I think I'd prefer the 36 inch neo angle shower. See if the curved one would work.

I like Ikea, but I would see if you can find a 30 vanity that would fit the space. The shower may keep that from happening? My son has the Ikea and it seems to working okay.

Since you are using the bath alone, I think you can make the 24 inch vanity work. But definitely put a medicine cabinet mirror in to keep your essentials handy. We have a 24 inch vanity at our cabin and there is enough space for a few things left out, but not much! Just make sure you plan your added storage on the knee wall carefully so that it accommodates well all the stuff that needs to be in bathroom — toilet paper, toiletries, towels, hair dryer, etc. You might prefer some of the storage to be open shelving for the things you use daily. You are going to love your new space!

Thank you everyone! The more research I do (I need to stop!), the more I think I want a pony wall between the shower and vanity, and there should be no gap between the vanity and the 2 walls. That way, it obviates the issue of trying to clean the outside of the glass when it's so close to a vanity, and the 'view' from inside of the shower won't be of the side of a vanity. Also, the tile part of the pony wall (on the inside of the shower) could have a niche that would hide my unslightly shower items from view and/or act as a ledge to balance my foot on when shaving my legs (which another poster said can be tricky in a glass neoangle).

My contractor warned that having a pony wall would require custom glass (instead of off-the shelf), but I'm hoping he's wrong. Surely a glass panel isn't custom/$$$?

I looked up the IKEA floating vanity that was referenced on your drawing. It is 19 inches deep. Your drawing shows it next to the wall, leaving 6 inches between it and the shower. I think you can deal with cleaning that. You could have the contractor quote the pony wall. But if the price is high, I don’t think you would hate the option you currently have shown.

Adding to GN's idea, I would put the toilet on the shower wall (ie the opposite wall from where he has it - away from the bedroom). This will avoid a super fat wall with a pocket door encroaching on the already small bedroom (pocket door + plumbing). Also, it will put the loud plumbing of the toilet on the opposite wall from the bed. It will make the toilet a little more private.

I think you should absolutely put a full bath in that upstairs if you will use it as a primary or guest bedroom, or even as a game/tv room. Much better than banging and tripping down the stairs.

I don't think a custom glass piece would be that expensive. If you do a pony wall, tiling it in subway tile would look great!

My idea is to remove the closet and storage on either side of the stairs. The bath is the priority.

You get a 24" wide by 18" deep vanity, elongated toilet and a large shower with a seat. The remainder is used as new closet space for the now large bedroom.

Try to get the smallest sink you can so you have more counter around it to lay a toothbrush or a hair brush without risking falling in the sink.

I saw these photos and thought I’d share them in case they helped. It would be great to get a sky light.

Make the vanity width whatever you want. There's plenty of space now with the entire footprint available as if it were new construction. With the layout below you get a 12'2-1/8"x 16'-bedroom space.

You can take space from the bedroom by moving the new closet to go into the room all the way to the other corner of the stairs and moving the shower and toilet over. You can have a double vanity if you want. That layout would give you a 12'2-1/8"x 13'9" bedroom space with 8'6" closet instead of the above layout with just over 5 feet of closet.

I'd go with the 12x16 bedroom and use the other side of the stairs knee wall for built-in drawers and hanging storage as shown in a post above. Move the shower and toilet over with no closet on this side or into the bedroom. A double vanity would be couple friendly.

Based upon the information provided, the OP's house roof pitch above the space in question is 9/12; for those interested.

This is our 36” neo shower with a pony wall and IKEA vanity in our old home. We had to get custom glass doors and they weren’t cheap, but I don’t remember now how much.

@dan1888 - your idea is very interesting!! It would be turning the current hallway/closet area into the bathroom, and using the current cedar closet as the hallway, right? That's genius - the thing is, the cedar closet only has full ceiling height for 18" of its width - the stairs aren't in the center of the house, even though my contractor's drawing suggests they are.

@beeboo22 thank you for sharing that photo, the bathroom is lovely! How constricted did you feel in the shower??

Thanks @User. Why do I need a 30" vanity to meet code? I haven't read that in any requirements so far.

