6x8 Bathroom Floor Plans & Costs to Maximize Its Usability

A 6x8 bathroom gives you 48 square feet. That’s enough for a toilet, a vanity, and a standard bathtub—the three fixtures that define a full bath—with a bit of floor left over. Not a lot of floor, but enough to stand comfortably, dry off without bumping an elbow, and feel like you’re in a real room rather than a utility closet.

This is one of the most common bathroom sizes in American homes. You’ll find it in postwar Capes and colonials, suburban split-levels, older apartments, and newer builds where the hall bath was given a standard footprint. It’s the default full bathroom—not cramped in the way a 5x7 can feel, but not generous enough to absorb a bad layout. Where you put the tub, how the door swings, and whether the vanity has 24 or 36 inches of counter all have a direct impact on whether the room works or fights you every morning.

The 8-foot wall is your friend. That’s where the tub typically lives, because a standard alcove tub is 60 inches long and the 8-foot dimension gives you room to place it with a partition or transition beside it. The 6-foot width is the constraint—it’s tight enough that the toilet, vanity, and any remaining floor space need to share the opposite zone carefully.

What a 6x8 bathroom renovation typically costs

A 6x8 bathroom is a standard full bath, and its renovation cost reflects the fact that you’re working with all three major plumbing fixtures: a toilet, a sink/vanity, and a tub or shower. The total depends less on the room’s size—48 square feet doesn’t require much material—and more on whether you’re keeping fixtures in place or moving them, and how far you take the finishes.

Basic refresh: $8,000–$15,000. New tile over the existing footprint, updated fixtures and hardware, a fresh vanity, and a coat of paint. The tub stays, the toilet stays, the plumbing stays. You’re changing what the room looks and feels like without opening any walls. At this level, a retile of the tub surround, new flooring, and a vanity swap can shift the bathroom from dated to current in a matter of weeks.

Mid-range renovation: $15,000–$30,000. Higher-quality tile, a better vanity with stone or quartz top, improved lighting, and potentially one fixture relocation—moving the toilet to a less visible position, for instance, or replacing an alcove tub with a standing shower. Plumbing modifications at this level typically add $1,500–$4,000 depending on how far the new fixture sits from the existing rough-in.

High-end renovation: $30,000–$50,000+. Custom tilework (floor-to-ceiling, specialty materials), a freestanding tub, frameless glass shower enclosure, premium fixtures, heated floors, and full layout reconfiguration. At this budget you’re gutting to the studs, replacing the subfloor and waterproofing membrane, and potentially upgrading supply lines and drain positions. Permit costs at this level typically run $500–$2,000 depending on your municipality.

In a bathroom this size, labor is the dominant cost. The room is small, but the trades are the same as a larger bath—plumber, electrician, tile installer, painter—and their minimums don’t shrink with square footage. Expect labor to account for 60–70% of the total in a typical 6x8 renovation.

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6x8 layout idea: Classic three-fixture bath with tub on the right

The toilet and single vanity line the left side of the upper wall. The bathtub occupies the right half of the room, running along the 8-foot wall from top to bottom.

This is the layout most 6x8 bathrooms start with, and there’s a reason it persists: it works. The tub gets the long wall, which accommodates a standard 60-inch alcove model with room for a shower curtain rod or glass panel. The toilet and vanity share the remaining width on the opposite side, with the vanity positioned between the toilet and the door for a natural sequence when you walk in—you see the vanity first, not the toilet.

The open floor between the vanity and the tub is roughly 24–30 inches wide in this configuration. That’s enough to stand, turn, and use a bath mat. It’s not spa-like, but it’s functional—and in a 6x8 bath, functional is the first thing to get right.

From a cost perspective, this is the most economical layout because it keeps all plumbing on the same wall or in close proximity. No fixture relocations, no extended drain lines. If you’re doing a refresh rather than a gut renovation, this layout lets you upgrade every surface and fixture without touching the rough-in.

6x8 layout idea: Tub across the upper wall with separated fixtures below

The bathtub spans the full 8-foot upper wall. The toilet sits on the lower-left, and the vanity occupies the lower-right. The center of the room is open floor.

Rotating the tub to run along the 8-foot wall instead of the 6-foot wall changes the room’s proportions. The tub becomes a horizontal element that anchors the far end of the bathroom, and the lower half of the room opens up for the toilet and vanity to sit on opposite sides with clear space between them. That separation is the key advantage here—the toilet and vanity each get their own zone rather than sharing a wall.

The open center is more generous than in the classic layout. You get a wider landing area when stepping out of the tub, and the vanity has room for a person to stand squarely in front of the mirror without being adjacent to the toilet. For households where two people use the bathroom in the same morning window, that breathing room makes a noticeable difference.

The cost trade-off is the tub’s plumbing. If your existing tub drain is on a side wall and you’re moving it to the far wall, expect to add $1,500–$3,500 for the new drain position and supply line extension. If the room’s original plumbing already supports this configuration, the cost stays comparable to the classic layout.

6x8 layout idea: Double vanity with bathtub and toilet on the upper wall

Two vanity sinks are stacked vertically along the left wall. The toilet sits on the upper wall between the vanities and the tub. The bathtub occupies the right side of the room from top to bottom.

