Size doesn’t have to matter
Cloakrooms, shower rooms and bathrooms make your home more valuable and sellable, but getting them right can be tricky. Here are our top five tips for making the most out of your smaller rooms.
1. Lots of cottages and other small houses have a downstairs bathroom, usually off the kitchen, which isn’t to everyone’s taste. Sometimes moving the bathroom upstairs into one of the bedrooms adds value, but it does depend on the number of bedrooms, and who you’re likely to sell to (older, downsizing buyers are more likely to want an upstairs bathroom, for example), as well as your own needs. Buyers will often expect a downstairs bathroom in that area or type of property, so moving the bathroom upstairs could be a waste of time and money. It could also devalue the property by reducing the number of bedrooms.
2. If you have a downstairs bathroom, but can fit a toilet (and washbasin) upstairs without compromising the layout too much, this is worth doing. Could part of a bedroom, the landing or a cupboard be made into a small cloakroom? Jack-and-Jill bathrooms, shower rooms and cloakrooms, where the room can be accessed by more than one room – usually a bedroom on either side – work well if space is tight. 3. In larger, family homes, a downstairs cloakroom is a must. If there isn’t an obvious place for one, creating space out of all or some of the understairs cupboard can be the answer. The cupboard may have to be enlarged, which isn’t necessarily a simple job, and you will lose storage space, but a downstairs loo adds value in a family home and makes daily life easier.
4. Another way to make a small space work harder is to create a wet room. This is typically a waterproof, fully tiled room where there’s a shower but no shower tray or enclosure, so the whole room effectively becomes the enclosure. If you don’t enjoy taking baths, it can be tempting to rip out the bath and replace it with a wet room or a big shower enclosure, but this may put buyers off when you come to sell.
5. Having a bath and a shower enclosure gives you the best of both worlds, but cramming them into a room that’s not really big enough can be counterproductive. If you only have space for one or the other, a bath with a shower curtain or bath screen and bath-shower mixer taps (bath taps with a shower hose and head) or a shower is perfect as it’s two in one. Shower baths work best because they’re usually wider at the taps end, giving you more room to shower.