Bathroom Renovation: Guide to Changing your Layout

Bathrooms, along with kitchens, are some of the most popular areas in homes that need a refresh every so often. A good bathroom renovation is one of the best ways to increase the value of your home, which has been a personal goal of ours for the last few years. Through the renovation of our floors, exterior, and main living areas, we have considered changes that not only make our house feel more like our home but also increase our home’s value.

For a bathroom, permanent pieces like tile, faucets, and countertops can often make the room feel more dated. Bathroom renovations are a bigger budget project, so it makes sense to consider all of the possibilities when beginning the process, including the layout. Here are my best tips and tricks if you’re planning to undergo a bathroom renovation.

Beginning the Bathroom Renovation Process

Beginning the process can feel overwhelming, so here are a few questions to ask yourself. First, does the space currently work for you? Second, what parts of your current bathroom would you like to change? And one of the most important things to figure out is the budget. Figuring out the budget can be one of the hardest parts, and it might even be helpful to call in a contractor to guide you here. Once you have good direction, you can move on to step two.

How to Allocate Budget

Bathrooms are bigger budget renovation projects, so it is important to focus on your priorities. The best way to think about your priorities is to consider what you’re willing to give up. Ask yourself what you value most, and then go down the list. Remember, you don’t have to do everything at one time. Things like cabinet handles and even lighting, can always be a quick addition later.

Consider Your Current Layout

Considering your current layout, does your new plan allow you to achieve your goals? I highly encourage you to create a floorplan layout of what you have. You can then see possibilities more easily. Then, consider other options that could work.

A few questions to ask yourself:
1. Is the shower big enough?
2. Are there any weird angles to consider?
3. Do you have space for a tub?
4. Would you like a water closet?
5. Is there enough storage?

If there is wasted space in an adjoining area, you can borrow that to give you more possibilities. When considering this option during the bathroom renovation, make sure it fits into your budget before making the ultimate decision. This is where it may be best to use a professional to help. Not only will they know the proper procedures, but they can also discuss the financial impact with you. Moving walls, plumbing, etc. will take the costs of the renovation up significantly.

If you’re looking at this option but can’t expand your budget, a few options would be finding more affordable tiles and fixtures that you like to help make room for the layout change costs. These tradeoffs may be worth it if you can achieve your ultimate priorities.

Our Bathroom Renovation Process

Changing the layout of our bathroom ultimately allowed us to achieve what we wanted for our master bathroom. Our goals and priorities were a larger shower, a pedestal tub that wasn’t angled like our current one, a water closet, and more modern tiles and fixtures. We also wanted to keep our double vanity.

The fact that our hardwood floors needed to be redone was a big part of making the decision to do a complete bathroom renovation. It was a good opportunity for further demo and work. It also made sense in our case to borrow space from a closet in order to achieve our bathroom goals. You can see the layout updates here.

With the layout change, we swapped the closet and bathroom. We also expanded the bathroom into the bedroom hallways and removed the linen closet. With these changes, we were able to achieve most of our goals. It helped create efficiency and flow in our bathroom, plus it’s a prettier view now from the master bedroom.

Ready to Make a Bathroom Renovation Happen?

If you’re ready to make a bathroom renovation happen and have made your lists, the first step is to contact the professionals if you’ll be needing demo work done! If you need assistance, CASS Design Co. offers Design services and can help! Here’s to creating the Pinterest-worthy bathroom of your dreams. The end result is worth it!!