A cloakroom or downstairs WC is the smallest room in the house, so the vanity unit you pick has to earn its place. For most downstairs loos a 400mm or 450mm unit is the sweet spot: wide enough for a usable basin, narrow enough that you can still open the door. Wall-hung if you want the floor to look bigger, freestanding if you want to box in the pipes and keep it cheap. Get the width and the projection right first, then worry about the finish.

This guide walks through how to choose: the widths that actually fit, wall-hung versus freestanding, how far the unit sticks out into the room, and whether a full unit-and-basin or a standalone basin makes more sense. There’s a quick comparison near the end if you only want the short version.

• What width vanity unit fits a cloakroom?
• Wall-hung vs freestanding cloakroom units
• Projection and clearance: the bit people forget
• Full unit or just a basin?
• Grey, oak and fluted: picking a finish
• The budget end: what £99 actually gets you
• Quick comparison: which cloakroom unit suits you?
• FAQ

What Width Vanity Unit Fits a Cloakroom?

Start with the width, because it decides everything else. In a typical downstairs WC you’re choosing between 400mm and 450mm, and that 50mm makes a real difference when the room is tight.

• 400mm: The smallest sensible footprint. Use it when the room is genuinely cramped, the door swings towards the basin, or you’ve got a corner to work around. You’ll get a basin you can actually wash your hands in, plus a bit of storage underneath.
• 450mm: The cloakroom default. A noticeably more usable basin bowl for not much more space. If your room can take it, this is the one to go for.
• 500mm: Borderline cloakroom territory. Fine in a roomier downstairs loo or a small en-suite where you want proper drawer storage. Worth it if the wall can spare the width.

The smallest-footprint option in our cloakroom range is the Linea 400 Sonoma Oak Cloakroom Unit at £189. It’s a 400mm wall-mounted unit with an integrated basin and a soft-close drawer, described as the “ideal size for cloakrooms, en-suites and compact bathrooms”. The wall-mounted design “creates an open feel and simplifies floor cleaning”, which matters more than you’d think in a room where every surface is within arm’s reach.

Step up to 450mm and the Esme 450mm Dust Grey Cloakroom Vanity Unit & Basin at £229 is the one most people end up wanting. It’s a complete floor-standing unit with the ceramic basin included, “ideal for cloakrooms, en-suites, and smaller bathrooms where space is limited”, with a soft-close door and a lifetime guarantee. If you want a bit more storage and don’t mind the extra width, the Blake 500mm Dust Grey Wall Hung Vanity Unit & Basin at £199 gives you a single deep soft-close drawer in a 500mm wall-hung format.

Measure the wall before you buy, and measure twice. Account for the skirting board, any pipework boxing already in place, and how far the door swings open. A unit that fits the wall on paper but blocks the door is no use to anyone.

Wall-Hung vs Freestanding Cloakroom Units

This is the big decision after width, and it comes down to how the room looks against how easy it is to fit.

Wall-hung units float off the floor, leaving the tiles visible underneath. That visible floor is the trick that makes a small room read as bigger, and it also means you can get a mop right under the unit instead of fishing around the base. The Blake 500mm puts it plainly: the “wall-hung floating design enhances the feeling of space by keeping the floor visible, making smaller bathrooms appear larger”. The catch is fitting. A wall-hung unit needs a solid wall, or proper noggins behind a stud wall, to take the weight. On a flimsy partition you’ll need to reinforce it first.

Freestanding units sit on the floor, which makes them simpler to fit and handy for hiding pipework inside the cabinet. No structural worries, no wondering whether the wall will hold. The trade-off is that the unit visually fills the floor, so the room can feel a touch smaller, and cleaning around the base is fiddlier. The Esme 450mm is the freestanding option here, and in a cloakroom where the plumbing comes up through the floor it’s often the more practical pick.

If you want the full breakdown of the format choice across a whole bathroom, our guide to wall-hung vs floor-standing bathroom furniture goes deeper. For a cloakroom specifically: wall-hung if the wall can take it and you want the space to feel bigger, freestanding if you want the easy fit and somewhere to hide the pipes.

