Decide what has to live in the room
Make a genuine list before you plan anything: daily toiletries, spare toilet rolls, towels, cleaning products, medicines, hairdryers and appliances, and anything the children need.
Daily items need to be reachable without bending or opening two doors. Everything else can go higher or deeper.
Wet items need ventilation. A sealed cupboard holding a damp flannel is where smells begin.
Cleaning products and medicines need to be out of reach if young children use the room, which usually means a wall cabinet rather than a vanity.
Sizes and costs that work
Common storage elements with realistic supply-and-fit costs and the space each one needs.
| Element | Typical size | Supply cost | Fitted cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloakroom vanity | 400-500 mm wide | £120-£350 | £250-£550 | Very small rooms |
| Standard floor vanity | 600-800 mm wide | £250-£700 | £420-£950 | Family bathrooms |
| Wall-hung vanity | 600-1000 mm wide | £300-£900 | £500-£1,200 | Small rooms, easy cleaning |
| Mirror cabinet | 500-800 mm wide | £120-£600 | £220-£800 | Daily items at eye level |
| Tiled shower niche | 300x600 mm typical | £60-£140 materials | £220-£450 | Shampoo without a basket |
| Full-height tall unit | 300-400 mm wide | £180-£550 | £300-£750 | Towels and bulk storage |
| Bath panel storage | Front panel | £90-£260 | £200-£450 | Toys and cleaning bottles |
Niches and recesses: the free storage
A niche formed in a stud wall costs a fraction of a cabinet and takes up no floor space. Plan it during first fix while the wall is open.
300 mm wide by 600 mm tall is a good general size. Set the sill at around 1,100 mm so bottles are at hand height in the shower.
Niches must be tanked and falls formed so water drains out rather than pooling on the shelf. This is not optional and it is where DIY niches fail.
Do not put a niche on an external wall unless it can be insulated behind. A cold recess is a condensation trap.
A recess above the WC cistern in a duct wall gives you a shelf for spare rolls that costs almost nothing to form.
Making a small bathroom hold more
Wall-hung everything. A wall-hung WC and vanity expose the floor, which makes the room read larger and makes cleaning trivial.
Go tall rather than wide. A 300 mm tall unit floor to ceiling holds more than a 600 mm base unit and takes half the floor.
Use the depth behind a wall-hung WC. A duct wall creates a 200 mm deep shelf across the whole width of the room at no extra structural cost.
Choose a basin with a usable surround. A tiny round countertop basin looks lovely and leaves nowhere to put a toothbrush.
Hooks beat rails for children. Towels get hung up when hanging up is easy.
Decisions that must happen before tiling
Niche positions and sizes, because they are formed in the wall structure.
Wall-hung fixings and noggins, which must be in place before boarding.
Power and lighting inside a mirror cabinet, which needs a cable run to the right point.
Duct wall depth, which changes the finished floor area and therefore the tile setting-out.
We mark all of this out on site with you at survey stage, so the layout is agreed before anything is boarded.
Measuring your room for storage
Measure wall lengths, the distance from the door frame to each wall, and where the existing waste and supply pipes come through. A vanity that blocks a door or sits over a soil pipe box is a common storage mistake.
Mark the stud positions if the wall is a partition. Tall units and mirror cabinets need solid fixings, and a niche can only go between studs unless the wall is built out.
Frequently asked questions
How big should a shower niche be?
Around 300 mm wide by 600 mm tall suits most people, with the sill at roughly 1,100 mm. It must be tanked and laid to a slight fall so water drains out.
Is a wall-hung vanity worth the extra?
In a small bathroom, usually yes. Exposing the floor makes the room feel bigger and cleaning underneath takes seconds rather than minutes.
Can storage be added after the bathroom is finished?
Freestanding units and mirror cabinets, yes. Niches, duct walls and concealed fixings have to be built in during the works.
What size vanity fits a small bathroom?
400-500 mm works in a cloakroom, 600 mm is the usual minimum for a family bathroom where you want genuine cupboard space.
Do you build niches and duct walls as part of the job?
Yes. Carpentry, tiling, plumbing and electrics are all done by our own team, so the storage is built in as part of the same fixed price.
Where should a shower niche go?
On a wall that is not an outside wall, at a height you can reach without stretching, and positioned so it lines up with the tile joints. It needs to be planned before the wall is boarded.