My drawing is to scale with the stairs offset based on your original layout drawing dimensions. If you place the shower head in the full height space that's the 87" high area. There's plenty of room before you get to the 60" space over the seat in the drawing. The shower is 45" wide by 68" deep. With this space utilization you can choose a spacious shower and a double vanity. Value added to your house will be substantial.

Plumbing code requires the center of fixtures have 15” of clear space to obstructions. That goes for toilets, showers, and lavatory fixtures.

Yes, agree - the bathroom could work. I'm just sure how I'd access the bedroom - presumably I'd have to turn right at the top of the stairs, and that would put me in a closet (which of course can be removed). I added approximate measurements to your image (and rotated it to match the orientation of original drawing). I'm assuming that corridors/hallways also have ceiling height requirements, but will check. Don't get me wrong, I love your idea and wish it could work!!

Also: I realize the math doesn't add up below, but it's what I measured - things obviously are off by an inch or 2.

The only problem I see with dan1888 layout is you can't have a mirror in front of the vanity that is high enough to see yourself.

I’m gessing there’s no room for the toilet to be recessed by the stairs like below?

BTW, I would use a toilet that hugs the wall. I have one in a laundry bath to conserve space and it’s great. I can get the name if you need it. It was very affordable.

The easiest solution for all the people commenting is for the OP to just build a new home with a bigger upstairs.

(humor)

There's a grain of truth in every joke. (Sometimes an entire sandpail full.)

I hear you @worthy and @Mark Bischak, Architect. The more I agonize about this, the more I think maybe I should just nix the bathroom idea. It is a want, not a need - I really just wanted to sleep upstairs and have a decent sized closet, and then that made me think I need a bathroom upstairs. But I don't need to sleep upstairs! And I certainly don't need a bigger house, and I rarely entertain guests, so that's not a driver for another bathroom. Plus, as mentioned above, I have a TRULY FRIGHTENING bathroom in the basement that I could use in a pinch. I could instead put some of the bathroom money into making the upstairs a nice home office/quilting area/??

Will be doing some serious thinking this weekend...

In somewhat related news, in case anyone is curious, in the course of all my research so far I have conformed that the SemiHandmade door front color "moss" is pretty darn close to Ikea's Gillburen gray-green, in case anyone is thinking of ordering custom drawer fronts for a Godmorgon vanity.

Semihandmade on the right. There is a difference, but because the planes would be different (not next to each other) I think it would be good enough for many.

Ams- don’t get discouraged!!!! I think you have plenty of room for your original bedroom/bathroom idea. No it won’t be a large bedroom or bathroom, but plenty adequate. Our cabin has a similar sized bathroom and we get by just fine. And we don’t have the extra storage in ours that you will get from the knee wall area. The bedroom you will end up with will be cozy and cute.

Yes, don’t give up! I’m sure you can design a really cute and utilitarian bathroom. I just use my bedroom for sleeping. All I have in it is a bed and two nightstands. I don’t like clutter or futniture to distract me.

Also, you will get used to the smaller bathroom. If you make it a really pretty space, you will love it.

Here is the company I bought my space efficient toilet from. I bought it through a company called Pirch in California (I don’t live in Ca but they shipped everything to me). I’m sure your local stores might carry this brand too, or have something similar.

https://icerabath.com

I like the one with the neo-angle shower and storage by stealing some space from the closet.

Can the bed fit nder the sloped ceiling? I think I saw some photos of bedrooms with that arrangement. I don’t know how much a window would be to add, but it might be worth asking.

I don't know if you said that the toilet toilet cannot go beside the stairs but if it can, maybe this could be an option:

The bathroom is 6'0" x 7'0" with a 3'0" x 3'0" shower and a 4'0" vanity. Maybe you can add a storage beside the toilet.

A neo-angle shower might work better with this layout.

@rockybird - thanks for this suggestion! yes, the bed would fit under the sloped part of the ceiling - that is how I planned orient it. Looks like your plan might be ~4.5 wide - the narrowest so far! :) If I added a window in the proposed location, it would have to be a skylight.

