if hot weather is a problem the east window could heat up the bathroom from early in the morning until mid day and then take all day to cool down but high windows with a proper eave should be OK but if you would like to do be precise you can do a proper calculation for window shading for your location using on of the online calculators eg ATA or yourhome.gov.au etc etc

Think long term rather than the immediate costs. A lovely light filled bathroom will increase the value of your home AND make you a happier person on a daily basis if light is important to you.

Go for the North light. You will get the best illumination possible for the entire day especially as it will just be a high strip window.

I do not know what country you are in but my bathroom window faces east (in New Zealand) and the light in that room, is more than sufficient. In New Zealand South and East are the colder sides of the house and get morning sun. If it is cheaper I see no reason why you should not consider it. Invest your savings somewhere else. You do after all not live in your bathroom and if you need a few minutes of brighter light you can always turn one on.

I would go for east because there is nothing so cheerful as sun when you rise in the morning and why not take the cheaper option.

I'd go for broke and do both!! The cheery Eastern light first thing in the morning and the benefit of a light-filled ensuite cannot be under-estimated whatever the weather or season, Siobhan is right in her view of the longterm value both financially and aesthetically. Do you really need the bath in your ensuite?

My bathroom faces north and right now in the middle of winter gets the sun all day making it a very warm and cheerful room. In summer when the sun is higher in the sky it gets no sun to make the room hot, but it is always lovely and bright and that is important to me in a bathroom.

I'm a bit with mykky, unless you are a large family or are creating a really large luxury spa type ensuite, I don't see the point of a bath. I'd much rather create a large shower area - one you just walk into that doesn't even need a door. From comments on Houzz, I get the impression people prefer a luxury shower, it makes it more an adult room.

Both if possible. I think natural light close to a long vanity where you attend to appearance matters is really helpful. Could you switch bath and vanity?

Hi Selina,

You need to consider
how you use your ensuite and understand the path of the sun for your location
and existing shading. Your building designer can assist you with this.

Having the natural
light behind you when you are at the vanity mirror is not ideal. You would have
to ensure that the lighting around the mirror is sufficient to light up your
face or the natural light from behind will washout your features.

Having the
window over the bath does affect the ability for you to easily clean the window
and there is a safety issue involved also when accessing this window.

You need to
ensure that the location of the window provides you good natural cross flow
ventilation. You don’t want any dead air pockets in the ensuite. You should not
rely totally on mechanical ventilation.

There would be no room under the window to put a decent mirror if the bath and vanity were switched.

To be really pedantic, I would swing the door the other way and swap the vanity and the toilet over and have the toilet off the door wall and facing the side of the vanity. Gives you a bit of privacy if someone comes crashing into the room. This would also mean you don't have the light coming in the window reflecting into the mirror and making it very hard to see.

Place Designs, we crossed, but your point with the mirror opposite the window is very important IMO and was what I was suggesting. In any room it is hard to use a mirror if it is opposite a window.

With your particular layout I would go for the east wall for 2 other reasons: the WC and shower are the units in the bathroom most in need of natural ventilation, so this puts the window closest to where it is needed. Also, being opposite the door there will be more effective through ventilation in the whole room. However, you also need to consider prevailing breezes; I'm not sure what direction they come from in your area, but you don't want the bathroom steam and odours to blow back through the house. An open window on the leeward side will suck the stale air out of the room.

Looks good Selina and you should save yourself some money. The only (little) worry I have is the toilet - can it face the shower recess. I'd just worry someone using it could get hit if the door was opened suddenly.

With respect to the mirror - yes it does make a big difference. Prop a mirror up somewhere or even just use a hand held mirror while you stand with your back to a window and you will see the difference. It is like taking a photo in a room of people standing in front of a window - their faces disappear.

I do agree with Daniel on the subject of cross-ventilation, this is really important in a room, particularly in our summers, but I wonder just how effective it is when our bathrooms are generally quite small. It is not a room that can always readily achieve this in our homes and we do tend to rely on exhaust fans but probably because of the smaller room size I find both my bathrooms seem to get adequate ventilation with just the window being open. With both my bathrooms the door is on one wall and the window on a wall that is at right angles - there was no other choice and it works very well for both steam and smell. On the other hand, I have a separate toilet with the door and window opposite and the door just cannot be left open or any smell - even air freshener - goes right through the house. There is a room opposite with the door and window lining up as well and still it is no help. A toilet is just too small a room for cross ventilation to be effective.

Hi Selina,

I now see that you propose to remove the bath from your
ensuite bathroom. As I do not know your family makeup I hope you have
considered the possible need to bath children from time to time. Do you have
facilities elsewhere in your home? When my grandchildren come over I find a
bath to be a necessity.

Would suggest you put window on whichever wall is NOT opposite your vanity mirror. Reflection can be a real pain. slowturtle

Agreed that reflection is an issue for mirrors that face a window but windows and light are great in a bathroom as well as ventilation. In my bathrooms- 1 has an east facing window the other a north, both get great light. My north facing gets better breezes.

Don't have a problem with the shower, but if you feel it is a little weird would the shower go where the vanity is now so you could utilise the whole east wall for the vanity that could drop down to a seat (tiled of course) at the end of the shower recess. That could be a nice luxury and you could also then put a deeper window in to increase light and flood the room with sun in winter. You would probably want space under the window though for towel rails, but a towel rail above the seat should also be far enough from the splash area so it is easy to grab after a shower.

Hope you can swing the toilet as it will make a huge difference.

Love the idea of turning the toilet, so it is not faving the door, but beside it. Another idea is to make the shower recess double length (again the luxury feel) with a sliding door, or maybe no door at all, just a fixed panel beside the entrance door to the room. Have done this in both our ensuite and main bathroom, and using a long grate across the shower head wall we have no problem with splashing. The vanity could then go across the entire eastern wall. Slow turtle

Hi Selina,

If you decided to put the vanity and shower on the eastern
wall (the bottom wall of your photo). The light on the mirror would be from the
side. This is better than from behind.

Consider locate the shower and WC on the WIR side of the
room. The shower could be about 1.5m long allowing you to have a glass door
swing out on the vanity side so you only see the glass shower screen when you
enter the ensuite. You don’t have to enter the shower front on. Face the WC towards
the end of the shower screen off the bedroom wall. Swing the ensuite door from
the WC side.

You got it Daniel, and this will give the bathroom a lovely spacious look too. Not sure I'd really like looking at myself in a mirror while showering:))

Fantastic ideas and great discussions. Such generous & helpful contributions from the experts. I'll certainly be bookmarking this thread for later reference. Many thanks to you all.

Basic rules should always be considered when making these types of decision. North facing windows are the preferred option for passive solar design. Yes you may need to adjust a few things but if you can place your glazing to the north it is best. A vanity and mirror should always face the entrance to the room. That's why it's called a vanity, because it appeals to your vanity, makes the room feel bigger and presents much better than a toilet or shower. Mirrors should have artificial lighting at eye /face level so the light reflects off your face into the mirror and back into your eyes. High level lighting gives you a Herman Munster look around the eyes etc. Daniel Lindahl has done well with the placement of the vanity and mirror. Could you move Danniels vanity forward 1.0 m and tuck the WC and a shower back to back in behind the vanity. It might be tight but it would hide the shower and toilet. We have done this in larger ensuites and it works very well. You will need a minimum of 3.3m to achieve this.