The master bathroom has been tricky, to say the least. We’ve gone around and around so many times, finally landed on something we felt good about, posted about it, then had over 100 comments that made us completely rethink and revisit. Which is a great thing, because what we were thinking just wasn’t there yet. Specifically, the entrance:
Way too tight. We felt that originally, but convinced ourselves we were willing to deal with that in exchange for the larger shower. And boy was it large. But having a more open entrance does wonders for making a space feel bigger, so we needed to figure something else out.
There were a lot of suggestions to alter the doors into our bedroom, and move the bathroom entrance to the wall where our TV has been (where the linen closet is in the layout above). While it didn’t make sense to remove the double doors to our room, we did some measuring and found a spot where we could fit a new bathroom door without it being interfered with by the bedroom entrance.
NOTE: You can see I also swapped my layout software. I had been using Illustrator and it was obnoxious, so I downloaded FloorDesign from the Apple App Store (not sponsored). It’s a pretty basic CAD drafting program – it’s not amazing, but pretty good, and allows us to make changes faster and more accurately. That was a bit of a tangent, but we had a lot of people ask us about it on Instagram so, there ya go.
When we drew the above layout, which would place the bathroom opening in the nook where our TV sits in the older photo from above, we were actually super excited about it. It seemed to make so much sense and used the space up a lot more efficiently, while allowing a more open entrance and main floor area. BUT, the problems with this one are more on the bedroom side. The first issue is the placement of the door. It’s very off-centered in the space. Off-centered doors aren’t a new thing and we all have them, but this would feel really scrunched to the right side because of how it sits back in the little alcove. There are a few more inches we could borrow on the left to move the door over, but then we eat into the closet and don’t have room for the things we want to do in there. We would also be creating a large, protruding wall that would visually invade the master bedroom – it doesn’t feel that way now, because that’s where the doorway to the bathroom is. Close it off and it would feel really intrusive. So despite or initial excitement, this one wasn’t the answer, either.
Having the doorway closed off in the photo below would make our whole room feel cramped.
With our next option, we wondered if maybe the problem was the vanity placement. What would happen if we moved that and opened up the back wall?
You’ll notice I neglected to add the doors to the toilet closet and shower on this one. That’s because we nixed it before I even got that far. At first glance it may seem fine, but the problem is the windows. We want to add a big window in the shower to finally get some natural light in this room. With this layout, the window would give us a great view of our main gas line that goes right up that exterior wall, and we’d also be opening ourselves up to a lot more noise during the summer, as our air conditioner is out that side of the house as well.
Why not add a small window on the other wall of the shower? A window the size that we could fit just doesn’t jive with the vibe we want in there. Why not add a window above the vanity? Because that pushes the mirror down too far (standard height ceilings, yay). We also end up pushing back into the closet a bit with this layout, and we really want to get more space in there. So this layout also is not our answer.
It was about this time we realized why the bathroom is laid out the way it is. But we also knew that the current layout still doesn’t work for us, so there had to be a better option. We revisited the layout we posted about last week and started going over the things we didn’t like about it. We turned the toilet closet and narrowed the shower, and found that we gained space in the entrance. But the toilet closet was still in the way of the natural light of the window we wanted to add. So we swapped the toilet and shower, and…
As of now, we’re feeling really good about this one. Though the bathroom area is a bit smaller, the large window will really open it up (not pictured- the window we plan to add in the toilet closet as well). Especially since the front of the shower will be all glass to let all that light in, which is not illustrated very well here in wall depth or inches of shower space. (Also, cue us googling what’s a good size shower?) We’re also going to build in a vanity, instead of using a standalone vanity–like we were in our initial rendering, so we can move the walls in and add a lot more space to the closet and storage to the vanity. The closet will be a separate project, but we can’t wait to show you what we have planned for in there.
This layout of course hinges on the toilet closet. We’ve tightened the space up a lot (read: made it smaller). Some of you sent us the same articles we’ve seen ourselves – a toilet closet has to be a minimum of 60×30. But we’ve also read that it’s not so much about overall space, but inches around and in front of the toilet. Specifically, 21 inches from the front of the toilet to the wall (minimum). We have a meeting on Thursday with our contractor to go over all of it, and he’ll help us make adjustments where necessary to ensure we’re up to code.
So, what are your thoughts? Anybody else create 20 different layout options when making changes to your home? It can be tricky, but I think the end result is so much more satisfying when you’ve taken the time to mull over the details. We’ll get there!
Why do you need two sinks? Takes up too much room and most people use the bathroom alone.
False, we use the bathroom at the same time *every* *single* *day* :-)
Thanks for the app you recommend, it’s very helpful. We are trying to fit a little bathroom in the kids’ room as they always want one.
Can you link to the new floor design app you are using? Searching “floor design” comes up with a lot of floor plan apps that don’t look like the one you’re using.
No problem. It’s this one in the Apple App Store.
LOVE it! Our glass shower door pushes in. Saves floor space and can drip dry into the shower. Best thing ever
I’m very late to this, but have you considered a sliding (bypass) glass shower door? We just installed one in our master bath and I LOVE it. Both functionally and in appearance — it is fantastic.
I still haven’t taken good photos of our finished master, but it’s something like this (we got ours from a local glass fabricator). The finish is matte black. it’s just beautiful.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/DreamLine-Encore-60-in-W-x-76-in-H-Frameless-Sliding-Shower-Door-in-Satin-Black-SHDR-1660760-09/302273336