I will have to post photos later, but I turned my 7'x9' bath from a tight, clumsy nightmare into a perfectly acceptable, useable, bright, comfortable bath with more storage than we'll ever need.

It was a full gut, to the studs remodel. Originally the tub and a built-in cabinet was on the 9' long north wall, very similar to your tub and shower placement.

The cabinet went to the neighbor's basement. The tub moved to the 7' west wall with a built-in cabinet filling in the 21" +/- space at the left end. (Still to be built.)

The south wall has a 48" vanity, and about 2 feet of empty space between the right end of the vanity and the side of the tub. I keep a small lidded step-on trash can there.

The vanity has two mirrored medicine cabinets over it, one for each of us. The only sink is centered under the right mirror. I like the "look" of a double vanity, but the extra counter space of this set up.

The toilet is on the north wall, facing the vanity, lined up with the sink.

There is space to the left of the toilet for a 12-14" deep cabinet that can be up to 28" wide and any height up to eight feet. It's still being "designed."

My layout would work just as conveniently in a 7x8 room. The vanity could be a foot shorter, or the space between the vanity and tub could be 12" instead of 24".

When hubster gets off the desktop, I'll post photos.

caroline94535, can't wait to see photos! Thanks! palimpsest, that idea floated across my consciousness as I was falling asleep last night. Pros: much more open feeling across the length of the room without the vanity protruding into the path from the doorway. Cons: little natural light reaching sink, whereas now I rarely even need to turn on a light. But it might be worth it, and as you suggest it would be a chance to design the lighting for the sink area really carefully. I am definitely planning on a 32" tub – 32 x 66, if I can fit it.

palimpsest, forgot to add: the door opens out into the hall, so no need to change it at all. As it is, it has a clear swing so it can fold right back against the wall outside the bathroom and it doesn't take up any bathroom space.

66" will not fit, and leave adequate space for the sink. You need a 30" alcove for a sink. At least not according to a 60" tub and 30" shower being there now. With the wet wall there that brings you to about 96".

You could do this with a 66" tub and a glass enclosure or shower curtain. It would need a small knee wall to enclose the back of the tub.

palimpsest, yes – I'd have to decide whether it would be worth doing all of this for not *quite* the tub I want. It may be that with a deep enough tub, I could be happy without the extra 6" length. Meanwhile, here's an inspiration pic that captures your second idea:

Bungalow bathroom · More Info

I see how handy the storage beyond the sink is, but would it be possible to move the toilet into that niche? You could relocate the storage where the shower is, or have an overhead cabinet (add a partial wall for the cabinet to hide between it and the outside wall). Then you have plenty of room for a towel warmer and towel bars on the window wall. And this is just me, but the toilet right in front of the door is not so attractive.

Is it cost-prohibitive to move the toilet?

bpathome, plumbing-wise, moving the toilet should be doable, especially in that direction, since the stack is actually closer to that storage area. And I do like the idea of having the toilet not be facing the door. The problem is that the current storage area is exactly 30" wide, with no room to make it wider, which means it would just barely meet the code for space either side of the toilet and it the toilet were a smidge off, it wouldn't. I do wonder whether it would be worth just sacrificing the lower part of that storage area, putting the toilet in front of it (so it's not constrained by the width of the alcove), and just having storage above the toilet. It would always be challenging to get at those deep shelves, though. Hmm.

Perspective on that storage area: it occupies the space behind the wall just to the left of the closet in this bedroom. If I were going to remodel the bedroom, too, I might borrow it back, because I could really use a whole wall of storage in the bedroom, but that's not in the cards any time soon. As it is, the storage space in the bedroom can't be expanded towards the exterior wall because, well, exterior wall. And it can't be expanded the other way, because that would go into the bedroom closet, which is already too small.

