What Is More Important?

vbrad26 · Mar 8, 2021

Bigger bedroom? Or bigger Bathroom?
Our "master bath" walk in shower has a leaky shower pan. So it needs to be ripped out and replaced.
So we were thinking, if we are going to be in there tearing stuff up, perhaps we take this opportunity to make the bathroom a little bigger, but at the cost of loosing some space in our bedroom.
Both our bedroom and bathroom are on the small side. The bedroom (according to the drawings) is 13'-1" X 12', not sure about the bathroom, but I will say it is a little cramped if both my wife are in there brushing our teeth at the same time.
Basically what would be done, is rip out the existing wall between the bathroom and the current closet and move the bathroom into where the closet used to be.
And there is where we sacrifice some space. We would build a new closet which would encroach on the existing footprint of our bedroom.

This is the best I can do for a visual. Current floor plan on the left...proposed on the right.
So as you can see we would be adding a closet on the "north" bedroom wall and would extend out an additional 2' from the existing wall, basically making the room more like 11 X 12.
I honestly don't care either way. We can live with the tiny bathroom, but it would also be nice to have a little bit more space. But would I miss the space lost in the bedroom?

What would you do?

Dan S · Mar 8, 2021

I am doing a remodel too, so have been thinking about similar things. I think this would be fine for a mother-in-law or guest suite, but I don't know if it's big enough for two people to be comfortable. Is this a master? What size bed? Have you thought about where your dressers will go?

BlackTalon · Mar 8, 2021

Definitely would be a cramped master bedroom, at least by US standards. On thing to consider is if you will have enough wall space for the headboard, any dressers, etc., as you are losing some wall space (the floor plan does not show window openings)

Larry S · Mar 8, 2021

We have a rectangular bedroom. We had a closet for a master bath. We did a bump out for the shower. We also used a pocket door. We didn’t lose any bedroom, didn’t impinge on any other rooms and gained significant space. It was however expensive but so worth it. Still a small bath but it looks way better.

Observer · Mar 8, 2021

You’re both doing the same thing in the same space in the bedroom. You’re doing different things in the same space in the bathroom. Logic says bigger bathroom. I think.

Archer · Mar 8, 2021

Larry S
We have a rectangular bedroom. We had a closet for a master bath. We did a bump out for the shower. We also used a pocket door. We didn’t lose any bedroom, didn’t impinge on any other rooms and gained significant space. It was however expensive but so worth it. Still a small bath but it looks way better.

The door was a big one for our renovation as well - they take up so much room. We weren't keen on a pocket door, so we went with a barn door - solid maple custom made...

Works really well, and takes up very minimal space. This was done back in 2014, but we see barn doors are a bit of a thing now.

vbrad26 · Mar 8, 2021

Dan S
I am doing a remodel too, so have been thinking about similar things. I think this would be fine for a mother-in-law or guest suite, but I don't know if it's big enough for two people to be comfortable. Is this a master? What size bed? Have you thought about where your dressers will go?

This is our master. Queen bed. With the new closet, we would probably do some built in dressers so we could eliminate the stand alone dressers we currently have.

BlackTalon
Definitely would be a cramped master bedroom, at least by US standards. On thing to consider is if you will have enough wall space for the headboard, any dressers, etc., as you are losing some wall space (the floor plan does not show window openings)

The headboard is touching the "south" wall and centered. So we'd be loosing space at the foot of the bed since the new closet would be coming out about 2' more than the current wall is. So really we would just be losing the pass through space when waling from the bedroom entrance to the bathroom entrance.

Larry S
We have a rectangular bedroom. We had a closet for a master bath. We did a bump out for the shower. We also used a pocket door. We didn’t lose any bedroom, didn’t impinge on any other rooms and gained significant space. It was however expensive but so worth it. Still a small bath but it looks way better.

We would be using a pocket door for the new bathroom even though we ware using the same entrance. Right now we have a barn door that takes up that whole wall, but that would obviously have to be removed to make way for the new closet.

Observer
You’re both doing the same thing in the same space in the bedroom. You’re doing different things in the same space in the bathroom. Logic says bigger bathroom. I think.

I tend to agree. I'm leaning toward bigger bathroom than bedroom..but I'm just trying to see if other people follow/agree with the logic.

The wall that would be turned into the new closet and extend out an additional 2' is a wall that is currently dead space. We have nothing on it except for the track for the barn door. So as it stands, the room would not have to be rearranged and everything we have now, would technically fit. But we would just try to remove some furniture so it didn't feel too cramped.

BlackTalon · Mar 8, 2021

Here's an idea I picked up from a stay at an historic Inn outside Baltimore a couple years ago. Don't bother with any full-height walls -- just put a kneewall between the crapper and the bed. And have the dressers, etc. on the outside walls around the crapper. It really maximizes the space! And it's not awkward at all! Not at all! 👍

Observer · Mar 8, 2021

If you’re moving the wall with a barn door, you could replace it with a pocket door. I think pocket doors are way cooler and it opens up that wall space.

Edit: I see there are differing opinions on pocket doors. 😀 It’s something I would only do with a new wall. Very expensive for an existing wall.

Shabbaz · Mar 8, 2021

You can make a seperate place for a toilet and the rest open? I have a 30m2 bedroom and I did this.

vbrad26 · Mar 8, 2021

Observer
If you’re moving the wall with a barn door, you could replace it with a pocket door. I think pocket doors are way cooler and it opens up that wall space.

