Can you draw your preliminary thoughts on paper first and post that? It's helpful to have a visual even when describing suggestions.

Is the plumbing/toilet going to be in a particular place? Where are the exterior walls, wet walls... that will make a big difference in how you will approach the design.

My scanner/printer is not working..sorry...

pepperidge farm...i'm in the planning stages of the house so I guess to answer your question about where the exterior walls are ..if you can imagine an 8'x8' square the exterior walls would be on the south and east sides of the square..this is where the halls are. So therefore the door to the bathroom could be on the south end or the east side. I'm guess the wet walls would be on the north wall or west wall.

Hi niece,
I have a computer program that might help you visualize your bathroom. I drew an interior 8 x 8 room and put a standard toilet in and a 32" door. The vanity itself is 3'. The shower dimension drawn is 4' on the inside from N to S but 3'10" from W to E. You can perhaps use this to move things around and resize them the way you want. I'm trying to figure out how to post pics so I apologize if it doesn't work.
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Was it something like this Weedyacres? Sorry on the preview it appears large, but I'm just learning how to do this.
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How about a corner shower?

a corner shower would work. I'm guessing which corner you meant swampwiz:)
nieci,
There are alot of really good bathroom books if you go to Lowe's or Home Depot. I gained alot of info looking at pictures on the internet, in books and magazines. When I saw something I liked that I thought might work I put it in a project notebook:) Good luck and have fun.
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thanks spacechallenged, weedyacres, swampwiz for your ideas!

spacechallenged...thanks so much for your drawings. I think I'm leaning towards your first drawing but one question where would you put the door for the shower? Or is it a walk in with no doors? I have concerns about the door placement in the 2nd and 3rd drawing, looks as though the door may "run in" to the cabinet. I'm thinking no tub either.

My DD thought I should make it an old fashioned type bathroom (our home is a farmhouse style) with a pedestal sink, armoire for a linen closet, not sure if it will all fit though. Any advice, suggestions, photos?

neici,
You're welcome. I enjoy doing stuff like this and glad if I can help somehow.
On the 1st drawing you could put the shower door on the toilet side wall, or you could use a curtain. It just happens that we have a bathroom like this with a curbless shower and shower curtain. The shower fixtures are on the south wall of our shower. Course, you could modify this and cut that corner off (the SE corner) and use that as your entry into the shower and move the plumbing fixtures...you could add a shower bench. There are really nice frameless glass shower doors that hinge on a wall.
Also, have you considered pocket doors for an entry door? A pocket door requires double the space of the door size to slide into a wall though so I don't know if that might work without knowing more details about your home plan. But you wouldn't have to worry about door swing then. About storage. You can have recessed cabinets. We are in the middle of a bathroom remodel that seems like it's been going on forever, but we are building a 2' by 4' tall recessed storage cabinet. It is standard 4" depth. We also built a double wall behind my vanity area so I can have an extra deep medicine cabinet. It will be 45" wide and 30" tall and we are putting an electric outlet inside for chargeable things like electric toothbrush, etc. There are lots of ways to get storage by using the space in the wall. I am also building a recessed tiled niche for 2 towel bars beside my storage cabinet. My bathroom is only 6' wide by almost 12': but no matter what size you can never have enough storage!:) I drew a few more drawings for you to consider. I put in a pedestal sink. It is 2'wide. There are multiple options if you want to put in a furniture type linen closet. {{gwi:1445750}}

On the bottom drawing I put in 1' x 1' squares. Sorry if it makes it look confusing...
and one more.

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What is right outside the bathroom? Is it a bathroom that will be used by the public? The whole family? Mostly one person?

- In general, having the toilet right in front of the door would be considered less attractive.
- Having the toilet partially shielded by the door, the shower or by a vanity side of half-wall is really nice if the bathroom opens onto a public area and someone might open the door by mistake.
- Generally, the sink/vanity and mirror is your most attractive view, so I'd try to place that directly opposite the door.

In the first layout, reversing the door swing would shield the toilet (and its occupant) from view by accidental door-openers. Of course, you'd need to cut the corner on the shower to make sure there's enough room for someone to step into the room easily and close the door.

Sweeby,
In the first layout, the entry door is 32" wide. The toilet sits back 3' away from the door. A person standing on the outside opening the door couldn't see the toilet until they stepped in, but I guess if there were a large room outside, perhaps someone farther away might.
The point of the corner of the shower wall measures over 1'(the computer program measures 1'9") away from the middle of the door swing that is the closest to it. You can test to see how much room you need and where you normally would stand to close the door.
Our bathroom is a little larger and almost identical except our door is on the south wall in that right corner. It opens up where you see the toilet 1st and I agree it's better to see the sink when you open the door. The sink and toilet have about the same area of space. Ours was done in consideration of a future addition and that door will be changed to the way it is in the 1st drawing at that time.
Our bathroom is about 9x9 but our door is 36" and there isn't a problem. Our bathroom was designed to be wheelchair accessible.

sweeby....along the south wall and east wall are hall ways. So...the doorway could be located on the south or east wall. This will be a guest bathroom. I originally thought of putting the door on the east wall then as you you enter the door the sink would be immediately to the right then a half wall with the shower next to the sink on the west wall and the toliet on the southeast corner. I wish I could draw so that you could see, but maybe you can visualize..what do you think?

You could also do a layout like we just did for our master bath remodel, and fit in both a walk-in shower and a full tub. Ours is more like 9'x10', but the same layout would still work spaciously in 8'x8' using a standard 5' tub and a single sink vanity.

The toilet is not visible in the picture but just inside the door to the left. A knee wall at one end of the tub forms a side for the shower. The shower was supposed to be enclosed with glass at the knee wall and toilet (but with an open door), however it worked fine without the glass.

It's a bit like spacechallenged's 2nd drawing except with the toilet and tub swapped. The room feels spacious because the no solid internal walls divide up the shower/tub volume from the room.

The architect spec'ed a pocket door so it doesn't open into the room, though for a guest bath a normal hinged door would probably be better.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bath pic

wwu,
I really like your bathroom layout.
Course, it's all just a matter of preference, but these open bathrooms not only appear nice and spacious, but you can put so much more in the same square footage. Actual photos help so much more to get a realistic perspective.

niecie,
I tried to draw what you described and labeled the room in case I got it wrong.
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spacechallenged...on the other side of the north wall is the guest bedroom. The other side of the west wall is the kitchen.

niecie,
How much room you need for storage in this bathroom? That's why I wondered what was on the other side of those walls.
With a pedestal sink you won't have any storage underneath the sink. I think I saw some pics of a pedestal sink with storage cabinets on each side somewhere on this site. Have you chosen a sink and do you know it's dimensions? You could also have an extra deep medicine cabinet above for some storage. How big does your shower need to be, how much room for the sink area, etc. You mentioned a free standing cabinet...do you know what size it needs to be?
Once you have those dimensions, you can plan your bath. Use something like this drawing. You can draw it out if you don't have a printer. Use a ruler to draw the squares and move things around and decide how much each area of your bathroom needs. Decide if you need a door that hinges or you could use a pocket door and how large you want the door to be. Best of luck:)
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