Smallish bathroom layout / top tips advice - hate cleaning!!

[Ginola2345]

Our current bathroom is beyond repair so we are having to bite the bullet and pay up to have a new bathroom installed.

House is 1930’s semi, we have two teens who come September will both be at Uni so just DH and myself most of the time. So just thinking shower (man in showroom has suggested quadrant with single door not sure how easy they are to clean), backboards in shower which look a bit industrial with a small piece above the sink which I am unsure about) comfort height toilet, wall hung cabinet and wall hung sink. Wondered whether to
go green furniture or opt for more traditional more widely used grey, bleached something or other flooring and white speckled backboard.

I absolutely hate cleaning, DH spills water everywhere when he has a shower as do teens when they are home and all have steaming hot showers and never open a window so walls are dripping etc.

Please could you comment on plans below (drawn by a local bathroom supplier) and offer any advice (our window is smaller than in photo), tips or things to think about we may have forgotten re the space, suppliers etc. We are in north of England and cost so far is estimated to
be a fraction under 7K including fitting but fitter has still to visit to confirm. The outside walls are the one with the window and the one with the shower on.

Will attach some photos below.

I can't see your plans but I'd say a very good quality extractor would be needed if your family are poor at opening the window. You can get ultra quiet fans now which are worth paying more for. You need an electrician to fit them and they have a humidity sensor so they run until the humidity has dropped, rather than just on a timer. That should reduce the chance of mould building up.

Good point re: fan.

Similar to this shower https://royalbathrooms.co.uk/imperial-rh-offset-quadrant-shower-enclosure-with-pearlstone-shower-tray-eq9076-12080-ntp102-113-rh.html

This is the layout will try and include a link to the furniture.

These are the samples of furniture colours grey and green, flooring the very small one and backboards which I am really not sure about but he said the other ones were three times the price.

Furniture the wall cabinet is on the small side but options seem limited. I thought wall hing would be better so I could mop underneath and minimises nooks and crannies.

When you sell in the future, this role cannot be classed as a bathroom (it will be a shower room). This could reduce saleability, especially on some sites that advertise number of bathrooms in your house - yours would be zero.

No bath will also likely put off families with young children, when you come to sell

That, and the thought of never being able to soak in thr bath myself, would mean I would go for an over bath shower if there wasn't room for bath plus separate shower cubicle.

Definitely a light patterned back board for the shower to hide water marks and streaks after cleaning. The plain versions show everything!

Curved surfaces are much harder to clean than straight one. A corner shower not a quadrant can be cleaned easily with a squeegee, if you run it down after a shower it stops the soap and some limescale forming on the glass.

Following with interest as we are in the same position. I'm not sure how easy it would be to clean that shower.... in the past when we had a separate shower cubicle I absolutely hated having to get inside it to clean. We've been thinking of getting a sort of wet room/walk in shower where there isn't a door on the end (not sure if that makes sense!) A bit worried about water all over the floor though!

Thank you for your comments so far all.

Thanks @Poliknot intending selling anytime soon. I used to feel the same but DH said its either a shower or a bath which would you most prefer. As we used to have a shower over the bath many years ago when the kids were little. We have a downstairs loo as well. Due to us all preferring showers in the main (although a bath every now and again would be a nice to have), the shape of our room and where the window is, us all now being 5’11’ upwards to way over 6ft (water would be everywhere with a screen and don’t want a grubby shower curtain). We would need an extra large bath also DH isn’t well (mobility set to get worse in next year or two) he/we are almost 60 and elderly MIL over 80 stays every few weeks and she couldn’t manage a shower she had to step over a bath to get into etc.

@bobby81 yes we wanted a walk in shower but practically I think water all over the floor would be an issue for us as we don’t quite have enough space.

I think with your comments @Allthegoodnamesarechosen thank you for the gentle slap around the face I needed. I am now moving away from this quadrant shower idea as easy cleaning and practicalities are my main considerations.

