Have you considered moving the door to the bedroom instead? Although the doorway would no longer be inside the bedroom, it would be right there, not where they had to walk around a corner as it was before. I did not change anything else in the room, but you could certainly rotate the vanity 90 degrees or do some kind of corner unit.

I'd consider rotating the vanity 90 degrees, putting a closet on the opposite wall, and moving the door so it's between the two. I'd add shelf space to the laundry room, too.

I did two separate areas in our upstairs bath--a double vanity and then a tub/toilet area. I thought it'd be useful since the kids were a boy and a girl. My teens hated it--they didn't want anyone in the vanity area when they were in the tub/toilet area. I wish we hadn't done it.

--Beth

I like your original layout, especially if you can see the bedroom doors, from downstairs. This way, the person occupying BR #2 has more privacy and isn't seen in his/her pajamas :)

aa62579... That's actually one of H's suggestions. He thinks the door is close enough to BR #2. But I have that silly thought that I personally wouldn't want anybody from the first floor (you can see the dining room, great room and the kitchen from BR #2 door) to see me running to the bathroom in my PJs or with a crazy hair or something else(maybe like walking funny because I'm trying not to go in my pants, lol). Yeah, my reasoning probably sound silly. And we rarely have visitors. Of course, not sure how that would change as the kid/s grow up.

bethohio... hmmm... So, in reality, having 2 separate areas in the bathroom won't work with kids/teenagers? H has been telling me that. But I thought it's an efficient setup. I guess most people don't like sharing? :) So, would you suggest just having one huge bathroom area and remove the door/wall between the double vanity and tub/toilet?

lavender_lass... Thank you for agreeing with my silly justification. LOL.

I like the original layout, but at the same time a bigger linen closet (or additional closet) would be great if I get rid of 1 door to the bathroom. I wish I can have both. :)

I don't think you need 2 doors into the vanity area. But, I'd keep the door to the toilet/bath area. I think whether or not they appreciate that door has to do a lot with their personalities (and genders). I know my 2 girls like the separation. Maybe a boy/girl, not so much.

I have thought more about this. Like Beth said, you could really get a lot more in that bathroom with only one door. I think I drew what she suggested.

As far as the door between the two areas, I think it could go either way, but if possible, I think a pocket door that slid into the area by the tub would be better. This would keep the door from being in the way and be almost entirely hidden if not in use.

I had one additional thought as well. Assuming later down the line there are additional children or the house is sold to someone with more than one child and bedrooms 3 or 4 are used as bedrooms. Is it going to be fair that the bathroom opens into bedroom 2? Seems like that might cause some disagreements.

On that same thought process, the one thing that might bother me would be seeing into the bathroom from downstairs. Although this puts you right back in the same position having bedroom 2 walk around the corner to get to the bathroom, the view from below will be nicer and access will be more even between all 3 bedrooms. If doing something like this, I would extend the vanity the entire length of the room for plenty of storage underneath. (This is the placement of the bedroom door from your first drawing.)

aa62579.... Great ideas! Thank you for pointing out how the bathroom door can be seen from the first floor in your first proposed revision.

You're right, we may end up using BR #3 and #4 as bedrooms in the future. We only have 1 kid now and definitely want 1 more.

I'll discuss your suggestions with H. I'm sure he likes either one. I'm the one who has been hesitant to change it. LOL. Thanks for the great points. Lots to think about.

I like aa's second sketch best. A hall bath needs to serve all the bedrooms. Not every owner of this house will use bedrooms as offices.

I, too, doubt that anyone will want to 'share' the bathroom as it is laid out. IMO the only way a shared bathroom works is if there are two toilet/vanity areas with the shower/bathtub in its' own space. (Only the bathing area is shared.)

How about NOT having the hallway in full view from the rest of the house? That seems to me to be the real problem here. Why would you want to gaze up at this area anyway?

chisue.. very good point.

Regarding your question "hallway in full view," my main reason to make it very open and having railings to BR #2 instead of a wall is lighting. The hallways to BR #2 and #4 would be dark with a wall. A secondary reason is to "breakup" the wall (instead of just a wall from 1st floor ceiling to 2nd floor ceiling ~15-16ft wide).

The small part of the layout we can see actually reminds me a lot of this image. I can see how it would open things up and could also add some dimension and decorating options. This is just a plain image, but I can see the possibility.

{{gwi:1513005}}

I'm with chisue on the wall looking down to the first floor. You could extend the wall to the corner, and for light you could have some transom windows at the top of it. Either of aa62579's layouts would work with this. Just extend that wall that's to the left of bedroom 2 down to the corner, but leave the bedroom door wherever it makes the most sense.

If you go with the second of aa's layouts (door to hallway with double vanity) you won't look into the bathroom from downstairs, if I am interpreting the drawings correctly. And, you won't have to walk into a cave to get to bedroom 2 either (with a wall to the corner only). You could also only do a half wall (rather than open railing); but I like the open railing pic above.

On the subject of separating the tub/toilet area from the vanities: When I was a teen (with 3 brothers), I'd have given a lot to be able to use the sink while they showered. My kids didn't feel that way. It might have been different if there were more of them. Our 3rd was in the basement (her choice) and there was another bath there.

Whatever you do, think carefully about storage in that area: towels for 2-4 people, extra sets of sheets for each bed, extra blankets, extra toiletries, toiletries in use. Don't forget that you'll have cleaning supplies (a vacuum? broom? mop?) upstairs as well. I don't think 4-5' of linen closet is really sufficient.

Instead of extending the vanity the entire length, what about including an additional cabinet there?

(I always think houses need more planned storage) (Except for mine--it actually has enough storage)

Here is a link that might be useful:

aa62579... Cool! Where did you find that picture? I've been searching something like it, since my vision has just been in my head. That's exactly the openness I'm looking for.

I did play around with the layout more, but I'm questioning the distance of the bathroom to BR #2 (too close???) and BR #3/4 (too far???). Here's my modification to maximize storage space:

{{gwi:1513007}}

We want to push the toilet/tub wall but we'll do this on-site since we're not sure how much room we actually have. So, if we can make the tub/toilet area bigger, we're hoping to be able to add some type of storage in there (maybe a cabinet or some type of furniture to hold toilet paper/soap/etc).

bethohio3... Storage space is one of my worries! I keep rethinking other areas in the house to make sure we have decent amount of storage. Do you mind sharing your house plan? I assume you are talking about "heated" or easily accessible storage space, right? Not attic/basement storage.

@tncraft--I am only talking about 'heated' storage. We also have a large storage area in the unfinished part of our basement as well as an extra large 3.5 car garage, so there's storage for tools, lawn equipment, etc.

These aren't completely accurate (esp master bath area), but they're close.

Here is a link that might be useful: Beth's house website