ᐅ Main Bathroom Planning: Open Shower and Splash Water Management

Hello dear home building experts,

After quietly following this forum for a long time, I now need your help and collective knowledge.

Our house construction is approaching, and we are currently finalizing the planning phase. The floor plan is nearly 100% complete. The rest of the layout fits us and our house really well, so we would like to focus only on the master bathroom for discussion.

This is the area currently causing us some concern: The shower is planned to be very spacious, walk-in and quite large, but we worry that the approximately 1 meter (3.3 feet) long wall intended as a splash guard will not be enough. Our concern is that a lot of water will spread across the rest of the bathroom, turning it more into a “bathroom lake” rather than a wellness oasis.

We understand that this problem could be solved with a door (e.g., glass), but we would prefer to avoid that if possible.

Perhaps someone has an idea after looking at the floor plan on how to make the bathroom more attractive or functional, or a clever solution to manage the splash water issue without installing a glass door. The plan is admittedly roughly redrawn by me as an amateur, but the measurements should be accurate. (Please ignore the thick shower partition walls; initially, we had thought about adding a towel niche on the front sides, but that idea has been discarded.)

Thank you very much in advance for your opinions, experiences, and suggestions!

My rain shower head extends just under 55cm (22 inches).

Like this:

Overall, I have a 120cm (47 inch) wall made of glass.
The amount of water that splashes out is not really much. What exactly are you planning for your shower head? (If it’s smaller than mine, you probably don’t need to change anything.) With the same size, it does get noticeably wetter, but in my opinion, it’s not a big issue.

Hi @nordanney,

thanks for your quick response. I was actually planning something along those lines—a concealed shower mixer with a rain shower head.
I’m really worried about water splashing from the shower onto the area in front of the sink.

What do you think in general about the bathroom layout? Would you change anything?
We feel like we have a lot of space but very little storage.

Thanks a lot in advance!

HB_2026 schrieb:

Really little storage space.

Yep. Just the vanity cabinet below the sink, and that’s about it.

HB_2026 schrieb:

What do you generally think about the bathroom layout? Would you change anything?

I’m not an expert when it comes to planning layouts. Others will probably chime in on that.

HB_2026 schrieb:

I’m really worried that everything in front of the sink will get soaked by water from the shower.

Not exactly soaked, but it will definitely splash quite a bit. A bath mat in front of it helps. Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much.

Two separate topics: first the spray issue with the floor plan, and then the floor plan itself.

Spray issue:

• With a rain shower, the floor just outside will get a bit wet, but it should be quite limited.
• With a regular handheld showerhead, you definitely have to be careful not to soak the room and the vanity cabinets. Since many shower fixtures include both options, the question is which one will be used more, especially by household members who tend to be less cautious.

Bathroom floor plan:
Honestly, I don’t like it for several reasons. Without knowing the rest of the layout, I would redesign it.

• The shower doesn’t make much sense (why is the opening in the middle of the partition wall if no door is planned there?), since the area to the right of the opening is basically just scrub space.
• The arrangement of the toilet, bathtub, vanities, and so on doesn’t appeal to me overall. In particular, the bathtub looks quite cramped in there, at least judging from the dimensions.
• For a bathroom over 12m² (about 130 sq ft), it offers surprisingly little comfort. (Just my personal impression.)

I’m not quite sure how I would do it differently with this room shape. I can’t yet visualize a good plan in my head. I’d actually need a sheet of paper for that. Are the windows and room shape fixed? Are the windows frosted?

Hello Papierturm,
thank you for your feedback.

Regarding the splash issue:
It is not a major concern at the moment since there are no children yet. However, they are planned for the future, so I understand your concerns.
Thanks for your assessment of the splash water issue.

Regarding the floor plan:
I completely agree with you, but I still don’t know exactly how we could improve it. That’s exactly why I made this post.

Regarding the windows:
The upper window is currently planned to be floor-to-ceiling and would probably need to be frosted (this has not been finalized yet).
The left window (above the bathtub) is intended to remain normal. It is located above the carport anyway and is not easily visible from outside.

The room shape can no longer be changed, we are bound to it.

I might have the following idea (though I would need to check if it is even possible):
The room adjacent to the shower is a storage room on the upper floor. Possibly, it could be swapped to create a rectangular bathroom instead of the current "L"-shaped one. However, I’m not sure how much this would actually help.

Please don’t take it the wrong way; I prefer not to share the entire floor plan to avoid potential legal issues.