Thank you for your feedback! I've put some thought into a freestanding tub but I really dislike the faucetry involved. The vanity layout is essentially the same as it has been for 20 years so I'm not worried about DH hitting his elbows while brushing his teeth (notice I stuck him in that sink). I'm sure my drawing (very rudimentary) is not to scale and there really is plenty of room. Look more toward the shower/tub area though. This is my real sticking point. I think I like the newer layout better. The shower is wider, connected to the tub. Now I can do another shape tub if I have to. I still want a 60x30 max tub and still, they are not easy to come by! Should I do undermount tub now that there would be so much going on then? Does that turn the transitional corner into modern/contemporary? BTW, they demo'd my bathroom today. Yay. I've ordered the cabinetry. I really need to get the tub thing situated.

My master bath used to be 4'x8'. I demo'd two bathrooms that were back to back and stole 1.5' from the other to make it 5.5'x8'. >I would like to know from others who renovated a small master bathroom from an older home if you were able to "find" space and make it appear bigger, gain space by using small vanities, etc. Our toilet is in a bump out so that the door--on one of the short ends--can open. This was original to the house. Now, it's just a shallower bump-out, 1' instead of 1.5'. We're using the full depth of that 1' for a wall cabinet, which will be 48" tall x 28" wide. This gives us a place for the humidifier, my box 'o Ace bandages/splints/etc, the cleaning bucket, and all the linens for that bath. Our medicine cabinet will be recessed. It back up to another medicine cab, which must have a light above, so it has sconces. There is a 10.5" gap between the door frame and the wall. We found a 10" deep cab that we're filling back there. Our vanity is actually a full 36". Part of it is 21" deep, and part is 18". We found a brand that looks nice but packs a huge amount of storage into the space. To put in the wall cab, we had to replace the toe-kick heater with a towel warmer, due to space constraints. Our colors will help open the space. The 66" tub will have frameless sliding doors. The walls and floors will be patterns of white with a light gray grout. There will be tile wainscotting to 40" in patterns of white, and the ceiling and substantial crown molding will be white. The walls will be a medium blue-green, but so little will be visible that it'll function as just an accent color. We can't steal space from the walls except for the medicine cabinet because it backs onto an outer wall. If it weren't for that, our 10" cabinet would be 14" deep, inset into the wall. With an 18" vanity, you'll have plenty of room to feel comfortable, even though 21" is murderous. At 4' depth, our 17" sink was bad, but an extra 6" would have made it okay. Our hall bathroom is now 8'x5.5', with a bite out of it where the toilet is for the master bath's toilet to have room with a swinging door. We stole space in that bathroom outrageously! A cabinet above the toilet, which is 8" deep, is recessed 4" into the wall (3.5" stud plus wallboard). I made two other in-wall cabinets, each about 14"x12", interior. One will be hidden behind a picture frame, so only one will be noticeable. I also but a HUGE medicine cabinet above the vanity, which is only 28" wide but packs in 6 drawers and even a shelf in the plumbing space--and looks nice, too. We couldn't recess that cabinet because the one backing it in the master bath is recessed. The lower in-wall cabinet will hold the first aid kit, while the upper one will hold meds that we use but not regularly--cold meds, etc. The medicine cabinet will hold all daily use things that don't fit in the drawers--even the kids' toothbrushes and tooth-brushing cups aren't going on the counter, which will have just the bathroom clock and the soap, and that's it. On the back of the toilet bowl is a kleenex box holder. In the tub area, I don't use regular shampoo bottles but travel-sided ones with really small openings to make it easier to get just a little shampoo or conditioner, even, and the toys are in a cute plastic frog toys scoop on the wall. Clear glass shower doors--when they arrive--will also help keep it open. I can't emphasize enough the importance of not having stuff sitting out to making a space look larger. Nothing makes a room feel small like a lot of stuff just cluttered around. The mud will only be in the shower. The rest will be sheetrock--the size of the room you have is what you get! In your case, if you REALLY can't move any walls (I'd want a tub in there!!!), I'd indulge in some creative thinking. Your bathroom is 4.5x9' total, which REALLY isn't horrifically small. (Remember that mine was 4x8....) I'd start with the shower. I'd stay in the same footprint but do a Kerdi shower so the threshold could be SUPER narrow--just 2". That gives you a good 2" of apparent interior space in the shower, plus likely another .5" of width without the mud base. Recessed niches are a MUST. Too big is better than too small! I'd get a frameless shower door--almost goes without saying in this setting. I'd do wainscotting to 40", continuing over the top edge of the vanity--this is a kind of "special effect," because unless you paint the upper part of the wall a dark color, it tricks the eye into believing there's more space. Continuing just those 4" behind the vanity makes a big difference, here. For the flooring, I'd do either a small mosaic OR 12x12" or larger, and the 12x12" should be on the diagonal. A "rug" effect actually makes a small room seem larger if the rug part has diagonal lines and the border is small. For the ceiling, crown molding make it seem higher as long as the molding and the ceiling are both white. Painting the ceiling any color but white lowers it in comparison to white. Use hooks rather than rods. They make the space seem bigger and stick out less. I designate a minimum of two hooks per person--one for a towel, one for a robe. The back of the door is a good place to hang things. Use art--and use it strategically. A properly-sized picture can make a space seem larger, and you can use it to hide another recessed medicine cabinet. With a .5"-deep frame, you can have 4.5" shelves. Extra TP, first aid stuff, and irregularly used meds can be stored there. Recess the medicine cabinet, if you possibly can, and make the mirror as WIDE as possible for maximum reflection. I'd commission a custom vanity for the space, and I'd use an undermount sink or would install a square vessel sink in an apron-front manner, like this: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Kraus-White-Rectangular-Ceramic-Vessel-Sink/3250161/product.html You have 42" of space, which is plenty for quite a nice amount of drawers plus a good-sized sink. If you used the sink above, you'd have, with a frameless design, 10.5" for drawers on either side. Make the cabinet kitchen counter height and have two shallow drawers and a deep drawer, and you can still have 8" of open space at the bottom. Even a bun-foot design has less visual weight than going all the way to the floor. Under the sink, add a shelf directly under the plumbing to make a shallow extra "landing" for a small container of things. The one thing, in my bathrooms, that I want space for and don't have is dirty clothes. But as far as everything else, I have MORE storage than I know what to do with! I have space for a cleaning bucket in each bathroom, for all our meds, for my makeup (and plenty of space for kid makeup, when the time comes), even for the Drano, for linens in my bathroom, for tons of bulk storage (extra soap, extra lotion, extra hair products, etc.). We have so much space that the counters can be basically bare. AND far from looking crowded, our hall bath strikes people as much larger than its square footage.