@suzanne_m - the toilet might work there - I'd want my contractor to measure to confirm. I'd still end up with a very small bedroom though. This whole process is mentally exhausting, and the actual remodeling work hasn't even started yet!

If the toilet can go in this location, maybe you could recess the toilet into the closet space and add storage. The green square is a hook for your towel.

I was thinking 5’ wide. But You could go wider or smaller like in palimpsest’s idea with that plan. It just depends what you want. I would add a skylight for sure!

Also, I’d keep a pocket door there, so you can leave it open when not in use. The light will be nice to see through the doorway. I have a pocket door to my bahtroom and love seeing the view out the windows from the bed.

I removed my plan because I don't think the shower headroom will work in that location.

This is a completely different situation, but I thought of it because I was thinking of possibilities with the sink outside the bathroom.

This is Anne Tyng's house (Anne Tyng was the "geometrical strategist" for Louis Kahn, and probably had greater influence on his work than she has been given credit for). Her house is not for everybody, she slept on a platform set close to the roof in the attic story of her house, and her kitchen workspace is essentially a very large custom stainless sink.

This is on the floor below the sleeping loft. I can't remember but I am assuming there is a toilet in with the shower? I would not having to get wet feet to use the toilet but it shows that there are alternatives to the norm.

The sink is in the middle of the photo.

Here it was in a listing photo. This is a narrow row house. The far corners of these doors are the full with of the house.

@palimpsest If there’s not eough room, she can pull the shower back. It’s a very long bathroom.

I am not sure if a bedroom with a skylight only is to code but I wonder if it would be accepted if you clear the space in front the of bathroom's window:

The space between the tub and the toilet is narrow but I have this arrangement in my ensuite. It works because I don't have to walk very far to get to the wider area (in your case it would be in front of the window).

Maybe a 5'0" window where rockybird drew it instead of a skylight would work too.

I think square footage requirements for a bedroom is pretty small, 70 square feet for a single occupant with a minimum 7 ft in the shortest dimension. However, there are also requirements for the ceiling height and how much of the ceiling must be above a certain height.

If the bathroom occupied the space near the window rest of the room around the staircase would have to be open to the bed area as a single room so that window could act as the egress window.

@suzanne_m @verbo Do you think this would work? Not sure how wide the window is…

The bedroom is 13’6’” x 11’6”.

Actually, I don't think a tub would work well in this layout if you are a 'shower' person.

However maybe rockybird last layout is an option. I would make these modifications:

I added a filler to the exterior wall to put the shower head. This way you could have a 30" shower door. The orange rectangle is a low dresser (same height as the vanity). This will give you drawers and extra counter. On the left side of the sink, you could have a cabinet resting on the counter.

palimpsest, are you saying that if the bedroom has no door .i.e. open to the rest of the area, the window in front of the stairs would make the bedroom to code?

How about a Murphy bed that covers the stair when down for use? Then you can use the rest of the space to layout any bathroom you want.

If it's the proper size for an egress window, yes.

Then if that winow counts I would add a pocket door to the bathroom in suzanne’s plan above and do that one, if it were me. You can leave the pocket door open to let more light into the bedroom when you don’t need the privacy of the bathroom.

One thing you might also consider is swapping the toilet and shower to get the toilet further from the bed.

Swapping toilet and shower:

Yes a door to the bathroom and just a long vanity with a single sink and lost of counter top and drawers instead of a dresser. I would also add a skylight in the bedroom. This would just be like the 2nd drawing from rockybird except with a one sink vanity, not 2.

Oops I forgot about the change in window requirements. This is what I would do. I moved the toilet further from the bed. Also moved the sink over for a mirror. But you could do a dresser under the window and a smaller vanity.

With her tight budget what is on the first floor will need to be considered. Much cheaper to stack plumbing than to try and tie new drain stacks and supply lines in. Is the 1/2 story legally finished with load bearing joists coded to support a bathroom?

Is the bathroom window centered to the wall? How big is the window an how high from the floor?

Yes, the window is centered on the wall. And the Window is 27 wide by 52 high, and is 27" off the ground (not including trim).