Why Highlands bathrooms are small
Many of the houses that give Bowral, Bundanoon and Moss Vale their character were built when a bathroom was a modest back room — sometimes an enclosed verandah, sometimes a lean-to added in the 1950s when the outdoor toilet came inside.
Those rooms are narrow, often have a window in an awkward place, and frequently sit beside a separate toilet or a linen press. They were then renovated once in the 1970s or 1980s, which is usually the bathroom people are living with now.
Weekenders and holiday cottages add a second category: small bathrooms that were fitted out cheaply because the house was only used occasionally, and are now in a house someone lives in full time.
Space is usually not the problem
The instinct is to want a bigger room. More often, the room is not too small — it is badly arranged and full of things that visually cut it up.
The bath-over-shower. It takes the full width of one end, needs a shower screen or curtain that closes off a third of the room, and works poorly as a bath and poorly as a shower. If there is another bath in the house, or nobody uses one, removing it and building a full-width walk-in shower is the most effective change available.
The framed screen and tray. A raised shower tray and a framed enclosure form a box inside the room. A tiled level-entry shower with one fixed glass panel lets the floor run through, and the room reads as a single space.
The floor-standing vanity. A cupboard vanity sitting on the floor stops the eye. A wall-hung unit with drawers shows the floor beneath it, and drawers hold more than a cupboard anyway.
The half-tiled wall. A tile line partway up the wall with painted plaster above divides the room horizontally. Tiling to the ceiling removes the line and, in a cold Highlands bathroom, removes the paint that peels from condensation.
The single ceiling light. One fitting in the centre of the ceiling puts your face in shadow at the mirror. Light either side of the mirror, or a backlit mirror, fixes that.
When the room can grow
In older cottages the bathroom and a separate toilet often share a wall. Removing it — and the second door — frequently produces one properly usable room from two cramped ones.
Whether that is simple depends on the wall. A stud wall added in the 1950s usually comes out easily. An original masonry or lath-and-plaster wall may carry load. And in a house that is itself a listed heritage item, altering original fabric may need council consent even though it is inside.
Borrowing from a linen press or a hallway is the other common gain, and usually a less complicated one.
The floor, again
Many small cottage bathrooms sit on suspended timber floors. That makes moving the shower or toilet more achievable than on a slab — drainage can run through the subfloor.
It also means the floor under an old shower needs checking. Small rooms with poor ventilation and failed waterproofing are exactly where joist damage is found. We look from below where there is access, and price repairs openly.
Detailing for the climate
Small rooms fog quickly and cold ceilings grow mould. Two things matter more here than in the city: a properly ducted exhaust fan vented outside, and heat — an underfloor mat or a heated towel rail on a timer. In a room this size neither is expensive.
Costs
A small bathroom under about 5 square metres runs roughly $20,000–$30,000 in the Highlands, taken back to frame. Combining with a separate toilet adds cost for the wall and extra finishes but often adds more value. See the 2026 cost bands.
Call 02 4210 5289 or send the room details through.