I agree seems like almost every home they look at has a bathroom of some size off the kitchen. I don't like it but unfortunately this house has one near the kitchen, a half bath, but they certainly could have configured differently so that the door opened into a different area. I would like to make that change but I think now it would be costly. It actually opens at the junction of the breakfast area and the den. I have a feeling men are the ones making those plans.

Mine is, as was the case with the house I grew up in. I'd never even thought about it until someone mentioned it a while back. Never had any offensive situation because of it.

I have a bathroom off the dining area. Hate it! We also have one upstairs so that helps. I would love to close it off but not going to happen. This house was built in the 80's

We have a bathroom off the kitchen. It was that way when we moved here. I don't like it but it is good for my husband when he comes home dirty after work. I wouldn't built a house that way..

The house I grew up in had only one bathroom and it was directly off the kitchen, however the house was a conversion of the original school house in the village and was built in the 1880s. It also has some walls that are solid slate (the blackboards). My parents eventually added a second small bathroom by converting a bedroom closet upstairs.

Having the bathroom off the kitchen isn't ideal, but it's better than having no bathroom at all. :O)

I had a kitchen/powder room set-up like this for many years and never gave it a thought.

My sister is a retired nurse and is germ conscious and refuses to let people wash their hands in her kitchen sink. So this is a perfect set-up for her.

I've been in many homes (old and new) with a small bathroom off the kitchen. My own 1950's-built house doesn't have one, but I do have a full bath upstairs and a small "lavatory" in my basement.

My last house, built in 1987 had a bathroom in the laundry room off the kitchen. I loved it!

We once owned a home that had the only bathroom off the kitchen. I think they are handy close to the kitchen. I would like one where we live now.

Sue

We have a powder room off the dinning room, around the corner from the garage door entry. It works for us! We're happy to have it! I would like a more formal mud room...that's my only complaint...

Many of the older homes had bathrooms directly off the kitchen if they had any at all in the country. My grandmother and great grandmothers home both had theirs that way as did a lot of other places I visited as a child. When we moved in a house that my parents renovated the bathroom was off the kitchen but they opened a door in the hall and closed off the kitchen access. Most of the first bathrooms were made in the only room available and that was the walk in pantry. ( My dream house would have a huge one!) Long before kitchens had cupboards and became major renos; A wood/oil stove, a rocking chair or two, a sideboard, table and chairs, a washing station, and some places a cot or a bench of some kind were a thing of the norm.

We have a center hall colonial. Our powder room is off the central hallway about two feet from the kitchen. Nothing is visible from the kitchen except the doorway into the PR.

I wouldn't want a bathroom where the door opened from a kitchen, dining room or living room. It's interesting to see some of the older homes where there's no bathroom on the main level at all. They usually have a family bath on the second floor and, if they've been renovated, sometimes a bath in the basement.

The house we lived in some years ago was built in 1930, and had a powder room off the kitchen, plus a "maid's room which we turned into a den, right across from it. The full bathroom was upstairs.

My current house has the bathroom right off the dining area. It has never been a problem because I keep the door closed. My house has just the one bathroom. I laugh at HGTV when a prospective owner doesn't like a powder room off the kitchen or dining area. It is very convenient for washing your hands before you eat. An aunt and uncle had a large bathroom with a door to the kitchen and another door to the hallway. I felt it was awkward. since it meant locking two doors to use the loo.

This house was built in 1955 by a doctor and his wife for their later years, and nicely done - wide hallways, no stairs and bless them, tons of storage.

There are three bathrooms, two attached to bedrooms. The common bath can be seen from just one part of one room - kitchen. If I'm at the sink or refrigerator and look across through double wide door and slate hallway I'm looking right into the bath, yellow toilet center stage ;) The bath has original green tile floor, continued to half walls, vanity, shower, then yellow sink and toilet and the conversation piece, 34" matching yellow tub. Children? Puppies? Certainly not adult-sized ;)

It's the bathroom everyone coming in from outside, or living room, kitchen, office will use so of course I keep it spotless.
Odors as mentioned above aren't any issue at all, it's not a huge room but has an industrial sized ceiling fan on timer and screened window that opens easily.

Our powder room is right inside the door as you come in from the garage. It is also right between the kitchen and the dining room. All cookie cutter houses have some variation of that around here. I didn't think much of it until the neighbor kids started visiting using it. Fortunately, the fan works. If we ever get to build a custom house again. We will do things differently.

