• Recessed mirror cabinets
• Wall hung vanity drawers
• A shelf on top of the concealed cistern boxing

Sliding, pocket or pivot doors

An inward opening door can rule out the layout you want. Rehanging it to open outwards, or swapping it for a sliding or pocket door, can free enough space to move the basin or fit a longer bath. A pivot shower door, or a fixed panel with no door at all, does the same inside the shower.

Large format tiles and lighter finishes

It sounds backwards, but larger tiles usually make a small room look bigger, because there are fewer grout lines breaking up the walls and floor. Running the same tile from floor to wall in the shower area blurs the edges of the room. Large tiles need a flat wall and careful levelling, which our guide on large format tiles explains.

Light colours, a single mirror and good lighting do the rest. Downlights in the ceiling and a lit mirror remove shadows that make a small room feel closed in.

Small bathroom renovation cost: what drives it

A small bathroom is not proportionally cheaper than a large one, because the trades still have to do the full sequence of strip out, plumbing, electrics, boarding, tanking and tiling. The biggest cost factors are moving the toilet or waste, the type of shower, concealed frames and valves, and the amount of tiling. Our bathroom cost guide and written itemised quote break those down for your room.