If you have 30" or almost exactly, if you could at least get the tank part of the toilet into the recess, you may gain something. In my location the 15" on center is measured from the rough in, not back by the tank so often there is not 15" on center or 30" back by the tank, there is often some obstruction. Then you could make sure you definitely have the 30" from the wall to the edge of the new vanity with the new rough in. (At least this would work in my location. This would allow a longer vanity, better access to a towel robe area behind the tub, and maybe some of the storage could be returned to the bedroom as well, or split between the two rooms.

palimpsest, that could work! The toilet projects 19" forward of the tank, so the front of the bowl could be flush with the face of a shallower vanity, or a little behind a standard-depth one.

I think I'd rather the tub enclosure toward the window for light, and the storage toward the door for a little entryway.

bpathome on balance, I agree with you. If the toilet could be moved 90 degrees and over to the side as palimpsest suggests, then a radiator could go under the window and the tub go right up to the exterior wall. However, if the toilet can't be moved, I'd be sort of inclined to use the exterior wall behind the tub for a heated towel rack, robe hooks, etc. Light would still reach the tub as long as it didn't have a solid wall on that end.

OK, let's talk colors. As you can tell, I REALLY LIKE COLOR. So while I keep saying I want to go cooler and paler – and there's almost nowhere else to go once you've got Chinese Orange walls – I have been busily collecting tile samples, both IRL and in pictures, in many favorite colors –

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I am aware, though, that there's a lot to be said for using a more neutral tile and doing the stronger colors in paint, so I can change my mind cheaply every few years. However, I'm loathe to use plain ol' white tile when I finally get to do the bathroom of my dreams. A white or grey-white floor, as is currently trendy as well as typical of the '20s, is just too cool for the palette I'm imagining. What I'm having trouble envisioning is what might serve as a warm-but-light, non-boring neutral for either floor or wall tile, but not read as beigey. Thoughts?

White floors with dark grey grout would be fine, because the fixtures are going to be white. I support your use of colored wall tile. I did one blue bathroom, one white, and one grey. The grey one is grey because I wanted colored matching fixtures in one bath and by the time I started the bathroom Kohler Innocent Blush (pale pink), Sunlight (pale yellow) and Skylight (pale blue) had all been discontinued and I got one of the last grey cast iron tubs in America.

I'm thinking that not-white floors would give me just a little leeway with the amount of dog hair that drifts through my house at all times. Not that I don't love a clean bathroom floor, but the reality is white shows every speck!

Well, you could do Merola "University" text style mosaic

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Merola-Tile-University-Blue-11-3-4-in-x-11-3-4-in-x-5-mm-Porcelain-Mosaic-Tile-9-62-sq-ft-case-FKOUV418/203784071

Or you could get Daltile in Pepper White

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Daltile-Keystones-Unglazed-Pepper-White-12-in-x-24-in-x-6-mm-Porcelain-Mosaic-Floor-and-Wall-Tile-24-sq-ft-case-D03711MS1P/203462004?&cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|DigitalDecor|B|0|B-BASE-D23+Tile|&mid=BFf49bef|dc_mtid_8903vry57826_pcrid_73461123856882_pkw__pmt__

Which is also available in Hex. Daltile has Dozens of available colors for mosaics in their Keystone line

But honestly if you do a small mosaic with grey grout it's pretty forgiving.

Oh, I like that Merola! For me, light blue counts as a neutral. ;-)

There are two colors of pet hair. Dark hair that shows on everything light colored and light pet hair that shows on everything dark colored. All pets have both colors.

And my eponymous beagle, of course, has all three! Plus I have a very hairy black spaniel. Upshot: very white or very dark not good; forgiving midtones with some variegation better.

Update: following discussion above with palimpsest about blue floor tiles, I had a color epiphany: floor tiles in a slate blue could serve as an interesting neutral, avoiding plain-old-gray, which I dislike, and working beautifully with potential pale-to-leafy green and/or straw yellow for tiles or wall paint. And they'd accommodate a wide range of potential changes of wall color and fabric in the future. In small hexagon form, they'd be a nod to the period.

rendering_slate_blue_hexagon_2_inch_recycled_half_offset_490_270_84_int_c1.jpg ( · More Info