Toilet and bathroom Vastu
Vastu treats the toilet as the one function that has to be kept away from the two strongest corners of the house. Where it goes is less about which zone is best and more about which two are forbidden.
Where a toilet should go
| Zone | Verdict |
|---|---|
| North-west (Vayavya) | Best — the standard position for a toilet |
| West | Good |
| South (west of the south-east) | Acceptable |
| North-east (Ishanya) | Avoid — the prayer and water-source zone |
| South-west (Nairutya) | Avoid — the heaviest, most stable corner |
| Centre (Brahmasthan) | Avoid — never put a toilet in the middle of a plan |
| South-east | Avoid for a WC; a bathing area alone is tolerated |
Inside the toilet
- WC facing north-south rather than east-west, with the user facing north or south.
- Washbasin and shower towards the north or east side of the room.
- Window or exhaust in the east or north.
- Door on the north or east wall, kept closed.
- Floor sloping so water drains to the north or east, and the toilet floor slightly lower than the rest of the house.
When the toilet cannot move
In a flat, or in a plan that is already built, the toilet is where it is. The accepted corrections are about containment rather than relocation: keep the door shut, keep the space dry and ventilated, avoid sharing a wall with the kitchen or the pooja space, and do not put a bed or a desk on the other side of a toilet wall.
Check your own plan against this
Open the plan editor, set your plot size and the facing, and the Vastu checker marks each zone on the sheet — green where the room matches the convention, amber where it is borderline, red where it is wrong — with the reason written out next to it. Move the wall, and the check updates as you drag.
A note on how to use this
Vastu Shastra is a traditional Indian system of directional planning, not a building code. Plenty of its rules line up neatly with good tropical design — a south-east kitchen gets morning sun and keeps afternoon heat away from the living room, a north-east opening brings in soft light, heavy mass on the south-west shades the house through the hottest hours. Others are purely traditional.
Treat the checker in the editor the same way a structural engineer treats a rule of thumb: it tells you what the convention says, quickly, so you can decide what to follow and what to trade away. It will never stop you drawing the plan you want.
Frequently asked questions
Which direction should a toilet be as per Vastu?
North-west is the preferred zone, with west as the next best. The north-east and the south-west should be avoided, as should the centre of the house.
Can a toilet be next to the kitchen?
It is advised against — a toilet sharing a wall with the kitchen or the pooja space is one of the more strongly discouraged adjacencies. Put a passage, a store or a utility between them if you can.
Which direction should the WC face?
Set it so the user faces north or south, rather than east or west.