Bathrooms are laid out around fixtures, and mats are usually bought before anyone works out where the wet feet actually land.
Find the Wet Zones First
Two in most bathrooms, sometimes three.
Where you step out of the bath or shower is the primary one and takes the most water. Where you stand at the basin is the second, and it gets splashed rather than dripped on. A third exists in bathrooms where the toilet is a separate area.
Watch where the floor is actually wet after a shower rather than guessing.
Sizing
- The shower mat should be at least as wide as the opening you step through
- Deep enough that both feet land on it, not just the first one
- The basin mat should span the width you move along
- A runner suits a long narrow bathroom or a double vanity
- Contour rugs are cut to fit around a toilet base
Ranges offering rectangles, long runners and U-shaped contour pieces, of the kind at tyuu.net, exist because those three shapes cover the three different situations.
Measure Before Ordering
The step that prevents most returns. Measure the clear floor area, allowing for the door swing and for anything that opens.
A mat that stops a door opening fully is a daily irritation, and a mat under a door is a trip hazard when it bunches.
The Door Swing
Worth its own thought. An inward-opening bathroom door sweeps an arc across the floor, and a thick mat in that arc will catch.
Either keep mats outside the arc, or choose a low-profile mat where they must overlap.
Runners Suit Narrow Rooms
A long thin bathroom with fixtures down one side is badly served by a rectangle in the middle.
A runner along the length covers the walking route, which is where wet feet actually travel, and it looks deliberate rather than accidental.
Contour Rugs
The U-shaped pieces cut to sit around a toilet base. They cover a genuinely awkward area and they need washing more often than anything else in the room.
Fit matters here: a contour rug too large bunches against the pedestal, and one too small leaves gaps.
Do Not Cover Everything
A bathroom floor entirely carpeted in mats cannot dry, and the mats stay damp.
Leaving exposed floor is part of how the room ventilates.
Buy Two, Not One
The single most useful piece of advice here, because one mat cannot cover two wet zones and because one mat cannot be washed without the floor being bare.