Thanks @Continueasweareormakeachange thats what I thought. Although not sure about the one I have narrowed it down to and the bathroom shop suggested having a piece above the sink edged in chrome don’t know if that would look quite nice and modern or cheap and nasty?

Decent sized shower rather than a bath is a definite (just need to decide on style).

Sink of sorts is a definite.

Comfort height toilet is a definite whats the easiest type to clean is it rimless?

Storage definite for loo rolls, towels, toiletries and somewhere to charge electric toothbrushes.

Radiator/towel rail what size would should we go for for that size room.

Mirror unsure where to put one.

Is there any way you could make the room a bit bigger by stealing a bit from a bedroom or landing?

I personally detest the two tiles above the sink look. If your having it done from scratch I would on insist on all tiled in the shower area and at the very minimum tiled at least halfway up the wall so the sink and toilet are tiled around. I've always found this much easier to clean

Getting rid of the bath and getting a quadrant shower was our main change. As the room was small we opted to do waterproof wall boards throughout. Which are ace as there is no paint to peel, or grout to scrub. We opted for a corner sink to save more space, and a wall hung toilet. With no pedestals the tiled floor is easy to mop. A ceiling mounted extractor above the shower is a must. Also a top cleaning trap to the shower has made life simpler too - you can just clean it when you have a shower. We opted for a glass shower cubicle which is easy to clean. We use a daily shower cleaner to mist the glass each day, it is only £1approx and lasts over a week. You can also descale the glass with a mist of white vinegar, leave it to sit awhile, then rinse. Hope that helps.

@Oldraver is it not painstaking cleaning all the grout in the tiles? Or am I missing something?

Can’t make the room bigger neighbour stopped extending outwards and couldn’t take any space from my daughters room.

Use HG mould spray regularly and your tile grout will stay nice

I like the IKEA mirror cabinet it’s massive and can hold bleach etc so everything is hidden away

I have a similarly small sized bathroom and have gone for a shower too as that's what I prefer and am not planning on selling long-term. I'm also getting a silent extractor fan as the current one is very noisy and sounds like a car revving!

Gosh that's dinky.

I would do half height tiling all round (full height for the shower).

I'd be inclined to go for a more open shower (can still have a glass screen to contain some water) - will make the room feel more open and you don't have to clean manky door seals.

Large format tiles so there's less grout and go for something that doesn't require white grout between.

What are the actual sizes of the room?

We moved into a house with a tiny bathroom that's also a weird L shape. We took out the bath and turned it into a wet-room. There wasn't even room for a shower tray.
I love it. It's almost all tiled, except for the short arm of the L, where the loo it. It's a doddle to keep clean.

why is there a useless gap between the tall cupboard and the wall? I'd get rid of the tall cupboard and have a low cupboard filling the whole space between the basin and the corner, which then gives more space for toothbrushes / stuff to sit out on the worktop. And then I'd have open shelves on the wall above that corner where you could have a nice plant, or allocate each person a shelf for their own storage to keep tidy.

also possibly move the towel rail along to be a bit closer to the door, so the loo does not feel cramped.

How tall are you. We just installed comfort height toilets having no idea they were any different to normal ones, we just liked the shape of them. One of us can't reach the floor with their feet at all, and one of us struggles (5ft0 and 5ft 5) so not that comfortable actually

@hannahwaddinghamsbiceps I am 5’11’ and everyone else is much taller than me. MIL is about 5’8’-5’9’.

@parietal because we are all
tall and prefer to access things high up
than a low down cupboard also thought having a wall hung cabinet would maybe create an illusion of space and be easy to clean and mop underneath.

We currently have a big useful
floor to ceiling corner cabinet but its looking shabby and dominates the small room.

Space is approx 6ft by 6ft or 7ft (but an awkward shape and stepped near the door and with the window.

@beguilingeyes do you have a photo of your bathroom and what size is the room. I hadn’t thought about a wet room. Do you not get water everywhere?