Most New Hampshire houses have at least one bathroom that is too small — the 5×8 hall bath, the tucked-under-the-stairs powder room. You usually cannot make it bigger, but you can make it work far better with the right fixtures and a few layout rules.

The clearances you cannot cheat

• 21 inches minimum in front of the toilet, sink and tub (30 is comfortable).
• 15 inches from the toilet centreline to any wall or vanity on each side.
• 24 inches of clear floor to swing the door — or use a pocket door and reclaim it.
• A shower needs 30×30 absolute minimum; 34×34 or 36×36 is where it stops feeling like a phone booth.

Fixture moves that buy space

• Wall-hung vanity or a pedestal — seeing the floor run under it makes the room read bigger. A 24–30" vanity is plenty for a hall bath.
• Wall-hung or skirted toilet — a few inches shallower, and much easier to clean.
• Curbless or low-curb shower with a clear glass panel — no shower curtain cutting the room in half, and the eye travels to the back wall.
• Trade the tub for a shower in a second bathroom if the house still has a tub elsewhere — it is the single biggest space gain.
• Recessed niches instead of a shower caddy; a recessed medicine cabinet instead of a surface one.

Make it feel bigger

Large-format floor tile run right into the shower (fewer grout lines = less visual clutter), a big mirror, one light colour top to bottom, and lighting at the mirror rather than one downlight in the middle. Take the bathroom style quiz for a direction, then the vanity size finder and shower design finder to spec the two fixtures that matter most.

When to move a wall

Sometimes 12 inches borrowed from an oversized closet or a hallway changes everything — enough for a real shower or a double vanity. It is a small structural and plumbing job; we can tell you at the consult whether the wall is a candidate.