Projection and Clearance: The Bit People Forget

Everyone measures the width. Almost nobody measures the projection, which is how far the unit sticks out from the wall into the room. In a cloakroom that number decides whether you can stand at the basin without your knees touching the door, or squeeze past the WC to reach the loo roll.

A basin-only unit projects far less than a full vanity, which is why standalone basins win in the very tightest rooms. The Litchfield Ripple Cloak 400mm Fluted Cloakroom Basin at £79 has a “compact footprint: 400 × 215 × 120 mm”, so it only comes 215mm off the wall. The Litchfield Orbit 450mm Wall-Hung Compact Basin at £79.99 is similar at “approx. 450 × 220 × 120 mm”, a 220mm projection. Both leave you far more room to move than a 400mm-deep cabinet would.

A few clearances worth checking with a tape measure before you commit:

• Door swing. Make sure the door doesn’t clout the basin or the unit when it opens. This is the number one cloakroom planning mistake.
• Standing room. Leave enough depth to stand at the basin comfortably. A deep unit in a shallow room means you’re washing your hands at arm’s length.
• WC clearance. If the basin sits next to the toilet, check there’s room to sit down and stand up without catching the unit.
• Tap height. A tall mixer tap on a wall-hung basin can foul a window sill or a mirror. Check the headroom above the basin too.

Full Unit or Just a Basin?

The other fork in the road: do you want a vanity unit with storage and concealed pipework, or just a basin on the wall?

Go for a full unit-and-basin if you want somewhere to stash the spare toilet rolls, the cleaning spray and the hand towels, and you’d rather not look at the bottle trap and pipework on show. The cabinet hides all of it. The Esme 450mm and the Linea 400 both give you that: a basin, a door or drawer, and tidy concealed plumbing in one buy.

Go for a basin only if the room is too tight for a cabinet, you’re matching an existing unit, or you just like the clean wall-hung look. A standalone basin is cheaper, projects less, and frees up the floor entirely. The Orbit compact basin at £79.99 is the easy all-rounder here: vitreous china, one tap-hole, overflow included, a five-year guarantee, and it comes in left-hand and right-hand tap-hole versions to suit awkward plumbing. That left/right choice is genuinely useful when your supply pipe comes up on the wrong side.

One honest heads-up on the fluted Ripple Cloak basin: the catalog states it’s supplied without an overflow and without a bottle trap, so you’ll need to buy a separate waste and trap to finish it. Not a dealbreaker, but factor the extra bits into your budget rather than getting caught out at the till. If you want the fluted look as a complete package with the trap sorted by the cabinet instead, a fluted unit-and-basin is the simpler route, covered next.

Grey, Oak and Fluted: Picking a Finish

Finish is where a cloakroom gets its character, and because the room is small you can be braver than you’d be in a main bathroom. A bold colour or texture that might overwhelm a big space looks great in a downstairs loo.

Grey is the safe-but-smart choice and the most searched-for cloakroom colour. The Esme 450mm Dust Grey at £229 leads here: its “elegant dust grey finish offers a softer, more neutral alternative to darker tones”, so it works with almost any wall colour or tile without shouting. The Blake 500mm comes in the same dust grey if you want the wall-hung version with a drawer.

Oak and wood-effect warm the room up. The same Esme unit comes as the Esme 450mm Davos Oak Cloakroom Vanity Unit & Basin at £249, where the “natural Davos oak finish introduces warmth and texture”. It’s the same 450mm footprint with a soft-close door, an internal storage shelf and concealed pipework, so the only thing you’re choosing between is grey or wood. Handy when you want to compare the two before committing.

Fluted is the texture of the moment, all vertical ribbed lines that catch the light. In a small room it adds a real focal point. The Flauto Mini 460mm Fluted Country Oak Cloakroom Vanity Unit & Basin at £299 is a complete unit with the ceramic basin included, where the “textured fluted front design adds depth and a premium feel, making it a standout feature in compact spaces”. If you’d rather get the fluted look from the basin alone, the Litchfield Ripple Cloak fluted basin at £79 does the job, with its “textured fluted front” creating “visual interest for minimal space” (just remember it needs a separate waste and trap).

