Is that a wall between the tub and the toilet in the second picture? If so, that's exactly the layout we had in our hall bath in our old house, and it worked great - the wall provided enough privacy for someone using the toilet if someone walked in or by by accident.

Can that top door to the master, be a pocket door too? like the pocket at the bottom of your plan? That way no conflict with the door swing and sink.

One thing with the shower, are you going to tile on the walls? If you are you need to be sure you plan for rigid walls at the pocket area. The pocket door walls have more flex in them. The system can be difficult to stiffen enough for tile. I have read that some have made 8" wall so that the double wall can have the 2x4's standing like a regular stud wall. When studs are turned on their sides for the pocket the walls still flex. I know this because that is how mine went up, though there was a rabbeted joint for the 3/4" ply that was the wall material. The 3/4" should have laid on top of the 2x4. If this sounds difficult to understand, I am having some trouble explaining :)

Just ask me if you want me to explain it better.

sjhockey-yes that is a wall. So you'd prefer it flipped then?

enduring-nope no tile. We are having a 3x5 one piece shower installed. Pinching pennies and we aren't in there much so it's all good. Thank you for taking the time to explain though. POCKET-I am worried the sliding of it will be loud in the middle of the night. DH works odd shifts so it's very common for him to be up at 2, 3, 4 or whatever. I'm afraid it will wake me up!

You first layout is similar to mine. I like having the privacy if for the times I'm a hurry and don't close the door. I would have a big problem with two doors (shower & entry) interfering with each other. We have a 24" towel bar on the wall behind the door, forward of the toilet.

Regarding your worry that the door could hit someone standing at that sink... I have never known anyone who would enter a bathroom without knocking when the door is closed.

-Babka

Gotcha...can you get a pocket door with a muffler?

We had a shower behind the door as in your second picture and I liked it. Maybe if you were doing a tile shower you wanted to show off, then you would rather see it .
It worked out well. I hung my towel on the shower door handle and my husband on an over the door towel holder (could have just used a hook on the back of the door).
The bathroom seemed more open at the far end with the toilet hidden behind the wall and I liked that the door hid part of the shower.

Here is a photo of our towels behind the door.

{{gwi:1472835}}
-Babka

Well dh isn't loving the entrance door on shower door issue. I know it wouldn't be ideal for a hall or kids bath but for adults I think it would be just fine.

enduring-do they make mufflers for pocket doors? We have one on the other side of the bath that goes to the closet but I think that one will be open most of the time.

babka-thank you very much for the pic - that visual is very helpful. From best I can tell reading our dimensions we should have about 5 feet from the back wall of the toilet to the door. That should be plenty of room for towels - more than I first thought. Good point about the door and knocking - I have to remember we won't be sharing it with the kids who are still struggling with the knock first rule! Love your shower tile by the way, very nice. :)

In lieu of a tile shower we are hoping to do something like this but with glass doors:

Thanks everyone for your first hand experiences with both layouts. GW is so helpful!

Just had a pocket door installed into our master bath. The only noise is if you slam it shut. If you're at all careful at the end it's fine. No noise when rolling it open or closed.

Make sure you get a really heavy door and we used the Johnson hardware. Very sturdy and I think that helps.

My husband gets up an hour before I do and zero issues.

Love it!

I was just kidding about the muffler :)

We will be having 2 pocket doors at each end of our bathroom. One will have the tiled shower wall as the pocket, and the other will be a hallway wall, so no issue. We have Hafele pocket rail up and there is a mechanism to stop the door from slamming I believe. The doors aren't installed yet. They are solid doors and heavy.

The biggest reason that I can think of for NOT doing the switch is the fact that kids aren't the gentlest with throwing open a door. That's a recipe to keep replacing the shower glass there if the shower is located where the door swings into it. Or have a shower curtain there, and the door still might swing hard enough if one of them is in a temper to swing back against the tiled wall in the shower.

If you do the switch, also switch the swing of the door to avoid that issue.

Excellent point about switching the door swing. I think it should swing into the bedroom. This way if someone falls and is in front of the door you can get to them. This happened to my brother some years back. The fire department had to break down the door using precious time. If the door opened into the bedroom, that would not be an issue. I work in a hospital and all our doors double swing. Push a latch and the door comes through the jamb, swinging out instead of in. I think all bathroom doors should do this.

Where I live, local township code is the door must swing out.

Well enduring - it sounds like if I get good hardware I won't need a muffler, phew! ;) If I do put in a pocket there, I don't believe I'll be able to hang towels though. Yes? No?

ceez-good that you haven't had issues. I am not really familiar with pocket doors - never have had one.

