Bathroom - Room for Personal Hygiene

In North America and some other regions, it also characteristically contains a toilet and a sink.

Hence in North American English the word "bathroom" is commonly used to mean any room containing a toilet, even a public toilet (although in the United States this is more commonly called a restroom, in Ireland it is commonly called a Jacks).

In other countries, including the UK, Australia, France and Japan, homes may have a separate toilet.

In Iran almost all homes have two distinct rooms for bathroom and toilet room.

In the United States, bathrooms are generally categorized as master bathroom, containing a shower and a tub that is adjoining to a master bedroom, a "full bathroom" (or "full bath"), containing four plumbing fixtures: bathtub, shower, toilet, and sink; "half (1/2) bath" (or "powder room") containing just a toilet and sink; and "3/4 bath" containing toilet, sink, and shower, although the terms vary from market to market.

In some U.S. markets, a toilet, sink, and shower are considered a "full bath".

This lack of a single, universal definition commonly results in discrepancies between advertised and actual number of baths in real estate listings. An additional complication is that there are currently two ways of notating the number of bathrooms in a dwelling. One method is to count a half bathroom as ".5" and then add this to the number of full bathrooms (e.g., "2.5" baths would mean 2 full baths and 1 half bath).

The design of a bathroom must account for the use of both hot and cold water, in significant quantities, for cleaning the human body.

The water is also used for moving solid and liquid human waste to a sewer or septic tank. Water may be splashed on the walls and floor, and hot humid air may cause condensation on cold surfaces.

From a decorating point of view the bathroom presents a challenge. Ceiling, wall and floor materials and coverings should be impervious to water and readily and easily cleaned.