Thanks Louise. If I take out the external door in the bathroom, I would still like to have an external door somewhere on that side towards the back of the house, so that probably means reducing the size of the bathroom so that I can put a door off the living area where it would fit best like the sketch below. In that case I am worried that the bathroom space is quite small to be a reasonably spacious family bathroom, even if I "pinch" a bit of space from the study next door by designing that room around it. (I think this would still be cheaper than moving the family bathroom to the current study, which is a larger room but would need to be retro-fitted with plumbing etc... - but that is one alternative). Appreciate any other thoughts.

Thanks for all the input! Lots to think about here. To answer the questions, to the right of the door is a bump out from a linen cupboard in the hallway - we won't be moving or resizing that. There are no windows (all walls are internal). Yes, we were thinking of a 'ladder' style towel rack to use some height. The doorway is 700mm and the toilet wall to the doorway is 1150mm. We don't have a specific stool or vanity selected yet. Re why we wanted to include a seat of some sort - I use the edge of the bath every day, both for putting a foot up while drying off or applying moisturiser etc, and for sitting on for foot care / clipping nails etc. I have to admit that I hadn't considered just using the toilet seat as I'm used to those older, slightly domed lids that 'buckle' if you sit on the centre of them. But I can see now that newer toilets appear to have flatter and more solid lids, so perhaps that is an option afterall. We also wanted to select a stool that could go in the shower - my husband is quite sporty and would love a sit-down massage shower on occasion. I'm thinking now that we perhaps just have a 'wet' stool live in the shower recess (bottom right corner of the plan should be out of the way) and then the toilet lid for 'dry' use. The last picture shared by dreamer is a very nice solution, though if we extend the vanity all the way to the left hand wall we'll have to look at narrower towel racks. Hmm, all very interesting! I'll experiment some more and probably come back to bounce some more ideas off you all. Thanks. :)

You have a tricky design exercise with limited space and lots of structural and plumbing constraints. I would call in a professional to do an accurate measure-up and work with you in selecting appropriately scaled bathroom fittings and a workable layout. Only your option 1 looks like it may have potential as all of the others don't have enough space around the different elements to access them properly. If you have never renovated before then a tiny bathroom in an apartment could be a really expensive exercise in learning from your mistakes, as every millimetre is crucial, and any little mistakes cost big dollars to rectify. Have a look at my project, "Luxury Bathroom Renovation", which was actually a tiny powder room, a tiny ensuite and a tiny bathroom all in the same townhouse, that was renovated with similar constraints to yours (except none of these rooms had windows or any natural light) to see some of the tricks that professional designers use to maximise space and functionality in tiny bathrooms. All three of these rooms were carefully designed and drawn up at a large scale (1:20) to make sure that everything worked, and could be accessed without the need for extreme body contortions. https://www.houzz.com.au/hznb/projects/luxury-bathroom-renovation-pj-vj~672428 Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls and Dr Retro Virtual Visits viz Zoom

Hi Anna, By now you have likely conquered your space and are happily on to other aspects of your fantastic home. I only came across your post last night and started thinking what would I do if this were my apartment? I would lean into the what is. If it's a dark corner, use the darkness. You know 'use the force Luke'. The contrast with the light-coloured neutral sofa a medium to dark colour for the wall from the entrance will make the space sharper. The sofa will make it look 'light' even though it's not. I wouldn't go with matching pillows to the wall, but I love the cactus at the beginning of the runner which when you are seated on the couch would be a visual break from the entry and bathroom door but no width to touch you as you walk past. I would remove one of the mirrors along that wall and hang the other horizontally about 20 cm above the back of the couch starting from the corner. This way, when seated in the armchair, you are not looking at yourself. I would hang the second mirror on the back of the front door so you can check yourself one last time before leaving, or when coming out of the bathroom. In this example, they have not used a rug to define the living space, but a runner to define the 'corridor' past it, which in your room would be past the bedroom. I would have the armchair just off the runner deeper than the kitchen bench. I would also not put anything in the 'corner nearest the sink as that would be the doorway to the living area and also when you are seated give you a clear sight line to the balcony. For the wall with the aircon, I would put a dramatic piece of art that has the same total volume as the mirror but is square or a fatter rectangle hung vertically so that it sits in the middle of the space between your knees when seated on the couch and your knees if seated on the armchair. That is in the 'coffee table' area whether you have any tables. I started the search with my favourite colour for the wall and then searched graphics for the artwork. But really you should have the art to best match the colour on the wall to one of the lesser dark shades in the art. You can get art made from any print relatively cheaply at Officeworks and use an IKEA frame. Or choose from art printing sites that print to stretched canvas, like this one with postage would be around $300. Hang the art so that the middle of the picture is 150cm above the floor. If you did want a rug to define the space, instead of the corridor past it like in my example, I would choose a single colour that was noticeably darker than the sofa in a shade from the floor and possibly even slightly darker than the floor. Darker than the floors would make the floor look lighter (if that is preferable). You can have any rug cut and edged to any size, including having a rug made from a new length of carpet at all carpet shops. And if this was my place and that was my desk, I would set up in the kitchen facing the balcony to the right of the sliding door. After years of working from home that sense of being on top of the world appeals to me. Thank you for the opportunity to fantasise about living in your space. I hope you are super happy there.