Quick answer
Start by measuring the room accurately, then place fittings around the existing plumbing where you can. Mark the soil pipe, door swing and window, leave proper clearance in front of the toilet, basin and shower, and decide where the eye lands when the door opens. Test it as a measured 3D design before building.
Measure properly before you decide anything
Every good layout starts with an accurate survey, not a sketch from memory. Get a tape and a notebook and record the room as it really is. Guesswork here is what causes the expensive surprises later, so take your time and write everything down.
- Wall lengths and the room’s true shape. Few rooms are perfectly square, so measure each wall and check the corners — a 20mm difference moves a unit.
- Window and door positions. Note their width, height off the floor, and which way the door swings.
- Ceiling height. Important for showers, extractor runs, and any sloped or boxed-in sections.
- Pipe and soil-stack location. Find where the soil pipe drops and where the existing waste and feeds run. This single fact shapes the whole plan.
Once it’s all on paper you can plan honestly. If measuring fills you with dread, that’s exactly what we do on a home survey — and it feeds straight into our bespoke bathroom design service.
Plan around the plumbing you already have
The cheapest layout is usually the one that keeps the toilet near the soil pipe. Moving the WC and soil stack is the costly change — it means new drainage runs, falls to get right, and often floor or wall work to hide the pipe. Basins and showers are far easier and cheaper to relocate because their wastes are smaller and more forgiving.
So the rule of thumb is simple: keep the toilet roughly where the soil pipe is, then arrange everything else around it. You can still completely transform how a room looks and feels without paying to shift the one fitting that’s expensive to move. When a move genuinely improves the room, we’ll cost it clearly so you can decide with open eyes — see our is it worth moving the bathroom layout answer.
Keep the toilet near the soil stack and the budget stays sensible — the basin and shower flex around it.
Leave room to actually use it
A layout that fits on paper can still feel cramped if there’s nowhere to stand. Each fitting needs activity space in front of it. These are rough guides, not rules, but they keep a room comfortable:
- In front of the WC: aim for around 600mm clear depth and 700mm of width so you can sit and stand without knocking knees.
- In front of the basin: about 700mm of clear space to lean in and dry your face.
- In front of the bath or shower: roughly 700mm to step in and out and towel off safely.
- Between fittings: keep at least 200mm between the edges of a basin, toilet and bath so it doesn’t feel pinched.
Then check the door. A door swinging into the room must not clash with the basin, the towel rail or the open shower screen — and it shouldn’t trap you against the bath. Where space is tight, an outward-opening or sliding door solves a lot. The same thinking applies on our full bathroom installation jobs every week.
Plan it in five steps
1. Survey
Measure walls, ceiling, window, door swing and find the soil pipe. Get it all on paper before any decisions.
2. Fix the toilet
Place the WC near the soil stack first. It’s the anchor, and the expensive thing to move.
3. Zone wet and dry
Group the bath and shower together as the wet zone, keep the basin and toilet drier, and contain splashing.
4. Check the view
Decide what the eye lands on when the door opens — a feature basin or tiled wall, never the toilet.
5. Test in 3D
See it as a measured visual, walk through it, and adjust before a single tile or pipe is touched.
Then build
Only once the plan is right do we order, strip out and fit. The thinking is done up front.
The principle that makes a room feel right
When you open a bathroom door, your eye lands somewhere first. Make that something good — a handsome basin, a tiled feature wall, a window with light — and never the toilet. It costs nothing to plan and it changes how the whole room reads. Designers call it the sightline, and it’s the difference between a room that feels considered and one that feels thrown together.
Alongside it, zone the room into wet and dry. Keep the shower and bath grouped so splashing stays contained, and keep the basin and toilet in the drier half. A screen or panel does the rest. Good zoning keeps the floor safer and the room easier to keep clean.
Ventilation, lighting and storage — planned in, not bolted on
- Ventilation. Decide early where the extractor or opening window goes. Damp ruins a beautiful room, so plan the airflow before the tiling.
- Lighting and electrics. Mark where lights, a shaver socket, a heated mirror or underfloor heating will sit at the design stage, while cables can still be routed cleanly within the correct bathroom zones.
- Storage. Build it in rather than bolting on a cabinet later. A vanity unit, a recessed niche in the shower or a mirrored cabinet adds storage without stealing floor space.
Sorting these on the plan is far cheaper than chasing cables or moving a fan after the walls are closed up. It’s all part of how we approach a bathroom renovation.
Fitting more into a small room
Tight rooms reward clever planning. A corner basin frees a wall, wall-hung fittings open up the floor and make cleaning easy, and a shower over the bath earns back the space a separate cubicle would take. Sliding or pivot doors remove the swing problem entirely. The trick is choosing the few moves that genuinely help — our best layout for a small bathroom guide goes deeper.
When to move the layout and when to keep it
Keep the layout when the plumbing already lands well, the door doesn’t clash and the sightline is decent — you’ll save money and get a fresh room for less. Move it when the room genuinely doesn’t work: a toilet you see straight from the door, a basin you can’t stand at, or wasted space a re-plan would unlock. Even then, only the toilet is costly to shift, so a small move can pay for itself. A full bathroom in Plymouth runs £4,075–£10,870 (average around £6,340), and because Plymouth sits roughly 9% below the UK average, a well-planned layout here stretches further. See our bathroom cost in Plymouth guide for the detail.
Common questions
Do I really need a 3D design before building?
It’s the single best way to avoid costly mistakes. A measured 3D visual lets you see the clearances, the door swing and the sightline before anything is ordered or stripped out, so you change the plan on screen rather than on site. See our 3D bathroom design answer for how it works.
How much space do I need to leave in front of the toilet and basin?
As a rough guide, aim for around 600mm of clear depth in front of the WC and about 700mm in front of the basin, bath and shower. They’re not rigid rules, but they keep the room comfortable to use rather than just technically fitting on paper.
Is it expensive to move the toilet when planning a layout?
Moving the toilet and soil pipe is the costly change because it means new drainage runs and getting the falls right. Basins and showers move far more cheaply. Where you can, keep the WC near the soil stack and arrange everything else around it.
More in our bathroom FAQs.
Plan it once, get it right
Let’s plan your bathroom layout
Send us your room’s measurements and we’ll survey it, sketch a layout that suits your plumbing, and show you a measured 3D design before any work begins.