A double vanity in a 6x8 bathroom sounds ambitious, and it is—but this layout makes it work by running the two sinks along the 8-foot wall instead of trying to fit a wide countertop across the 6-foot dimension. Each sink gets its own compact vanity with a mirror above, creating two distinct grooming stations without the width penalty of a traditional double.

The toilet is positioned on the upper wall, tucked between the vanity run and the tub—the least visible spot when you walk through the door. That placement is worth noting because in most small bathrooms, the toilet is the first thing you see. Pushing it to the back wall changes the room’s first impression.

This is a higher-cost configuration. Two vanities mean two sink drains, two supply line pairs, and twice the countertop and mirror hardware. The additional plumbing typically adds $1,000–$2,500 over a single-vanity setup. But for a shared bathroom—a couple’s primary bath, or a hall bath that two kids use simultaneously—the second sink eliminates the morning bottleneck that a single vanity creates.

6x8 layout idea: Double vanity with toilet separated from the tub zone

The toilet sits on the upper-left wall. Two vanity sinks are stacked vertically below it along the left wall. The bathtub occupies the right side of the room.

This is a variation on the double-vanity layout that moves the toilet to the upper-left corner, creating a clearer separation between the wet zone (tub) and the dry zone (vanity and toilet). The vanities occupy the lower two-thirds of the left wall, giving each sink a bit more elbow room and placing them closer to the door—which is where you naturally gravitate first thing in the morning.

The toilet’s corner position is the most private placement in the set. It’s behind the door swing, partially shielded by the vanity run, and away from the tub. In a bathroom that two or more people share, that privacy matters more than most layout diagrams suggest.

Cost-wise, this layout is nearly identical to the other double-vanity option. The toilet relocation to the upper corner may require a short drain extension if the existing rough-in is centered on the wall, but that’s typically a modest $500–$1,200 addition. The real investment is in the double vanity plumbing and fixtures, which remains the same.

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Upgrades that earn their cost in a 6x8 bathroom

In a room this size, every material choice is amplified. There’s not enough surface area for mistakes to hide, and not enough square footage for expensive upgrades to feel proportional if they’re not well chosen. The upgrades that work best in a 6x8 bath are the ones you notice every time you use the room—not the ones that photograph well but add friction to your morning.

• Tile the tub surround floor to ceiling. A half-height tile surrounded with painted drywall above it is the builder-grade default, and it’s also the detail that most quickly dates a bathroom. Running tile from the tub lip to the ceiling costs more in material and labor—roughly $1,500–$3,500 depending on tile choice—but it makes the shower feel enclosed and finished rather than patched together. In a 6x8 bathroom, the tub surround is the single largest visual surface. What you put on it sets the tone for the entire room.
• Upgrade the vanity to something with real storage. In a 48-square-foot bathroom, the vanity is doing double duty as a countertop and your primary storage. A builder-grade vanity with a single shelf behind the doors isn’t cutting it for a household that keeps toiletries, cleaning supplies, and a hair dryer in the same room. A vanity with soft-close drawers, interior dividers, and a stone or quartz top runs $600–$2,000 installed—and the daily difference between opening a cluttered cabinet and pulling out an organized drawer is significant.
• Replace the mirror with a medicine cabinet. A flat mirror over the vanity is fine for looks, but it’s a missed storage opportunity in a room that doesn’t have much. A recessed medicine cabinet fits between the studs, adds 3–4 inches of shelf depth behind the mirror, and keeps medications, razors, and daily-use items off the counter. Installed cost runs $300–$800 for a standard recessed model. In a 6x8 bath, that hidden storage is worth more per square inch than almost anything else in the room.
• Install proper bathroom lighting. A single overhead fixture with a fan is functional but flat. Adding sconces flanking the mirror—or a lighted medicine cabinet—eliminates the shadows that overhead-only lighting casts across your face. The difference matters most for grooming tasks: shaving, makeup, skincare. A pair of sconces plus a dimmer on the overhead runs $400–$1,200 installed.
• Consider heated flooring if you’re retiling. Electric radiant floor mats are installed under the tile before grouting, and in a 6x8 bathroom the material cost is modest—roughly $300–$600 for the mat and thermostat. Installation adds $500–$1,000 in labor. The total is $800–$1,600, and the result is a floor that’s warm underfoot on winter mornings instead of the cold shock that tile usually delivers. If you’re already pulling up the floor for a retile, the incremental cost is easy to justify.

Perfect your 6x8 bathroom with contractors from Block Renovation

A 6x8 bathroom doesn’t have room for indecision. Every fixture, every finish, every six inches of floor space is doing a job. The layouts that succeed at this size are the ones where the tub has a proper home, the toilet isn’t the first thing you see, and the vanity gives you enough counter to set down a toothbrush without knocking over a bottle.

With Block Renovation, you can test different configurations and finish levels through the free Renovation Studio—seeing how each decision affects your budget before any demolition begins. When you’re ready, Block connects you with vetted local contractors who provide detailed, comparable proposals backed by progress-based payments and a one-year workmanship warranty.

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