I think you'd get more utility out of this. It means a custom vanity but you are not moving sink plumbing.

That's how it was set up when we moved in. We hated it so much that one day my husband took a hacksaw to the cultured marble counter. The problem was that with that set-up there was no storage space, and there wasn't really room to access that part of the vanity counter because of the toilet. To stand there, you'd have to press right up against it.

Thanks for the input, and sorry to not be more receptive to this particular inspiration. It definitely looks like it would be a good design, it just wasn't very comfortable in reality.

This post was edited by polaris1492 on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 19:15

Your bathroom is truly tiny!
The toilet takes a minimum 30 inches of space out of your 58 in of wall space. I would recommend you keep the center of the toilet at least 16 in from the wall and 15 from the sink. I had 15 in from toilet to the wall and it was a MISTAKE!
That leaves you 24 to 27 in for your sink.
My daughter has a toilet in the same position as yours with a wasted corner. If you were to keep the same layout, you could so a 32 or 36 inch cab. In the wasted corner, perhaps you could custom build a TALL 12 inch DEEP pantry with sliding doors on the bottom and doors on the top. You would be able to better access the space.
Can you steal any space from somewhere else? How big is your shower?

It sounds like you just didn't have the right sort of storage in the longer vanity. If you had drawers in the middle, one or two could pull out completely over the toilet seat and the lowest one could be pulled out most of the way. Some sort of storage, maybe open shelves or a narrow door could be at the top end near the tank. Tall storage could top the counter.

Or if that didn't work the entire area next to the vanity could be a tall shallow storage unit:

Hm, good point. I was basing the vanity location on the current width of the shelf that's there. (It's an old IKEA Billy shelf, for context.)

Here's what my original idea was for the layout, before my husband said he wanted to add a window:

With a very narrow vanity, like this one:

It's about 12" deep at the ends, and 19" at the bowl. I think if we did that, an L-shaped shelf might even work.

The shower is 36" square, and I'm pretty sure that the a/c duct-work is right next to it, which is why it's a shower bump-out, instead of integrated into the room. I've been trying to figure out if there's any way to make more room, but the hall bathroom is on the other side (behind the toilet wall), and it's pretty small as well. The door side is the master bedroom, and... I dunno? Maybe you could sneak 12-16" there? But it looks like this:

The only free play is about 18" that we could gain by shifting the master BR door to be flush with the kids' room door, and I don't think it would gain us enough to justify ripping up the wood floor and wall and linen closet, know what I mean?

Does the additional layout info spark inspiration in anyone?

Whoops, sorry! It took me so long to go measure the rest of the house and redraw the diagram that I cross-posted with palimpsest.

In our previous layout, the long vanity was empty underneath, as if it were a '50's vanity where you'd have a cute powder puff chair to do your face. Except a toilet instead of a cute chair. I just checked the clearance on the vanity doors, and there's probably about 4-5" clearance with the toilet. When I stand where the long vanity used to be, I definitely bump my legs into the toilet. I realized, though, that one thing that made it feel a lot less useful was that the 40" medicine cabinet/mirror was off center to the sink, which meant that it (now) overhangs the vanity by about 10-11", and before it was super awkward to stand there, regardless of the toilet, because you'd see about half your face in the mirror. So, useless for storage (except a cardboard box we had under there), useless for dressing area. Not that what we have now is vastly better, to be sure!

How would some built in shelves from the floor to the ceiling on the same wall as the toilet work? It would be narrow, but more reachable than anything on the window wall. No drawers to pull out, and you could either have a narrow folding door or hang a shower curtain in front of it, if you wanted to cover it

I would probably leave the sink where it is, for the sake of economy and also to be able to peek out the window. Also, if the window reflected into the mirror over the sink, imo it would cause glare.

Though I kind of hate to post before pictures, because it is very not picturesque, for the purpose of seeing how the space fits together with the fixtures right now, here are a couple:

Standing in the doorway:

Standing in the shower:

Looking at the shower:

Man, the more I look at it, the more discouraged I get. I can reach everything on the shelf, but it feels awkward and like you have to crunch down and reach around behind the vanity and trash can and scale and just... awkward.