Edit: I see there are differing opinions on pocket doors. 😀 It’s something I would only do with a new wall. Very expensive for an existing wall.

We would be replacing the barn door with a pocket door since we would no longer have a wall for the track.
The existing wall basically becomes the back wall of the new closet.

SkunkPrince · Mar 8, 2021

Turn the garage into living space and build a new garage.

For example, take a 1/3 of the garage, about 40% of that for the walk-in closet, 60% for the new bathroom, the rest of the garage for your fancy fun-having room, and stick a new garage somewhere else.

flw · Mar 8, 2021

I talked about this with my wife, and read her @vbrad26's original post. She said: "Bigger bathroom, no question. Double sinks in the master bath can save a marriage." She also thinks built-ins for clothing storage, leaving the bed as the only free-standing piece of furniture (without a footboard), will maximize space in the bedroom.

She married me, so I tend to follow her advice. 👍

Darlinboy · Mar 8, 2021

Mrs. Darlinboy🥰 and I would go for the bigger bathroom space.

But, we’ve never bought into the need for a large master bedroom - if it fits a kingsize bed and two nightstands, with room to walk around it of course, anything else is wasted space.

Good luck with the reno whichever way you go!

airansun · Mar 8, 2021

To hell with the living room!, I say.

The master bedroom is the new living room. Who entertains anymore anyway?

Plenty of room for a doublesinked bathroom and walk in closets. Maybe even a microwave and a mini fridge!

Problem solved. I’ll go let my wife know.

Dor_42 · Mar 9, 2021

SkunkPrince
Turn the garage into living space and build a new garage.

I was wondering about the garage as well, can you expand the bathroom to the "north" of this floor plan?
Another thing to consider, if you have the space somewhere else in the house can you move your closet somewhere else?
Keep the room as is but without any closets...

STANDY · Mar 9, 2021

Mrs STANDYs answer was, How long married....big bathroom and bunk beds in old bathroom closet area.

Background....we have a big house with one very small bathroom

vbrad26 · Mar 9, 2021

Hah I'm enjoying/appreciating all the replies so far, thank you all for the input.
@SkunkPrince , I wish! I would love to build a new garage. But that is a lot more work than we are willing to do right now.
@Dor_42 , we could in fact push the wall out into the garage as well, that is an option that I think deserves a little more exploration.
I plan to bring that up to the contractor as well as a different layout I think is worth considering...please ignore the "comments" that were added by my friend hah...

We are still in the very early stages. Some of this insurance is obviously going to cover, just how much though is yet to be known.
We need to see how much they are willing to cover, and then decide how much we are going to want to spend.
We never planned on doing anything to this bathroom, but feel like we should take advantage of the situation since we're stuck in it.
This is not our forever home. At least we don't think so. Our plan now is to be there a maximum of 10 more years, that will get the kids through elementary school.
At that point, we were going to re-evaluate. We wouldn't actually have to move for any reason, and in 10 years we may decide that we don't want to...
And that's why I'm trying to get some opinions, for potential resale value down the road. Trying to get an idea as to what people might prefer...

Dor_42 · Mar 9, 2021

vbrad26
as well as a different layout I think is worth considering...please ignore the "comments" that were added by my friend hah...

I think this works way better because it means you can have some privacy while using the toilet allowing someone else to take a shower.

vbrad26
And that's why I'm trying to get some opinions, for potential resale value down the road. Trying to get an idea as to what people might prefer...

The problem with this is that sometimes people will rule out something you had to go trough to understand...

My back yard shares a fence with the yard of a day care, when people visit and notice that or when I tell people they immediately see it as a down side...
During its operation hours I'm at work (at least I was pre-COVID, I work from home now).
It is closed on weekends.
When I happen to be home during operation hours they are mostly inside anyway.
The "noise" they make is kids playing, since I became a father myself my tolerance to that kind of noise had increased.

I will take that any day of the week over a noisy neighbor!

So bottom line, you making the bedroom smaller to make it a better house may not be the way someone else will see it which is why I think the best solution will not include a reduction to the size of the bedroom.

BlackTalon · Mar 9, 2021

Dor_42
So bottom line, you making the bedroom smaller to make it a better house may not be the way someone else will see it which is why I think the best solution will not include a reduction to the size of the bedroom.

While there is a lot of truth to this it also depends on how long you plan on living there. If the timeline is short (2 years?) than I would be careful about making the bedroom much smaller. But if you are going to be there for, say, 10 years than I would make if how YOU want to live and enjoy it.

When we build an addition on out house 10 years ago we wanted to redo the existing kitchen space. We wanted it to be bigger, so we demo'd the partition wall separating it from the adjacent dining room. That led to a space that was a bit wider than needed for the kitchen, but we had to pick between too wide or too narrow. Since both my wife and I like to cook, we decided to go 'all out' and make a pretty big kitchen with lots of island space. We knew it would not appeal to a lot of future buyers, but we also knew we would be here at least 20 years. Since we finished the project 10 years ago neither of us has questioned the wisdom of our decision -- we live in the space and enjoy the heck out of it. We built it for US, and not for someone else down the road. Build what will be most useful and enjoyable to you and your wife.

What Is More Important?

vbrad26

Dan S

BlackTalon

Larry S

Observer

Archer

vbrad26

BlackTalon

Observer

Shabbaz

vbrad26

SkunkPrince

flw

Darlinboy

airansun

Dor_42

STANDY

vbrad26

Dor_42

BlackTalon

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