Whether you’re designing a brand new home or renovating your old one, it’s important to dedicate some time to the toilet. No, not sitting on one while you contemplate your plans, but what style to use, where to locate them and more. We’ve put together some helpful tips for you to start the process.
1. Space
There’s two parts to the idea of space. First up is you do need a reasonable amount of space around the toilet to make life easier. Anyone who’s squeezed into the toilet cubicle on an airplane can vouch for that. But you also have to think about other elements in the same space – does the shower have a door that needs room to open? Where’s the door into the room? Will the toilet make access to the vanity difficult? All these connections to the rest of the space need to be considered.
2. Size
While you might think all toilets are basically the same in size, that’s actually not quite true. Many modern designs can have the cistern and other pipes built into the wall, with the pan being set flush (hehe!) against the wall. That takes up substantially less space than the more traditional styles where all the plumbing is incorporated into the toilet itself. A compact style is great in a small space, but can look out of place in a spacious bathroom. The reverse is also true – a bigger toilet can be dominating in a very small space.
3. Spray
Modern design has moved away from the older style of shower cubicle, preferring frameless showers or even just a glass partition between the shower head and the rest of the room. While this has done wonders in terms of opening up the visual impact of a bathroom, it has created an issue with spray from the shower escaping the confines of the shower area. It’s not great fun to sit on a toilet only to discover it’s covered with a mist of droplets left behind after someone’s shower. So you need to think carefully about how to prevent your toilet copping a spray during a shower.
4. Users
Who is going to be using the toilet? If your typical user is getting older, then having a wall beside the toilet can be useful if you may need to install rails down the track. A family with smaller children may like a compact, lower pan. Think about your target market and make allowances for their needs.
5. Toilet Paper
While the location of the toilet is important, the location of the toilet paper is even more important. After all, it’s something that is going to be accessed multiple times a day, and the last thing you want is to be performing contortionist tricks to access it every time, because the only place to put it was really awkward.
And while all of the above needs to be taken into conderation, we’ve saved the best for last – whereabouts in the room is the toilet? It’s almost universally agreed that the last thing anyone wants to see when the bathroom door is opened is the toilet. So if you can locate it behind the door, or behind the vanity, shower or bath, that’s always preferable to it holding pride of place. But if centre stage is unavoidable, then use other fixtures or styling to give the room a better focus point, so the eye is drawn away from the toilet as soon as the door is opened.