I have thought about outswing but not sure I'd like that either. :(

Our master bath has 2 entrances so no need to change the door swing for safety purposes. You can get through from the laundry room to the closet to the master bath to the bedroom and back out again. Somewhat unconventional but meets our lifestyle needs (opposite shifts/sleep schedules).

I'll say that from my experience, I hate that my bathroom door swings into the area of the first sink. As a result that sink is almost never used. We are only a family of two and knocking seems weird to me. But with a lack of exhaust fan, this room has never been used to it's full potential if you get what I mean. So privacy and knocking has never really been a major concern.

We are hoping to change the door to a pocket door but I'm exploring my options on how to make the pocket sturdy as it will be the edge of the shower wall.

From what I've read is if you do some extra blocking and are cautious of the size of screws/nails that you can still hang towel bars on a pocket wall.

I definitely prefer the second sketch - the further the toilet is from the bedroom the better. :)

we are putting in a pocket door, cuz I hated the way the previous door trapped our robes (which we use in the hot tub and are hung damp) between the outside wall and the door. Mildew/mold would form on the wall and on our robes.

DH will be making/installing bumpers, so that may act as a 'muffler'? He had bought and returned the frame available at HD. He felt it was too flimsy so he made his own using 3/4" plywood. Here is a pic of one side. We will be attaching our flat screen TV to the bedroom wall (see plugs), so I'm sure you could hang a towel! LOL Do make sure your screws are short enough though! He had to make a trip to HD to buy shorter ones!

Small pieces of plywood on left side of 2 X 4 were to give some extra stability, cuz "You can never be too stiff" :>)

Check your local codes regarding required clearances to step out of the shower/shower door and the entrance door to the bathroom. I believe they cannot "overlap" so that if someone has a medical emergency in the shower that help can open the bath door and then open the shower door.

I put a pocket door in my bath remodel, with the tile shower against that wall. Not sure what the contractor did to stiffen it, but there have been no issues in 3 or 4 years. The door rolls silently and only would make noise if you slammed it or locked it. I love it.

I have a similar floor plan (with shower in upper position) and no place for towel bars except next to the toilet. My contractor braced for them, but then I realized I didn't want bath towels hanging next to the toilet. Even though I live alone, my grandson is now using my bathroom when he spends the night and if you have males in your house using that toilet, well, I'd think about "splash" onto clean towels. Ewwww.

i didn't do a glass door (I procrastinated about it and now love my shower curtain and freedom from cleaning a glass enclosure) but what about doing doors with towel bars as the handles?

I ended up putting two stainless Command hooks on the face of the shower to hold my towels. I love how they work, no drilling, they hold wet towels just fine and the towels seem to dry well.

I have purchased a "train luggage rack" for above the commode. Clean towels , hand towels, or washcloths can be stacked on the rack, and there are three hooks hanging down below. I am imagining DH hanging his towel across the three hooks, longwise. It will then be high above the toilet and completely out of the way of even someone using the handicapped handrails I plan to install.

I actually have two of the racks. Mine will be on the right high above headroom as you walk into the bathroom. There is a space there now for the door to sit when open, and I plan to increase the size of the door, and have it swing outward in the remodel. The shower/tub now has a wall that comes out about 6 inches at the end of the current door swing space, and that will remain with the remodel and new roll-in shower. So my towel rack will have space at the entrance to hang in that wallspace to the right of the door.

Here is a link that might be useful: Train luggage racks on sale

OP back. Wow - lots more traffice after a lul. I will take it!

Well after I saw babka's I was sold on keeping it as is. I don't think I want the door against glass. I know my dh does NOT. My only issue at this point is that the door swings by that one sink....which after some arguing IS DH's SINK! I spend much more time drying my hair etc. than the 2 second he takes 'getting ready'.

So the only time I think the door will be shut is when one of us is sleeping. Following through on that premise - I think a door jam at the sink would really be a rarety. We will either both be up and in the bathroom or one of us will be asleep and the door will be shut.

I am still pondering the pocket door....

oly-I am intrigued by a shower curtain in a stand up shower. You've had no issues with water? I think we could always start out with a curtain and then move to a door. Live with it a while. I have thought about the towels by the toilet factor....hmmm. There is another bathroom on the main level and I am hoping to encourage our kids to use it!

nancy-I really like that! Thanks for posting the link. I bookmarked it and might just use it for the kids bathroom too. :) I will need to double check my dimensions.

Thank you for all of the input. So many decisions starting to stack up on me!

Lisa