How to Start Designing a New Bathroom for Your Basement Renovation

A basement renovation can add much-needed living space to your home. Whether you’re adding space for your family to enjoy, a guest space or you’re trying to add an efficiency apartment to bring in extra income, one room that is a must-have is a bathroom. Bathroom additions, like kitchen additions, can be costly and require some consideration and planning.  

Design Considerations

When you design your basement bathroom, one of the things you must consider is the location within your space. Putting the bathroom near existing plumbing usually makes the installation go more smoothly. For example, you might consider positioning the basement bathroom beneath the main floor bathroom or perhaps the kitchen. If the laundry area is in the basement, you could also consider placing the bathroom near it because there will also be plumbing there.  

Consider your drainage as well as the incoming water lines. You’ll likely want a bathroom near the mainline drain to make creating your perfect bathroom easier. The plumbing is a major factor in where you place your bathroom, but there’s more to consider as well. 

Fixtures

When choosing the bathroom design, keep in mind how you will use the space. That may sound silly; after all, it’s a bathroom. However, the intended use of the bathroom and the space around it will help you determine what size and layout you need. Additionally, the size of the space you’ve allocated for the bathroom will somewhat dictate how you can design the space. 

For example, if your basement is to be used as a family game room or a teenage hangout and study space, a two-piece bathroom with a functional toilet and perhaps a pedestal sink will be adequate. However, if the bathroom is for a guest space, you will want to add at least a shower to the mix. Some families feel a full bath with a bathtub is necessary for a proper guest space. If that sounds like you, perhaps a tub/shower combo will work well rather than a separate tub and shower. 

Lighting

Have you ever walked into a basement and felt closed in or buried? If so, you know that lighting is an essential piece to any basement renovation puzzle. Unless you have a walkout with gorgeous glass French doors, you likely don’t have a tremendous amount of natural light in your basement, so choosing lighting that brightens a dark space is essential. 

That said, you don’t want to add too much lighting to the space, either. If you choose the wrong kind of lighting or put too much lighting in the space, you will find you have the opposite problem. The basement will become glaringly bright. In a basement bathroom, wall-mounted lights and recessed lighting give you multiple light sources without becoming too harsh. 

Flooring

With any bathroom renovation, flooring is a large consideration. After all, a tremendous amount of water is used within the space. For that reason, choosing flooring that can withstand being wet is a must. Waterproof tiles are an excellent choice for bathroom flooring, and they come in many designs and colors. 

Whether you choose a simple, white bathroom tile or you go with a marble look or bold color, you can make a statement with your choice. You can choose to simply tile the floor, or you can choose to make the entire room waterproof with tile. What better place than the basement bathroom to make a statement with a pop of color in the form of a beautiful waterproof tile floor? 

Wrapping Up

When adding a bathroom to your basement, you should consider the size and location of your allocated space before making any design decisions. Those two considerations will help you choose everything from fixtures to lighting to floor tile.