Quite often, with the hectic lifestyles of most families, more than one bathroom is necessary to prevent irritation and stress when both husband and wife, and perhaps even children need to get ready to leave the home at the same time. Adding a half bath helps, but with careful planning, the same space allocated for a half bath can be utilized for a second small bathroom. This permits more than one family member to bathe at the same time, while a half bath is limited in function.

Taking the time to develop a small bathroom floor plan is key to producing a satisfying and useful design. Floor plans do not have to be elaborate undertakings, as a simple sketch that includes certain points will suffice. A very functional design can be incorporated for bathrooms as small as 5' X 8' in dimension. Sacrificing a large closet or partitioning off a small area of a larger room will provide the area needed. The first tip should be taking into account the location of electrical outlets and water sources.

If these vital utilities do not already exist, the key components of the room, which are the toilet, sink and tub or shower, should be roughly sketched into the floor plan, to allow proper placement of these utilities. The second factor will be the entrance door placement, as this will determine the layout of the bathroom. If the door is located in the center of the room, the toilet and sink will usually be placed on one side of the room, with the tub or shower on the other side. A full sized standard tub or combination shower and tub measures 32 inches by 60 inches. A standard toilet is 20 inches by 25 inches and the vanity is usually 19 inches deep and space will determine the width of the sink vanity.

There are many small bathroom floor plans that easily incorporate these fixtures in a bathroom as small as 5 feet by 8 feet. Of course, a larger area naturally provides more options. An additional 2 feet of space will allow for a very useful linen closet, perhaps placed at the end of the tub. However, storage can be taken into account to include spacious medicine cabinets and narrow depth cabinets for the wall above the toilet. Lighting and ventilation must also be looked at ahead and if a window does not already exist, fluorescent lighting is available in abundant styles, some with ventilation fans incorporated into the design. Creating a floor plan to scale, with just the walls, doors and any windows shown and then placing different fixtures that have been scaled appropriately in various locations is a big help in finding the perfect design to fit your needs in the space allowed and can even be a lot of fun.