Tiny en-suite of it worth it?

[Lavendersquare]

We are currently renovating our house, and the plumber working on our main bathroom, mentioned that it would be really easy to add a small ensuite bathroom to the main bedroom. However, when we’ve explored this in more detail the maximum size of the finished room would be 1.5 m x 1.5 m.

I’ve drawn a scale drawing (1 square = 10cm) and can fit a compact toilet a 800 mm quadrant shower cubicle and a smallish vanity sink but I’m not sure whether it’s going be so small as to be unusable.

What are your experiences of very small bathrooms? Are they actually worth it? We are a family of 5, with two adult children at home and a teenager so another shower would be a real bonus. There is a window and the remaining bedroom would be 4.3m by 3.5m so plenty of room as wardrobes are already fitted to another wall.

Before anyone asks, the shower room cannot be any bigger 1.5m x 1.5m maximum.

I’ve attached a plan that shows my working out.

We have a good size en suite to our bedroom with a big shower and his n hers sinks etc.

We have added 2 very small ensuites (The size of 3 square shower trays in a row) to both of my DCs bedrooms.

Shower 1 end, door (opening into the bedroom) in the middle with a thin sink from Ikea, then a toilet at the other end looking at the shower.

Its far more compact than yours, but perfect for my teenagers to have their own bathrooms in the morning.

We then have a large family bathroom, which we rarely use (unless we are having a bath) which is for the guests.

The house i grew up in originally had a single bathroom with a separate toilet. For years we planned to knock the wall through and combine them. With four people in the house, Mum wanted two toilets and as a teenager I longed for a cubicle shower so we continued with the original plan but also added a much smaller second bathroom next to my parents room. It really was tiny, the shower took up a the whole width of the room wall to wall then there was the toilet and the small sink. If you want to save space I have seen some toilets that actually have the sink built into the cistern on the back or alternatively my neighbours have a really tiny corner sink in their downstairs loo.

You could have the door outward opening. The space in the bedroom is unusable anyway as you need to walk through it to get into the ensuite. You may then find you have more usable space.

Why not just make it a WC or just a shower? Whichever you need more?

Exactly! I would hate the smell wafting in to the bedroom. DH's 💩 stinks!!

I think it is worth it.

But I'd also check the cost of putting new plumbing etc in. We turned a dressing room into another bathroom and it was 20K, although that did include everything. Think labour to get the plumbing put in was 8 or 9K or thereabouts.

We’ve just added an en suite as part of an extension, it’s 1m x 2.2m so almost exactly the same square footage as yours, but rectangular. It’s been completely worth it, no regrets at all.

We did this and it was well worth it.

However, we had our door across the corner and opening outwards, which made it jut out much less into the room. The door goes where the red line is.

Ours is smaller and doesn't have a loo. The measurements are 1m wide, with one wall 1.5 m and the other 1.3m

Thanks for all the comments they really are very helpful.

we have a quote for the plumbing and fitting of the shower toilet and sink which is just under £2k which I think is very reasonable.

On top of that we need to factor in the cost of tiling, flooring, electrics for the new light that will be required, taps and sanitary wear etc. All told I imagine it will be around the £5K mark which should cover everything.

Consider a wet room which means less stuff like shower cubicles.

How about one of the toilets where the sink is built in to the cistern - added bonus that the waste water from the sink is recycled in to the toilet?

our small bathroom (shower room really) is 90x180.
so yeah, doable with clever placement of doir & donnie

I lived in a house where an ensuite had been put into a double bedroom. It was very small, with a very compact sink and shower cubicle, but I was very grateful of it when the DC got older and/or when we had guests. That was exclusively my bathroom.

i wouldn’t bother - I hate those tiny shower cubicles. If there isn’t room for a decent sized shower and space around it, build an additional wardrobe instead.

I’d do it. It will be tight, but we’re a family of four (three adults and a teenager), and the household dynamics would be a nightmare with just one bathroom.

Why dont you have one of those toilets where you have the basin over the back of the toilet

You could have the sink on the same wall as the shower @Lavendersquare i.e. move it from the wall where the door is to the next wall on the right. We had that - wasn’t a corner shower, had straight sides, one was the same wall as the loo, then the slightly oblong tray then a wall and the sink unit filling the gap, with a built in cupboard … plenty of room actually …loved having an ensuite ….

Our shower room (carved out of a cupboard and a spacious bathroom) is 1.5 x 1.1 m. Shower is 1.1m x 750mm. We have a loo and a compact sink. Would it be nice if it had more floor space? Sure. Would I rather not have it? Hell, no! It’s perfectly usable and I’d much rather have two bathrooms than one.

I’ve got two small en-suites in my house and they are definitely worth it!

No

We have a house with a downstairs bathroom and an en suite attached to the master bedroom ( we have a chalet, which means a 3 bedroom bungalow and a living room, bedrooms and bathrooms up stairs )

Mum and step dad used to have this part of the house and we ( me and DH ) always said the ensuite needed knocking out and the bedroom and bathroom both extended and turning it to a jack and Jill

Unfortunately mum passed suddenly and we have been so up to put eyes, it hasn't happened.

We have moved into the master bedroom. we are not using the ensuite , too close to the bedroom for comfort, and we have been married 30 + years so there's nothing we dont know about each other

I thought , 30 years ago, that an ensuite was needed, but unless it's huge, with a corridor / dressing room between it and bedroom, you count pay me for it

This?

I would absolutely do it with that combination of people in the house!

I’d do a sliding door and then make the shower an 800x800 square rather than a quadrant. If you’re able to make it a wet room and just have one glass wall between the toilet and the shower then I’d do that as it’ll make the basin area more open.

With adult children at home, a en suite that is just for you/DH will be a sanity saver.

I may be an outlier, but I did not like our similar en suite. It was the same size as what OP is proposing, withe the layout suggested by @GymClassZero

First, the shower is not really 800 x 800. The two long walls are that size, but our shower was barely more than a triangle - half the
area you expect - and OP’s looks similar. Any type of holder for shampoo, soap, etc really impinges on the interior space and without that you’ve got stuff all over the very limited floor space.

You can only fit a rather small hand basin and there isn’t much room for storage. We decided to use it for a few cleaning supplies and some loo roll.

With the primary bedroom adjacent you can keep sponge bags there, but it always felt to me like I was staying in a hotel. I like towel racks and needless to say there was no wall space for them, either - we did put one up for a hand towel.

We actually took out a separate WC behind this mini en suite and knocked down a load bearing wall between the two rooms, which turned out to be a surprisingly easy job. After combining the two rooms we got a nice, adequately sized though not huge en suite we are happy enough with.

I recognise that this may not be an option for OP, but it might be worth brainstorming some more.

BTW the door has always opened into our bedroom and this has never been a problem.

Your suggested shower will feel much better of itself, but the room will be very, very crowded.

Ours is very small - much the same as a previous poster - 1m wide by about 2.5m long - shower one end, toilet the other, door in the middle (opening into bedroom) opposite a shallow wall hung sink.

Same as another poster too - do I wish it was bigger? Yes. Would I do it again? Absolutely. So useful (family of 5) - just like having a little bit of privacy.

On a separate point - it also means elderly parents are happy to stay. They have the main bedroom and ensuite as they're often up in the night for the loo.