Just did a complete remodel on our master bath (old house, only 5'x7'). Love everything, but didn't take the actual lighting into account. We chose a light/fan combo for over the shower, fan works great, but the light are small compact fluorescent with an odd green cast, and not bright enough. I talked to the manufacturer (Panasonic) and they said the bulbs shouldn't be changed to brighter ones, that the fixture was designed for those bulbs. Over the vanity is a mirror, medicine cabinet, light unit. The light in that uses an LED strip, very harsh cold lighting for over a mirror. The two different color casts is very annoying. On top of it, the contractor convinced us to block up the small window to make the space more functional, so we don't get any natural light.

Hi, I took a look at your bathroom idea book and here's my thoughts on some common elements. You seem to like vertical sconces. I recommend a visit to a good lighting store once you have your floor plan finalized. I find lighting stores have excellent advice, often pick up on things to watch out for that I never would have thought of and will price match anything online. The vast majority of your ideabook pictures have no contrast and I didn't see any wallpaper. What were you imagining for wall paper? A texture of a very subtle print? I like the floating vanity a lot. I've never had a freestanding tub but love the idea of one. Will you use it a lot? A friend installed one and used it a few times and realized she liked the look of it better than the use of it. For her it became a expensive folly. Do you have a tankless water heater? If not, will your water heater support what is needed to fill the tub? I wouldn't worry about incorporating beige into the bathroom. The carpet isn't permanent and may change some day and you really seem to like the overall grey bathrooms without beige. I don't see that any of your ideabook phots have herringbone so not sure if that's what really strikes you. If you go with the overall marble look, i think herringbone is too busy. Hope that helps.