Hey, I used to have that bathroom! Mine was like 5'wide by 7' or 8' long. Must have been a popular bathroom size & layout at some point.

I kept the tub (small children needing bathing -- only tub in the house), and replaced the vanity with a newer one in the same size. I got rid of the medicine cabinet & in it's place put in a flat mirror panel with a long shelf underneath (6" or 8" deep, I think) that went from the wall all the way to a couple of inches from the tub. The mirror was trimmed out with nice moulding, painted white like the shelf. THen, on the wall above the toilet I hung a nice white Pottery Barn cabinet to hold more toiletries.

It all worked well enough for three young kids. Wish I had some pics for you, but that was in the "old" house.

Good luck!

This is same as my current bathroom that I am remodelling.

Can you please elaborate on what you seek in the remodel? Do you want a luxurious space? Do you want to create an illusion of bigger space? Do you want a colorful space?

- For storage, you could use the wall opposite to the vanity and toilet to put in a recessed med cabinet
- If your tub has a window, the window sill could function as a shelf to keep shampoos and stuff. This reduces your need for space.

I can't believe it - I have the exact same bathroom you do, and was just getting ready to post my ideas this morning to get some feedback! Please, any and everyone, I would love your ideas and comments, you would be helping two posters for the price of one! So...here are my ideas for dealing with my miniscule master bath:

- Remove tub and replace with a walk-in shower with sliding glass doors.
- Replace almond square tiles with white subway tiles. The tiles would go up 6 or 7 feet in the shower area, and then 42" up the wall in the remaining bathroom, with a chair rail on top. (You might be able to see the 42" line I drew on the wall to show where the tile would go up to)
- Replace vanity with Kohler Memoirs 24" pedestal sink and install matching Memoirs toilet (round, not elongated as the bathroom is too small)
- Remove medicine cabinet on the side wall and remove large mirror and replace large mirror with 31'x21' recessed medicine cabinet with sliding mirror doors (that is the piece of paper taped to the wall)
- Install either sconce lighting or lighting over the mirror.
- Install custom built-in open shelving behind the door for storage, from floor-to-ceiling (where my necklaces are hanging now). You might be able to see the line I drew on the wall that shows where the shelving would be.
- Install hex tile or perhaps basketweave on the floor of the bathroom and shower. They would be ceramic as that seems to be the lowest maintenance option.

Here are my questions:
- Any opinions on whether to tile up 6-7" or all the way to the ceiling in the shower area?
- Opinions on the medicine cabinet? I was also thinking of a large mirror on that wall with a shelf running the length under the mirror at the 42" tile mark on the walls. Ideas on shelving material?
- Opinions overall? Should I keep the tub, for example?

Finally, I got my inspiration from a mrslimestone on this board, I love her bathroom (see link below).

Here is my existing bathroom:

Here is a link that might be useful: My finished 'glamour vintage' bathroom by mrslimestone

Like I posted above, I have a similar sized bathroom. When I started remodeling, my aim was to create an illusion of more space, and make it look bigger than it is.

For this, I decided on the following design aspects:
- Clean lines, no details because they might make small space look cluttered and even smaller.
- Light colored tiles
- Convert tub into shower with preferably frameless shower door to take the vision all the way to the far wall.

For above reasons I decided to make it a modern contemporary bath. However, somewhere along the way we fell in love with Crema Marfil. Thus I think my bath now looks transitional. :-)

Some ideas I had considered and ditched due to my affair with Crema Marfil (to make the space look bigger):
- Rectangular tile on the shower walls laid horizontally. Creates an illusion of wider shower (I mean something like 6"x12").
- If you are putting in a shower pan then try getting a solid surface (budget permitting because they can be expensive) pan with the same color as floor tiles. This will create seamless transition into shower and will make the space look longer
- Round, not elongated, toilet
- If you are putting a tile on rest of the wall then once again, lay rectangular tile in a horizontal pattern to create an illusion of length.
- Choose a light colored vanity, and try to avoid a vessel sink (get an undermount). As I am discovering currently, vessel sinks dominate the space, and most of the ones in the market are about 17" in diameter, IMO really meant for vanities at least 30" long. They look HUGE on small vanities and overwhelm the space.

Hope this helps, I would post more as I remember things, and my pix are coming up shortly.

BTW, Papercrane, you have an impressive collection of necklaces there behind your bath wall! And lots of these look like beaded necklaces. Do you have a good place that sells good designs for reasonable prices?

(Sorry; this is not a bath related Q; just could not resist!)

Great ideas, homey bird, and I look forward to your pics!

As for the necklaces, I accumulated them over many years from many different places. Most are gifts as people learned how much I love costume jewelry - maybe your trick is to let lots of people know how much you love beaded necklaces!

Funny story - the necklace I get the MOST compliments on is a simple bead on a gold string that my daughter made for me for less than $5.

We have a very narrow half-bath with a small vanity in the center of the left wall. The toilet is on the far end of the same wall, on the other side of the vanity from the door. Right-side wall is empty. There is a counter running the whole length of the left side: imagine a 6" shelf running along the wall, that bumps out to encompass the sink when it gets to the vanity. This shelf extends over the top of the toilet as well. We haven't had any issues with accessing the toilet tank, likely because the shelf is so narrow at that point. I have to admit, though, that it feels like a pretty useless space, since it's not big enough for much. I use it for a candle. If your room can accomodate a nice cabinet over the toilet, I'd go with that over extending the vanity shelf. The only advantage to the vanity shelf that I see is to partially conceal floorspace next to the toilet. I've been considering replacing the wall-to-wall counter with a single vanity once we finally get to this room on the list of projects, since I think it might make the room look bigger.

We have an even smaller "master" bathroom that we will start remodeling in July - it is 4' by 8' rounding up but as it is a shower only bathroom already the changes will be fewer. We are planning on use a light celery green field tile in the shower only with ming marble mosaics on the shower floor and 12 by 12 Ming on the floor outside the shower area. Like homeybird we are going to stack our subway tiles horizontally to make the room look wider(?). I would love to see your pics homeybird. To make it less busy we are not planning on having any tiles on the walls outside the shower area - the radiator wall is pretty covered as is the sink wall although we may want a backsplash for the wall hung sink we will install. We are having a 15 by 30 medicine cabinet above the sink with electrical outlets inside as we will only have a small space beside the medicine cabinet. We are changing out the clunky radiator for a slim Runtal one and putting a heated towel rail on the wall above the laundry bin which is on the wall opposite the shower next to the toilet. And maybe a recessed cabinet above the toilet

Here is a link that might be useful:

Debelli and Papercane, I think your ideas for renovating your bathrooms sound great. I think the idea of keeping it simple is a good one. I am adding a 5x8 bathroom to the upstairs of my house right now. My house was built in the 30s, and although it has bedrooms upstairs, no bath. If you are looking for a budget friendly larger tile, HD) carries a 6x8 subway tile from Daltile that I plan to use in our bath/shower with an inset of some blue and white mosaic tiles (also from HD. I do think that even though it is a little more crowded, you will be happy with the storage if you use a small vanity cabinet instead of a pedestal. Especialy if you share the bathroom. My bathroom is about a week or two from being finished, I'll post pic then and would love to see your finished pics too.