do a couple of things, can the wall between the bathroom and sitting room be removed/moved?

if not, I'd get rid of the linen closet and make it into a watercloset or toilet room. full access before doors will work well for the small space and take up less room. also change the door in the bathroom to a pocket door to take up less room. I can see how deep the linen closet is or what's behind it, but if you can do that, it will clear up about 30". fo a 60" vanity and thar will give you an extra 12 inches. 42 inches may not seem like much but it's big enough to make a shower while keeping a 60" tub. 60" tubs are important for resale. so unless you plan to never leave, I'd do my best to keep a standard size.

Jesse Fay, thank you so much for these ideas! Yes, one idea is to make the sitting room smaller and to then have a double shower, deck tub and 60 inch vanity that all touch.

Your idea for creating a toilet room is interesting! Can you say a bit more about the last idea you had. I am not sure if I understand where the vanity and shower would go in that scenario. (To answer your question, there is a linen closet behind the area drawn as "linen", so there would be more room behind there, if needed. I will see if I can grab a picture...I really appreciate your thoughts!

@newenglandsara2 This would be the general idea. please excuse the roughness of the image but i wanted to use the image you had to keep the dimensions as i dont have all the measurements. but this should be pretty close as i didnt size the most important pieces. Keep in mind, i would measure the linen closet. it needs to be at least 30" wide as most counties require a minium of 15" from any walls to the center of the toilet drain. but do check to make sure you are keeping everything within code.

The pocket door to the bathroom would go into the existing wall thats to teh right of the toilet when open. a full access bifold door comes out and would sit flush to the wall that seperates the other bathroom and yours. this way it is out of the way but also doesnt look like a hallway of doors.

What is the reason for even having a small sitting room? Is there a need for it, or is this just something that seems nice to do with some extra space. If you don't really need it, consider getting rid of it and design a large bathroom that will solve the issues you are having with achieving functionality. Besides affording you adequate space, you can also avoid that tight, awkward entry to the bathroom by having it, say, where the door to the sitting room is. If you can free up the sitting room space, you have dozens of design possibilities for a really pleasing, roomy, and functional bathroom.

Years ago, I remodeled and had about a 6' X 6' space that I decided to use for a large window seat where I imagined I would spend hours reading. In reality, it hardly ever got used, and if I had it to do all over again I would have skipped using this space for a window seat and used it instead to add space to the somewhat tight bathroom that it shared a wall with. Maybe you really need that sitting room for some reason, but, if it is something that you may not use every day, consider donating that space to the bathroom that you will use multiple times a day.

Jesse Fay, you are so kind to draw this up! I really appreciate it, and I can picture it now. If I could convince my husband to get a 42-48" single vanity, we could fit in an even bigger shower. And I suppose (in your lay-out) we could bring the toilet back into the room with a privacy wall if we can get away with 74 inches of tub decking. Then, we could keep the linen, although the WC idea is great too. This really helps!

Kudzu9, I really appreciate your input! I am a social worker, and I am now doing a lot of telehealth. This "sitting room" off of our bedroom is the only place we could find in the house where I can shut the door and meet with clients remotely. I don't need the space to be big, but I need enough room for a desk, chair, filing cabinet and (ideally) a day bed. I would be willing to shrink the sitting room up to six more inches, but I don't think I can get away with more than that. I can relate to what you wrote about the window seat as I love the way they look but don't tend to use them since they are often not all that comfortable in reality. :) Thank you again!

newenglandsara2-

That makes sense...just wanted to be sure that you weren’t missing an option. But even stealing a small amount from the sitting room, such as 6”, could make a difference in usability, both in terms of space for fixtures and access to the bathroom. Good luck with whatever you do.

Is the width of your bathroom 8'8.5" too?

suzanne-m, the bathroom is about 10' x 8' 8".

suzanne-m, I just saw your sketch above. What a creative approach! My husband would probably LOVE having a separate vanity as I tend to clutter up my space. :) I also like the way you shifted the door. Thank you so much for this idea!

Would this layout work?

Sara S, yes! I really like that lay-out! We could try to put some shelves behind the tub deck to keep the vanity from overlapping the tub by too much. We could also put a half wall on the toilet side of the shower. Many thanks for this!

Sounds good! When I look at bathroom pics, I like the look of a window at the side of the bathtub, so that’s why I put that there. Plus with the vanity near the doorway you don’t need the little wall extension, so the entryway should feel less crowded.

I’m partial to suzanne_m’s layout: much better use of the space, and resolves that tight problem with the door into the bathroom.