How to Lay Out a 100-Square-Foot Bathroom

An engineer shares 10 smart ways to efficiently lay out a bathroom of this size

A midsize bathroom with a double vanity, toilet, and separate shower and tub comes out to about 100 square feet. But that doesn’t mean you’ll find one right way of organizing those components. Tweak the shape of the room, the doorway placement or the square footage, and all of a sudden you have several options for how best to lay out your bathroom.

We reached out to Meg Escott, an engineer by training who runs the website House Plans Helper, to help show 10 bathroom layouts for a midsize room.

85 Square Feet

This arrangement is an extension of the standard 8-by-5-foot bathroom layout. It accommodates a freestanding bathtub inside a walk-in shower. “The toilet is put on the same wall as the door to prevent a view of it from outside the bathroom,” Escott says.

100 Square Feet

Going up to 100 square feet allows for “a more spacious-feeling room,” Escott says. Although the toilet sits opposite the wall with the door, it isn’t in the direct line of sight from outside the room.Again, the freestanding tub sits inside the shower space.

In this similar layout to the previous one, the tub is rotated for a different arrangement that could help play up a window on an exterior wall or deal with a design obstacle.

Keeping the same 100 square feet but switching to a truer square shape allows for a balanced layout. The double vanity somewhat shelters the toilet on one wall, while a separate tub and shower stall occupy the opposite wall.

Escott suggests that a curved corner shower stall could be swapped in to play off the curve of a freestanding tub.

Splitting up the sinks in a more rectangular 100-square-foot bathroom lets the bath sit opposite double doors to create a design statement. “If you’re going to go for a freestanding bath, you might as well show it off to full advantage. The fact that the washbasins are not as wide as the bath gives the bath room to breathe and show off the shape,” Escott says.

“I think an alcove is a perfect space for a freestanding bath,” she says. “It’s the most aesthetically pleasing, in my opinion — with or without windows.” Again, this layout puts the tub on display from the entrance.

Escott also points out that the spaces on the sides of the alcove are different depths to accommodate the vanity and the shower unit. The latter also helps tuck the toilet into the corner so it’s not so visually prominent.

115 Square Feet

Adding 15 square feet to the previous five layouts to create a shower alcove allows the freestanding tub to sit diagonally and nestled in a corner. “I like this arrangement, as it gives the bath lots of breathing space so that the design of the outside of the bath can be fully appreciated,” Escott says.

130 Square Feet

Moving up to 130 square feet, you really start to get the sense of open, airy spaciousness. “This layout would have the feeling of two separate spaces,” Escott says. “There would even be room to pop in a small chair or stool between the vanity and bath.”

This layout for 130 square feet puts the bathtub as the centerpiece. There’s a bit of room left over in the corner for a chair or an extra storage piece. “I’d have a slight concern with this layout that, since the shower and washbasin are likely to be the areas we use most often, the bath might get in the way of the day-to-day use of the bathroom,” Escott says.