Bathrooms are always one of the most popular rooms in the home to remodel, and it makes sense why. Your bathroom is a place where you can relax and unwind. As such, you want it to give off that serene energy — and an old-school, dysfunctional space won’t do that.

But it’s one thing to want a new bathroom — you have to know how to design a bathroom if you want to update yours. It’s not always easy to transform your vision into a reality, and that’s true even if you’re in the midst of laying out your custom home. If you need some help, you’ve come to the right place.

Here are our six best tips for designing a bathroom.

1. Make an Easy Connection

Start by taking the location of your bathroom into consideration. This is especially true if you want to re-design a bathroom that attaches to your master or another bedroom in the home.

Be sure the bathroom will have enough privacy if someone’s in the bedroom and someone’s in the bathroom. For example, place the shower and tub far enough away from the door or behind a wall. You may also consider having the bathroom accessible through the master closet so that there’s a lot of space between it and the bedroom.

If you’re designing a bathroom in your custom home, make sure you give it enough floor space for all of the features you want. Along with ample square footage for privacy walls around the tub and shower, you’ll want enough room for vanities, a large tub, a walk-in shower, and any other large feature you imagine.

2. Choose Your Tub and Shower

On that note, you may find it easier to design your bathroom around a feature that you pick out first. So, talk to the builder of your custom home and uncover your options for tubs and showers. From there, you should be able to imagine the rest of your bathroom.

For example, let’s say you want a freestanding tub in your bathroom. You will need to reserve a good amount of floor space for such a feature, and you’ll also need to consider where you’ll put your shower if you want one. But choosing the tub will guide the rest of your design process since you know it’s a must-have feature.

3. Decide If You Want Form or Function

Not all bathrooms are meant to be a beautiful focal point. In other words, that freestanding tub we mentioned above might not fit into the bathroom you envision. That’s totally fine — and it sounds like you will be designing a bathroom for function and not form.

Small bathrooms and powder rooms tend to be designed to fit into small spaces and make the most of your home’s square footage. These should be pretty easy to design, as you just need to make sure there’s enough space for the essentials. Designing a bathroom that’s functional is a lot easier than designing one meant to be spacious and luxurious.

4. Who Needs a Vanity?

We mentioned master bathroom vanities previously. Answering this question can help you design your custom bathroom, too: do you need one vanity in your bathroom or two?

If you opt for one, then make sure there’s room for each of you to have your own sink. Consider the same in the hall and guest baths, too — if multiple people will be using them, then you may want more than one sink to make the bathroom more functional for everyone.

5. Keep Things Visually Cohesive

Do you have an idea of what your bedroom decor will look like? If so, use this to guide your bathroom design.

Imagine the door to your bathroom stays open so it’s visible from your bedroom. That’s the reason why the decor should be cohesive from space to space.

So, you may consider choosing cabinet finishes and hardware to match your bedroom furniture. Or, you can let your bedroom’s overarching design style inform the finishes you choose in the bathroom. A modern space will look great with sleek countertops and stainless steel hardware, for example.

If you’re not sure how to mesh your bedroom design with your bathroom, seek out a Pinterest board or slideshow of bathroom design ideas. Find something that would look good with your bedroom, then go from there.

6. Don’t Make It Too Big

Finally, as you design your bathroom, be sure not to go overboard with the floorplan you create. Even if you spend lots of time in the bathroom and enjoy relaxing there, don’t use up too much of your home’s square footage for your bathroom.

There are other spaces in your home that should be larger than your bathroom, even if it’s the master. For example, the master bedroom itself should be bigger. Your kitchen and living room should be a comparable size as well.

Learn How to Design a Bathroom By Doing

Ultimately, you can only learn how to design a bathroom by doing it yourself. If you’re dreaming up your custom home, then a bathroom is only one small piece of the puzzle. And it’s just the beginning of the fun and challenging process of putting it all together on your own.

Of course, if you work with us, then we can help you turn your custom home vision into a reality. Click here to see the houses we have available currently — or contact us to see how we can help you build your home from start to finish.