Here are a few ideas I've had on this today while looking at pictures and playing with the diagram. I'd love to hear opinions.

1. A pocket door would eliminate the problem with the door swinging into the shower, so the shower could be brought out a lot more (the heater vent would have to be moved, but that shouldn't be a big deal). Are there any gotchas I should know about with pocket doors?

2. Turning the tub 90 degrees would give us more room for the shower.

3. A corner tub could also give us more room.

From looking at the dimensions of some tubs online, it looks like our current tub is actually fairly small (especially in length). Most of the corner tubs I see are actually almost as big in both directions as the current tub is long, and most non-corner tubs are quite a bit longer. And we'd like to have a nice tile tub surround, so that's going to add up also. So I'm not sure that either of the second options are really going to make that big of a difference...

Ok, here's a try with the pocket door and basically using up all of the freed space.

{{gwi:1407067}}

Potential concerns with this:

* There's basically no wall space left for hanging robes, etc. Towels could hang over the tub (they do now).

* Is this going to make the room seem too cramped? Is 41" between the tub/shower and vanity enough?

* Is 6.5" on two sides and 2" on the other two sides of the tub enough? This diagram uses the 60x42" tub measurement I see for a lot of Kohler's tubs. Some of those have a place for the faucet built-in, which eliminates the need for that on the edge. Also could potentially put something on one of the walls if necessary.

* I'm not sure how the interface between the shower (we're thinking of a glass enclosed tile shower) and the tub will work, so maybe there will need to be more space between them? We could bring the shower in another 9 inches without making it shorter than the existing shower (and it would still be substantially wider).

Of course, the shower is really the only flexible thing. Without going to a really short tub, I don't think we can make the tub use substantially less space...

I wish I had some advice for you, but I was just wondering how you are drawing your floorplan? Do you need some special software?

Thanks and good luck! I would kill for a shower the size of the one you have in drawing 2!

SCH9171...looks like you worked through your problem and found a solution! I think 41 inches is just fine...and you've maximized the total room...I think it looks great dimension wise...what are going to do for a shower door? We are planning as well and would LOVE a walk-in shower with no door, but that adds another 2.5 feet to the length of the shower to accomplish and we don't have it witout sacrificing room. Also, I noticed "no watercloset" did you think about that at all? We'd love one of these as well, for privacy, and to allow more than one person in the bathroom if needed when the other is in watercloset. This too will up a good bit more room....ahhh...the sacrifices we have to make...

BTW, I too would love to know what software you're using....Thanks!

Your entry door doesn't need to open more than 90 degrees. What about trying a corner tub. Then do a large corner shower with the door on the 45 angle. Your entry door can open against the shower wall. Where the tub deck and shower meet will make a 90 degree angle. I would also consider putting a small pony wall next to the toilet if you have room. It only needs to be 4 to 5 inches thick.

Thanks for the advice! I used OmniGraffle (Mac only) to do the drawings. It's not really specific to doing this kind of drawing, but it's pretty simple and does a decent job.

slc2053, we're tentatively (everything is tentative at this stage!) planning on a frameless glass shower with a glass door. We would like to have a water closet, but I just don't think we have room for it without sacrificing other things we want more, unfortunately. The powder room is right outside the door to the master suite, so generally one of us will just go use the powder room if we need to. Not ideal, but it could be worse.

Houseful, I did consider a corner tub, but it seems like most of them are actually fairly large (i.e. nearly as long on both sides as the long side of the 5' tubs I'm looking at are), so they don't seem to help all that much. It may just be that I haven't found the right corner tub yet. I did do a drawing where I dropped an oval tub (a Kohler Seaside 5') in diagonally, and that saved quite a bit of space. In the drawing I did, I left the tub area square, leaving a lot of tile surrounding the tub to set towels, soaps, decorative items, etc. But I could easily angle one of the corners to open up more floor space and have less open tile if I wanted to, and that would be very similar to an "official" corner tub. Not sure if the oval tub is the route I want to take, but it's intriguing.

A pony wall would be nice, but it would require making the vanity shorter, and we don't really want to do that. Truthfully, we'd actually like a longer vanity, but we don't have room for that either. What about making part of the vanity a fold-up piece, like the part they have in bars to get behind the bar? It could just fold up when someone needs to use the toilet, and fold down when not. (Kidding! ;-) )

I've got another idea for you, but I have run out for awhile. I'll post a floor plan tonite.

This is what I had in mind. Originally I put the whole tub and shower combo at the linen closet end, but then I remembered you had a window there. I shrunk the linen closet opening but not sure if it's feasible.

The wall between the tub and toilet is glass. That will help the shower feel wider. The walkway is a bit narrow, but only at the widest tub point. It wouldn't bother me since the whole thing feels very open. I tub represents a 60x30. I didn't have very good control with my laptop mouse when I drew the tub deck, but you get the idea. It allows for six inches of tile at the smallest points. Anything smaller looks odd.

This should give you some food for thought. Have fun!

Very cool idea! Thank you!