Before my husband mentioned he wanted to put in a window, I was visualizing something like the narrow vanity I posted above, with a built-in shelf and medicine cabinet and mirror built in kind of wrapped around it to integrate that whole wall. I wonder if a long horizontal window above eye level would work with something like that. That's the South wall, so it definitely would get light right into a mirror on the toilet wall in the morning, so that's a really good point against that particular arrangement.

I think you've got the right idea. A small high window sounds okay to me, or you could install a solar tube. I've tried to see what space you might have depending on the vanity depth you use. I've drawn a toilet centered 16 inches from the shower wall with a bowl 14 in in width (like mine).

I've also indicated where you say your toilet sits in relation to your vanity now. It may be that you have to keep your toilet where it is now due to the shower being close by???
I've tried to indicate with color what a 12 inch deep vanity versus an 18 in vanity would be like and the distance between the toilet and vanity. A lot depends on where the toilet actually is and whether it can be moved a little. So right now with a 12 inch deep cabinet, your toilet would be 17 inches from the cabinet and with an 18 inch cabinet, it would be 11 inches. If your toilet can be moved closer to the shower, you would add 5 inches to each of those numbers. Maybe you could do a mock up to see how the access to the corner cabinet would feel if you do it like you originally planned. It would be nice not to have to move plumbing.

I also like the idea of keeping a 21 inch deep vanity there with a counter over to the back toilet wall with 12 in deep cabinet on top of the counter facing the sink with it open underneath for a waste can.

I spent some time today pasting up a collage based on the narrow vanity I linked above, but then I found this custom narrow vanity hack on the ikeahacker's forum:

One of my favorite parts of my ikea kitchen is where I have two wall units stacked to make a tall cabinet with a counter in between. I bet I could do something like that in the bathroom as well.

That is attractive. Wider shelves are not always that useful, anyway, as things at the back tend to get lost.

The only other thought I had after my last post was, perhaps, to put in corner shelving in the space next to the toilet. Possibly that would be easier to access--and if you made it to the ceiling, of course the upper shelves would be more reachable.

I usually place taller cleaning items (spray bottles. bottles of chlorine, etc.) on bottom shelves, which makes them easier to reach.

I have a kitchen cabinet partially blocked by a small counter that I wish had been made as a corner cabinet instead of one parallel to the wall for that reason. It's very difficult to squeeze into that small space to get what I need.

You do have a tiny bathroom!

If It was mine and the window was going to be a narrow and centered on the wall....

I would find a rectangular sink (the spurge besides the window install) and then have a carpenter make a support for the counter top of your choice with shelves below built in to look like a cabinet that went all the way across that sink window wall but that is as narrow as the sink will allow. I would have by pass style door that would hang from the top-think closet doors that can move all to one side or the other. Due to the small size, I would skip drawers but consider slide out bins.

Above the counter

I would have a flush mount mirror with a light above

the window

Then a custom shelf system above the counter with a custom medicine cabinet built in to the window narrow end. Not sure if that makes sense, but I would have the side of the shelves made so they open on the side to conceal all those items that would have been in the medicine cabinet. The door can open and block the window, since it is only momentarily.

I'm also designing my small master bath.

One suggestion is a wall-hung toilet, so it sticks out less from the wall, allowing more walking room between the sink and shower.

You could get 6inches back:
- standard toilet ~27"
- wall hung ~21

(I'm not suggestions this store/toilet: just to use as example)

Amanda

I would take advantage of the corners to make more moving room and to allow a deeper vanity for a man. There are all sorts of cool corner medicine cabinets for additional storage and some even have lighted mirrors. I’m not sure if I have my scale right but I think a small shallow bank of drawers on one side (may have to do the other side) would be handy for makeup or whatever. If you do a google search you will find many options for a corner vanity.

OR

This post was edited by jterrilynn on Sat, Sep 20, 14 at 14:11

Off topic but what is everyone using for the design pix?