The Budget End: What £99 Actually Gets You

You don’t have to spend a fortune to kit out a downstairs loo, especially if it’s a guest room people use twice a month. The cheapest complete unit-and-basin in the cloakroom range is the Vault Floor Mounted Gloss White Cloakroom Unit & Basin 400mm at £99. It’s a “compact design measuring 400mm wide” that’s “ideal for smaller bathrooms or cloakrooms, where space optimisation is paramount”, with a soft-close door and a vitreous china basin.

At £99 you get the essentials done properly: the basin, the cabinet, concealed pipework and somewhere to put the cleaning kit. Classic gloss white goes with anything and bounces light around a windowless room, which is exactly what a lot of downstairs loos need. Spend more and you’re paying for the finish (oak, grey, fluted) and the format (wall-hung), not a fundamentally better basin. For a starter cloakroom or a quick refresh on a tight budget, the Vault is hard to argue with.

Quick Comparison: Which Cloakroom Unit Suits You?

The short version. Find your situation on the left and the pick falls out.

Pick	Width	Format	Best for	Price
Vault Gloss White	400mm	Freestanding	Tightest budget, guest cloakroom	£99
Linea 400 Sonoma Oak	400mm	Wall-hung	Smallest footprint, open floor, drawer storage	£189
Esme 450mm Dust Grey	450mm	Freestanding	The cloakroom default, on-trend grey	£229
Esme 450mm Davos Oak	450mm	Freestanding	Same unit, warm wood-effect finish	£249
Flauto Mini 460mm Fluted	460mm	Freestanding	A statement fluted front in a small room	£299
Blake 500mm Dust Grey	500mm	Wall-hung	Roomier loo, more drawer storage	£199
Orbit Compact Basin	450mm	Wall-hung basin only	No cabinet, maximum floor space	£79.99

Browse the full cloakroom vanity units and basins range for more colourways, or the wall-hung basins range if you’ve decided a standalone basin is the way to go.

Frequently Asked Questions

What size vanity unit do I need for a cloakroom?

For most downstairs loos, a 400mm or 450mm vanity unit is right. Go 400mm if the room is genuinely tight or the door swings towards the basin, and 450mm if the wall can take it, since you get a more usable basin for not much more space. A 500mm unit suits a roomier cloakroom or small en-suite where you want proper drawer storage.

What is the smallest cloakroom vanity unit?

A 400mm unit is the smallest sensible size that still gives you a usable basin and a bit of storage underneath. The Linea 400 and the Vault 400mm are both 400mm wide. If you need to project even less into the room, a standalone wall-hung basin like the 400mm Ripple Cloak comes only 215mm off the wall.

Are wall-hung or freestanding cloakroom units better?

Wall-hung units make a small room feel bigger by keeping the floor visible, and they’re easier to clean under, but they need a solid wall or reinforced studwork to take the weight. Freestanding units are simpler to fit and good for hiding pipework, but they fill the floor visually. In a tight cloakroom, wall-hung usually looks better if the wall can support it.

Do I need a vanity unit or just a basin in a cloakroom?

Pick a full unit-and-basin if you want storage and hidden pipework, and a basin only if the room is too tight for a cabinet or you prefer the clean wall-hung look. A standalone basin is cheaper and projects less into the room, but you lose the under-basin storage and the pipework is on show.

What is a fluted cloakroom vanity unit?

A fluted vanity unit has a textured front made of vertical ribbed lines that catch the light, adding depth and a premium feel. It works well in a small cloakroom because the texture gives the room a focal point without taking up extra space. The Flauto Mini 460mm is a full fluted unit-and-basin, or you can get the look from a fluted basin like the Ripple Cloak.

How much does a cloakroom vanity unit cost?

A complete cloakroom unit-and-basin starts at around £99 for a basic gloss white 400mm unit, rising to roughly £229 to £249 for grey, oak or fluted finishes. A standalone compact basin is cheaper at around £79 to £80, though you may need to buy a separate waste and trap depending on the model. Prices shown here should be re-checked live before you buy.

Sorting out the whole room, not just the basin? Our guide to designing a small bathroom covers the bigger layout decisions, and the sink tap buying guide helps you match the right tap to a compact basin. If a cloakroom is part of a wider refresh, the bathroom tap finishes compared guide is worth a read for tying the metalwork together.