Three things making the room feel small
A bath that gets used twice a year. The standard 1500mm drop-in bath eats about a third of the floor in a four square metre room. If the household has another bath elsewhere, or has not run this one in two years, converting to a walk-in shower is the highest-return change available — and it usually reuses the existing waste, which makes it one of the cheapest large changes too.
A vanity that is too deep. A 550mm-deep vanity in a room 1.6m wide leaves a corridor. Slimline units at 400 to 460mm, wall-hung so the floor runs underneath, give back both real space and the visual read of more floor. Wall-hung also makes the room far easier to clean, which in a busy household matters more than the aesthetics.
A door that swings inward. In a tight room the arc is often the biggest single constraint on where anything else can go. A cavity slider needs wall depth and costs more; an outward-opening door is the cheap version where the hallway allows it.
The post-war layout, and how to fix it
The standard arrangement across Bankstown, Yagoona, Condell Park and Punchbowl is a compact bathroom with the toilet in its own room next door.
Combining them is the move. Two unusable rooms become one that works, with space for a proper shower and somewhere to stand. Because the floor is suspended timber, the drainage change is a cost question rather than a concrete-cutting question.
Two checks before committing. Is the dividing wall structural — often it is not, and where it is a beam handles it. And in a larger household, does merging leave anyone without a toilet when somebody is showering? If it is the only toilet in the house, that is worth thinking through properly rather than discovering later.
Working with the waste
The most useful principle in a small bathroom is to design around the existing drainage wherever the layout does not genuinely need to change.
That constrains far less than people fear. Fixtures can be swapped, the bath can become a shower, the vanity can shrink, the door can become a slider, the tiling can go full height and the floor can be relaid — none of which touches a waste, and which together will change the room more than most people expect.
Where a layout change is genuinely worth it, it should be an explicit decision with the cost on the table, not something that drifts into the drawing.
The details that do the most
A tiled niche instead of a corner caddy. Costs nothing in floor area, has to be planned at rough-in between studs, and needs the waterproofing detailed properly so water cannot sit in the base.
A mirror as wide as the vanity. The cheapest way to change how large a small room reads.
Light at the mirror, not a single downlight behind you. It needs a cable at rough-in, so decide early. This is the change people most often say they wish they had done.
Continuous floor tile through the shower without a hob, which reads as one space rather than two. It puts more demand on the fall, so it needs a competent tiler.
What to avoid
Dark grout on light tile in a small room — it draws a grid on every surface and shrinks the space.
A deep vanity chosen from a showroom without measuring the clearance to the opposite wall.
A swinging shower screen door in a room under about 1.7m wide.
Skipping the exhaust fan upgrade. A small wet room concentrates moisture, and a fan venting into the roof cavity rather than outside is a problem you will meet again in five years.
Scope
Same sequence as a full renovation, sized to the room: strip-out, rough-in, screed and falls, waterproofing, tiling and fit-off, with a vanity chosen for the actual dimensions.
Call 02 4404 0504 or send a photo and rough dimensions — that is enough to start.
The rest of what we do
| Bathroom Renovations | Full bathroom renovations — strip-out, rough-in, waterproofing, tiling and fit-off managed as one job. |
| Ensuite & Powder Room | Ensuites and powder rooms, where every millimetre counts and the set-out has to work around an existing bedroom or hallway. |
| Laundry Renovations | Laundries renovated on their own or alongside the bathroom, which is almost always the cheaper way to do both. |
| Waterproofing | The membrane stage — the part of the job you never see again, and the one that decides whether the room lasts. |
| Bathroom Tiling | Floor and wall tiling, falls to waste, niches and set-outs — the finish most people actually judge the room on. |
| Vanities & Cabinetry | Vanities, mirror cabinets and storage sized to the room rather than to whatever the showroom had in stock. |
Questions people ask before they commit
What counts as a small bathroom?
Broadly anything under about five square metres, which describes the great majority of original bathrooms across the post-war Canterbury-Bankstown suburbs. The design approach genuinely changes below that size — decisions that are cosmetic in a large room become structural in a small one.
How much does a small bathroom renovation cost here?
About $15,000 to $24,000 as a 2026 planning guide for a like-for-like renovation that keeps the existing layout. Small rooms save on tiles and materials but not on trade attendance, so the saving against a main bathroom is smaller than the floor area suggests.
Will taking the bath out make it feel bigger?
Usually, and it is the most common single change we quote. A 1500mm drop-in bath consumes roughly a third of the floor in a four square metre room and is often used a handful of times a year. The counter-argument is a household with small children, and in a larger family home that is a real one.
Can the toilet move in a post-war house?
More easily than most people expect. These houses usually sit on suspended timber floors, so the plumber can work from underneath and run new waste at a proper gradient. That is why combining the bathroom and separate toilet is affordable here and expensive in a slab-floor apartment.
Do large tiles help in a small room?
Generally yes, because fewer grout lines read as less clutter. The limit is the set-out: in a very small room a large format can leave awkward slivers at the perimeter. A tiler should be able to tell you at quoting stage where the cuts will land.