The next room on our list to fit out is our tiny house bathroom. Our bathroom is small but essentially the same size as the bathroom in our old cabin. So we should have plenty of room. For the bathroom, we have to build a composting toilet, a shower, a vanity and shelves. Heaps to do, so let’s get started!
Our DIY composting toilet
The composting toilet was supposed to be easy but it took us two attempts to get right….and a lot of nerves. We decided on a rounded design we found online. For for the bottom we used 12mm ply and for the siding, we used lightweight pinewood.
The first thing we got wrong was the length of the pinewood planks. We cut them too short. Bummer. It’s true what they say: “measure twice, cut once!” So we had to go back to our local hardware store and buy more pinewood. But the old planks didn’t go to waste we used them for other carpentry projects.
The second tricky part was cutting out the inner braces to hold the siding in place. It took us two attempts to get the brace right and we wasted some plywood. But that’s all part of a DIY build, I guess.
We got the design right eventually and were able to attach the divider and the toilet seat. Woo. The inside of our composting toilet is fitted out with a bucket and a bottle. We will use a mix of dirt, coffee grounds and sawdust as a cover material and dispose of our waste in a hot compost. The hot compost will kill all pathogens and after around 12 months we will be able to use the compost for our garden.
Our DIY shower
Our shower is 900 x 900, so it’s a standard-size shower. We bought a shower base second hand online and also some lightweight acrylic panels to go on the wall. Installing the panels was pretty easy, we simply glued them on. Ha! Lastly, we installed the showerhead, the mixer, as well as the rails for the shower curtain and the shower curtain. DIY tiny house shower – done!
DIY vanity and corner shelves
I really like our vanity. Admittedly, we bought the vanity stand but we custom-build a top for it from 7mm plywood. The top holds our basin as well as our faucet. Our bathroom basin is just a salad bowl which we bought from an Asian supermarket and the faucet is from our local warehouse.
My favourite piece in our bathroom is our DIY corner shelves. We built them from scrap plywood pieces which we had leftover from other builds. They turned out really well.
Our DIY tiny house bathroom
And this is our bathroom in a nutshell. We hit a few bumps along the way but overall the build went well. I’m really happy with how our bathroom turned out. For a tiny house, our bathroom is quite spacious. We’re able to fit all the usual bathroom appliances plus a standard-size washing machine and the cat litter.
what a beautiful bathroom!
Did you guys build in a ventilation system? If not, how is it without one?
We’re building our tiny house in germany =)
enjoy the time in ur wonderful house! x Michelle
Hi Michelle, thanks for your comment. We didn’t built in a ventilation system but it seems to be ok as long as everything is properly covered up. Also, we have a big window 😉
Good luck with your tiny house, whereabouts in Germany are you building your house?
Where did you get your urine diverter from?
Hi Aiden, we bought our urine diverter from this website https://www.kildwick.com/shop/
Kind regards,
Annett
Hi, what a great build adventure! Have learned so much, thank you for sharing your process. I am about to start a similar build on a tiny piece of land just bought in Portugal and have a loo question. I’ve devoured the info on the Kildwick link, thank you. Can I ask which choices you made on your set up and how much of the DIY you did yourselves? I’m hoping to do as much DIY as possible – building the loo frame, sourcing a seat separately. Then buying the urine separator and possibly the pee bottle from Kildwick. Any thoughts on doing most of it DIY, with the ‘specialist’ pieces being purchased. And did you buy or build the solid collection box? Sorry for all the potty talk, I’ve been researching compost loos for ages and yours is by far the prettiest I’ve seen 🙂
Kind Regards
Shari
Hi Shari, thanks for your comment. Great that you’re building a tiny house in Portugal. Love Portugal!
To answer your question, we build the whole toilet ourselves except for the urine divider and the bottle (which we bought from Kildwick) and the solids bucket which we got from the tip. 🙂
Happy building,
Annett