Sarah Richardson: Rub-a-dub-dub, make room for the tub Sharing is an important life skill that we start practising as a toddler, hopefully perfect as a kindergarten student and sometimes need to be reminded of when searching for a family home. But some older houses take the concept a little too far. In their quest to find the right house (on the right street, in the right school district, with the right features), my clients committed to a house that was long on character but short on bathrooms. A family of four sharing one small bathroom just wouldn't cut it. Room to grow If your house deed only comes with one bathroom, you'll need to look closely at your floor plan to see if alterations can be made to the footprint of the existing room in order to accommodate the amenities you need. And when we are talking about a mom sharing a bathroom with a houseful of hockey-playing boys, my definition of "need" gets stretched. In my view, she needs a nice bathtub, separate from a shower stall. I'm all for moving walls to achieve the best end result - after all, bath renovations are right up there with kitchens in terms of maximum return on investment, so it makes sense to get it right when the dust flies and the demolition isunder way. By borrowing (okay... expropriating) three feet from the adjacent guest bedroom, the bathroom footprint became big enough to accommodate a freestanding tub, shower and vanity. Know your lifestyle The most important consideration in any renovation is to design your house to accommodate how you live. A bathroom that gets lots of daily use needs to be outfitted with durable, family-friendly materials. You may want to avoid tiling the entire bathroom to save dollars, but it's important to have a durable and water resistant surface around the perimeter of the room. If a fully tiled bath is beyond your budget, considering installing tongue in groove panelling (which can be installed in individual pieces or as sheet goods), and paint it with good quality primer and trim paint to create a durable barrier that will repel the inevitable splashing and spraying. Explore your options When buying an old house and renovating room by room, every decision you make has a domino effect. The more you spend on the bathroom quickly impacts what's left to splurge on any other area. Before assuming that everything you want needs to be custom made, I'd suggest that you spend some time researching what can be purchased ready to go. You might be pleasantly surprised to learn that the selection in ready-made vanities has improved vastly in the past few years. Who knew that I'd be able to find a whitewashed oak vanity when my client said she wanted a coastal inspired bathroom? To make the renovation of your bathroom a little simpler, most ready-made vanities also come with a selection of counter tops that are pre-drilled for your faucet and are sold complete with the sink, which will shave a week off your timeline since you won't be waiting for a custom templated counter to be made. Slide and save I'm all for borrowing space from other rooms, but there are limitations to what can be taken without rendering the adjacent room useless. So, even though three feet made the bathroom vastly bigger than its original footprint, it remained a rather cramped space and required some juggling of measurements to squeeze everything in. Instead of the usual custom shower enclosure, I installed a ready to go glass shower enclosure set that features a sliding door, so clearance into the room isn't an issue. The uber-stylish hardware that operates the slide mechanism made the leap from custom enclosure to prefab kit an easy and high-impact design choice (and since the units come in pre-made sizes, you can also save on the normal week long lead time for a custom tempered glass enclosure). Get slim If a freestanding bathtub is on your wish list, but square footage is limited, keep in mind that tub dimensions are not standardized and vary widely in width. A narrow tub with lean proportions and tall sides will still allow you to soak in bubbles up to your neck, but will fill faster and use less water than its more bulbous counterpart. Another advantage of a freestanding tub in close quarters is that it requires no space around it for framing and cladding, so you can maximize the size of whatever other functions are adjacent to it. When having it all is your goal, a narrow freestanding tub may be your secret weapon in both style and space. Sarah Richardson's Real Potential can be seen Thursdays at 9 p.m. on HGTV. IOS bathtub - Victoria + Albert Baths www.vandabaths.com All tile - Saltillo Imports www.saltillo-tiles.com Matrix shower glass system with sliding panel - Caml - Tomlin www.camltomlin.com Shower system, tub filler, lavatory faucet (Hexis) - The Rubinet Faucet Company www.rubinet.com Rustic Chic vanity, basin & countertop - Fairmont Designs www.fairmontdesigns.com Floral roman blind fabric (Cottingham) - Sarah Richardson for Kravet Fabrics www.kravet.com Light fixture & sconces - Universal Lamp www.greatlighting.com Vanity hardware & hallway pendant - Lowe's www.lowes.ca Paint Colours: Walls & ceiling - Epiphany (P5159-24) Para Paints www.para.com Trim - Chantilly Lace (OC-65) Benjamin Moore Paints www.benjaminmoore.com