Personally, even if it is a little tight, I would keep the wall so that the bathroom is more easily shared. Or you could put in a builtin 6 foot vanity and make the shower/tub room wider by 10 inches.

Here’s thrifty decor chick’s similar reno:

https://www.thriftydecorchick.com/2017/07/the-bathroom-renovation-is-done-and.html

looks great opened up (she left a pony wall).

Ohhhhh, Thrifty Decor blog is exactly what I've been looking for but haven't found - thank you damiarain!

We likely won't leave pony wall. What are the options for toilet paper roll mount? If the side of the vanity isn't reachable, what are the options other than freestanding "TP stand"?

Have you determined that the wall is non-load bearing and that there is no venting for the plumbing or electrical inside that wall that can't be re-routed?

I would do the pony wall if it is not a load bearing wall as @kudzu9 cautions. The pony wall could be pulled down the wall towards the new vanity to make it a built in, that way you would have more room where the toilet is. You can use the pony wall as a TP place, and possibly shelving for more storage or, at the end of the pony wall, have a pullout for storage. You could also mount a grab bar on the pony wall for safety. I recommend doing the same in the shower area too, since you will have the walls open. Use wood blocking for the mounted bars.

How many kids will use the bathroom?

kudzu9 - it is not load bearing nor does it have venting or any electrical that can't be re-routed.

enduring - thanks for your thoughts, I'll think on the possibility of the pony wall and storage

HU - 2 kids

thank you all for your thoughts!

Remodel is progressing! We have removed the tub, surround and wallboard . Still haven't committed to the wall, hopefully I can make a decision and stick with it asap!

yeh_yeh, that's gorgeous! Thank you for the inspiration!

My honest hold up with the wall was the darn toilet paper and hand towel placement. My 10 year old son uses the sink closest to the wall and is a mess, lol. He wont consistently re-fold a hand towel and loosing the wall means losing my hand towel holder. I can deal with a freestanding TP holder (not my fav). Other ideas on where to hang the hand towels for that left sink?

Regarding hand towel placement, I have seen people with double sink put the hand towel in between two mirrors so both users use the same towel, can you do that? If you will have one mirror only for two sinks then that won’t work.

2 mirrors for 2 sinks. I'll have to think on the middle mount - seems like it would be hard for them to reach? Maybe a mount on the side of the vanity? We would have to do 1 side mount, 1 wall mount....not sure about that.

I vote against a free standing TP holder! I have never been happy with them when I see them. I still advocate with a 1/2 wall. You get the benefit of widening the toilet area if needed, Having a wall to mount your fixtures on both sides of the room, and the opening of the visual aspect of the room. And as I've mentioned, you could even arrange to have an end pull out storage draw in the end of the pony wall. The wall for that purpose my be best as 8" to get some room in the pullout. This came from a thread called: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2263769/what-was-your-best-worst-bathroom-remodeling-decision#n=41

This is from @beaglesdoitbetter

I don’t understand the difficulty with TP placement. The obvious place would be the end of the vanity cabinet (to your left if you are sitting on the toilet).

As for hand towel placement, putting it between the mirrors sounds like a good option.

What is the total length of the bathroom?

New vanity is 72" which is 11" shorter than old vanity. 11" + 5" wall removal = TP will be too far away to mount to cabinet, right? Not wanting to spend extra for longer vanity despite having the space as we're trying to keep vanity around $1700 with counter/sinks. We looked into countertop replacement and we were at $1300 with sinks (remnant quartz) but needed to refinish cabinet (water damage).

Room is 156" long. Shower will follow 30" footprint that bathtub was in. Toilet placement not moving. Drawing attached, I'm probably overthinking it!

So, a 30” wide shower is going to be tight, especially if you are planning on a glass enclosure. If using a shower curtain instead, there would be some wiggle room. Have you found out from a contractor how much it would cost to move the toilet a short distance? You are already going to be spending a lot to renovate and build a brand new shower, so the extra to move toilet (and get a wider shower) might not be too much of a % extra to your budget.

156”:

72” for vanity

36 “ for toilet (can go down to 30”, but 36 is more comfortable)

That leave you room for a 48” wide shower if you move the toilet.

You can also then get some extra storage by making the shower shorter and putting a storage cabinet next to the toilet. In that scenario your shower would be 48” wide x approx 45” or so depending how wide you want the storage.

Sometimes it’s a lot to move a toilet, but other times it’s not. Might be good to find out. It might be worth it to you to get a better layout (bigger shower and extra storage).

Don’t worry about over thinking it. Don’t let anyone suggest that you are. read the thread I attached for options others have put in place.

don’t forget grab bars at the shower and at the toilet.

here are examples of mine:

Here is a low bar for bathing at the back end is a high grab bar that is for safety and used as a towel bar

We're doing a shower curtain with curb. It was $800 to move the toilet. We're definitely being pretty budget conscious as we want to save the big remodel for the master. The kids tub was cracked and rusted on one side so they came first but trying to reign it in!

What kind of shower are you getting? People have been very happy with solid surface shower pans. Same with the walls. I would recommend that you don't use a tiled floor shower. It will be harder to keep clean because of the grout, imo.

Even though you are planning to use a shower curtain, it’s a good idea to ask the contractor to put proper blocking/support on the side walls, so in the future you could choose glass. And you can tell (and show photo of blocking) a potential future buyer that they have that option.

I think $800 to move a toilet is a low price to pay for a better layout (deeper shower), but I am not you, and I don’t know your budget.

I would keep the wall. Two kids simultaneously using the shower+toilet and the vanity would be an important consideration when getting ready for school. The shower curtain solves some of it but is not ideal. Also removing the wall and creating short/pony walls adds cost. Also moisture can be more easily removed from a smaller shower space. You also lose the medicine cabinet by removing the wall. And the medicine cabinet mirror give an impression of larger space which you would lose too.

I think you are designing everything around the new vanity which is problematic. Would 5" of space on both sides of the vanity look that bad?

On another thought the current vanity does not look bad at all. Why are you changing it?

Have you finished this? Would love to see pics. Planning a similar remodel!

smm5525 we're still working on it. DIY mostly 1 day/weekend. Here is our current in progress state

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not sure why pic won't show up, i'll try again later

@yeh_yeh - I tried looking quickly through some of your posts to see if I coukd find this information but I didn’t see it -

Would you mind sharing where you bought the vanity for the bathroom you remodeled above? I have a hall bathroom that I will be renovating shortly and I like your vanity. Also, what do you think about the curbless shower? Does the glass enclosure keep the water inside the perimeter of the shower? Thanks! Your bathroom looks great!

dmac1108 Mine is a custom vanity. I specified I want slab drawer fronts and doors and bought the edge pulls myself. Regarding the curbless shower, this particular shower does have some water came out on the floor via the small gap in between the door and the fixed panel due to the shower width being quite narrow at 30". Also the door is a bit too close to the shower head because I have a bench on the other end of the shower. If I didn't have a bench on the other side, the door wouldn't be so close to the shower then I might not have that problem. At the end I added a clear threshold on the floor where the glass door is and it minimizes most of the water coming out. On the other hand, my other curbless shower that's wider (~54"), that one has no water coming out at all. So I will say it depends on the width of your shower and the location of the "gap".