Bathroom Remodel - Need some opinions!

10 years ago

My husband & I have decided it is officially time to take on our master bathroom... When we bought our house a year & a half ago, it was one of the main things we knew we'd have to redo. It's a bit outdated & the layout is pretty bizarre.

The plan is pretty simple (I think...)
There's double folding doors that open to our bedroom. I want to replace that with one normal door. It'll add a little (not much, but useful) wall space to our bedroom & I just don't like the double doors.

We're going to replace the vanity, countertop, & mirror (& take out the pink tile). I also want to take out the little dividing wall & sliding pocket-like door to the left of the sink. It won't completely open the bathroom, but I think it will be a good step in the right direction. The major question here is what we want to put in. The current counter is 58". If we take out the 2 ft wall, there will still be the corner of the vanity to walk around. We could put in a 60" base, which would come right to where the wall ends now. We could also put in a 48" base & have a little bit of extra room there, but I'm afraid it would look funny to not use that whole wall space?

I'd love to replace the shower with a corner shower unit & remove the other wall there that breaks up the bathroom. However, the plumbing appears to be in that wall & I'm afraid moving a wall of plumbing is more than we want to bite off... At this point, we've decided to leave the shower as is, although I may replace the door.

We're also planning to replace the funny little tiny toilet. It's shorter than a standard toilet & irritating. With the planned changes, it'll still be in the corner, but there will be about a 3' wall (+ the edge of the new vanity if we go with the 60" base) instead of 5' to the the left of the toilet if you're sitting on it.

We're also going to replace the floor, & do other minor things like repairing or replacing some areas of drywall, etc.

I will say that this is NOT our long-term home; more than likely we'll be putting it on the market in the next couple years. We bought this foreclosed house for next to nothing as a "fixer upper" that we could learn on (it'll be paid off in the next year or two, & we've only been it for 18 months so far). As a result, we're not looking to make this bathroom totally amazing, but rather to make it more attractive when we do sell our house &, quite simply, learn about bathroom remodeling.

So I guess the question is, will our planned changes actually help it out? We don't have the flexibility to expand the bathroom in any way, so we're trying to make the best of what we have... Are there any better ideas than what I've proposed? & what size sink base? Any feedback, ideas, or suggestions that you might have are appreciated!

Comments (11)

KatyG
Original Author
10 years ago
I couldn't figure out how to attach more than one picture to my original posting, so I'll attach them all separately
KatyG
Original Author
10 years ago
You can walk through the bathroom to the back of our kitchen through this door.
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For what it's worth, you certainly can have usable drawers under separate vanity sinks. We do. We had a cabinet built, and added the mahogany top and sinks ourselves. We use the top drawers as our primary storage (for daily-use items like razor, face creams, etc) because there is no medicine cab behind the mirror. We simply had the cabinetmaker make the drawers about 3" shallower in depth than the front-to-back measurement of the case, so there was space for plumbing behind them, and then cut out the U-shape in back of the drawer for drain trap clearance. The sinks are only partly above the counter, and about 5" or so below it (you can just see the white front edge of the sink bottom in the open drawer photo...) This was modeled on an Ikea vanity. If you look into the Ikea sinks, you'll see they come with ingenious super-low-clearance drains that take even less space out of the drawer than mine does.
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If you will be using the area every day and the vanity is the main storage cabinet, by all means go with the Kraftmaid. Bending all the way down to get into those sliding doors would get old, quick. Pull-out shelves inside would make it much better, though. KM has a few darker glazed finishes that are very rich looking. We went with the white foil with beadboard in the kids bath and even though I don't use them on a daily basis, I LOVE them! We upgraded to the soft close and every drawer opens completely -- no more digging around the back for things. We changed the false front drawers under the sinks to tilt-out's with full stainless steel baskets... those fit toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste and much more. If you have great knobs and/or pulls, some people seem to notice those and not the cabinet themselves. I've had people not notice the beadboard because they were so drawn to the knobs.
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The more i research this, the more a 3 gang box sounds like a better idea. Thanks guys. Would a 3 gang box screw into the 2 X 4 stud and still have enough support for an in wall night light / recepticle / switch? The stud is on the right side of the box so if i kept the nightlight to the far left i shouldn't have too much of a problem with the box flexing when pushing and pulling plugs from the center recepticle. Or would a 3 gang old work box work better?
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I'll try that but my question was not so much about the bathrooms themselves but about the impact on home value and internal traffic flow on the considered floorplans
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KatyG
Original Author
10 years ago
This is taken from back hallway in the opposite direction.
KatyG
Original Author
10 years ago
The tiny toilet in a corner...
weedyacres
10 years ago
Can you post a layout drawing with dimensions? That will help us better help you.
KatyG
Original Author
10 years ago
Yes, I asked my husband to make a layout with dimensions & he "hadn't gotten around to it" last night. When I measured this morning to make it myself, I answered one of my own questions though.

The current sink area is only 54", not 58" like my husband had thought. Therefore, we are definitely going with the 48" vanity as opposed to the 60". My plan (as you can see in the image) is to put the vanity in the corner to allow as much walking space as possible. My husband was asking about centering the vanity on the 58" wall, leaving 5" on either side. Is there a "right" way to do this?

(The image on the left is the current floor layout. The right is the changes I'm hoping to make, unless I find a better idea! The blue dashed lines are doors.)
sjhockeyfan325
10 years ago
There really isn't a "right" way to do the vanity (hugging the right wall, or centered). I personally like it centered, but the way you've shown it certainly isn't "wrong".

Are you definitely leaving the toilet, sink and shower in their current locations?
KatyG
Original Author
10 years ago
My husband & I have discussed the potential for shifting things a few times (like flipping the sink & shower, etc), but the conversation has always ended in us deciding that it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference in the grand scheme of things, but it would cost more & be much more labor intensive. However, that conclusion was always based on neither of us knowing much about bathroom renovation and just doing some preliminary research.
I'm most defintely open to suggestions that WOULD make a big difference, or wouldn't really cost all that much more, but would be an improvement. I guess it really comes to getting the best bang for our buck/time; we're ok doing some small things to improve it for cheaper, or doing more, if we can justify spending more for the end result.
divotdiva2
10 years ago
is the 2nd door required, as in there is no bathroom that you can access on the other side of the house (kitchen)? If not I suggest you remove the door and drywall up the opening. Then you could turn the toilet facing the other wall and possibly make the shower a little larger.

OR
Move the vanity to where the shower is. Move the shower to where the vanity is (can be larger/longer on one side rather than square) and move the door opening to the left. You will have to add waterproofing to the new shower wall but you should have accessible plumbing pipes in both walls to make this change.
divotdiva2
10 years ago
if you HAVE to retain both door openings, suggest pocket doors to reduce door swing and save space.
tim45z10
10 years ago
I like the drawing on the right. It does require an electrical switch move.
Open space. Tile the floor with big tiles on the diagonal.

Bathroom Remodel - Need some opinions!

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KatyG
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Bathroom Remodel - Need some opinions!

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