Bathroom design

The job the room is hired for

A bathroom is hired by four fixtures and the clearances between them, and it is the room where centimetres decide everything: a door that clears the vanity, a shower screen that opens without hitting the toilet, elbow room at the basin. The fixed layout usually cannot move (drains rule), so bathroom design is nine parts finish and light on one part plan — which makes the finish decisions load-bearing: tile, grout tone, mirror size and lighting temperature ARE the room.

Clearances that decide the layout

• In front of the basin: 70cm to stand and bend; elbows want 90cm of width at the bowl.
• Beside/in front of the toilet: 20cm each side from centreline to wall, 60cm in front.
• Shower entry: 60cm of dry standing space at the opening; screens swing outward or slide.
• Towels within a wet arm’s reach of both shower exit and basin: 60–70cm.

Lighting it

Face light first: sources at both sides of the mirror (or a lit mirror) at eye height — a single downlight over the basin puts every face in eclipse. Then a warm general layer, and if the budget allows one luxury, a dimmer: the 6am shower and the 11pm bath are different rooms.

The mistakes this room attracts

• Downlight-only lighting, flattering to tiles and brutal to faces.
• A dark floor grout chosen "for practicality" that reads as a grid of gloom in a small room.
• No niche, so every shower hosts a bottle skyline on the floor.
• A pedestal basin in the family bathroom, storing nothing, forever.

When it is small

Small bathrooms grow by continuity: one tile family floor-to-wall, a wall-hung vanity showing floor beneath, a clear screen instead of a curtain, and the mirror as big as the wall allows. The eye reads surface, not square metres.