My 1840's house obviously didn't have a bathroom back then. Someone put a powder room off the kitchen somewhere along the way. When we did a whole kitchen remodel , we demolished that long bath room( probably a former pantry) and used that for kitchen space. We then built a huge powder room which is off the kitchen too but not part of it like the other one. We have very thick wooden doors and horsehair plaster walls, so no sounds are heard.

The most used toilet in our house is in the back hallway. (I know that because I'm the person who replaces the TP rolls in our house!) Our back hall runs between garage and kitchen. It has laundry at one end and a big closet opposite the powder room at the other end. The door to the garage and the door to the kitchen are in the middle of this long hallway.

We had a powder room off a back hallway behind our kitchen in our prior home, too -- easy access from kitchen and garage.

At our condo the hall bath door is opposite one of the kitchen walls. You don't see into the kitchen from it; don't see it from the kitchen either.

DIL's old Chicago house has a powder room door at one end of the DR -- hardly ideal but better than no facility at all on the main floor. The space was once part of the kitchen pantry -- back when 'the facilities' were in the back yard.

A little off-topic, but...why do I see picutures of bathrooms with the toilet LID raised? (Sometimes it's even the seat.) In our family the lid goes down before you flush, and even if not, why take a photo of the insides of a toilet?

Bath off the kitchen. Built that way in 1875, and will stay that way. No problems.

Me, too. Very old house. Kitchen is open to the dining area, which in turn is somewhat open to my laundry machines and a bathroom.

Never thought of it as a problem. The bathroom has a stall shower. The upstairs bathroom has a clawfoot tub. We used to use it a lot when the kids were growing up, and when that room was remodeled I painted the tub and gilded the feet. I was looking forward to using it again, but the contractor said we needed to raise the tub on a platform in order to hook it up--and he couldn't do it. So there it sits, in drydock. At this point I probably couldn't get in and out of it anyway, especially if it were on a platform.

Ours is off the front hall opposite the kitchen. Hey... It is a small house. I would rather have it there than not at all! It is a lifesaver not having to climb the stairs when you have elder bladder issues.

We have a powder room off the dinette/kitchen area. The main bathroom is upstairs where all trhe bedrooms are. We find its a very convenient item.

Better then no bathroom at all, right?

"Better than no bathroom at all, right?"

Reminded me of "Bathroom on the Right" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

wouldn't mind a powder room but full bath? we do have a bath next to the kitchen (sort of, off a hallway) and it's most of the time all mine...

We have one off the garage which is handy when you have workers here. I've never used it but yard workers have.

In older homes the bath was near the kitchen because that's where the water pipes are located. In a more modern home that is bigger I guess it can be built anywhere.
Joann

What is a "powder room"? Is it just a half bath? In other words a sink and toilet but no tub/shower?

If so, why would some people accept that but not a full bath? I'm "assuming" that the thing that's turning many of you off is the idea that there's a toilet just off the kitchen ... and therefore perhaps smells, etc. If so, wouldn't a "powder room" (odd name, IMO) have the same problem?

Our house was advertised as having 2 1/2 baths. I found the main bath, the master bedroom bath and asked "Where is the half bath?" It's a toilet and laundry tub in the laundry room off the breakfast room. LOL I use this one the most. There was access to this laundry room from the garage, but we made that entrance into a pantry, which this house didn't have. We use the other door from the breakfast room to get into the garage.

suzieque -- I think "Powder Room" originally meant a cloakroom where ladies could go to refresh...and powder their noses. The running water came later. In today's America there may be homes where the powder room is where all the ammo is kept! LOL

In our area a bathroom can have a tub or shower, plus sink and toilet. "Half bath" means sink and toilet. In some areas, realtors insist that a bathroom must have a *bath tub* -- and a room with toilet, sink and shower is a 3/4 bath.

I understand about plumbing issues in older homes, but I can't be thrilled with people cooking or eating beside a toilet room -- whatever you call it. It's socially awkward when someone excuses himself from the dining room table to go to the toilet -- a foot away from the other diners.

I'm with chisue. Very first house I lived in here, the bathroom was off the small kitchen. Only place for the table was pushed up against that shared wall. Bathroom door was inches from the table. You could hear, smell ... UGH
The man I moved up here with came up first to get us settled in, before I followed.
I wasn't in that house long. Or with him. LOL

I used to clean a house for a lady that had a half bath
off the hall opposite the dining room...I never thought
anything about it until she said it was not a good idea
to have it there with noise and odors...

Someone asked:

"What is a "powder room"?

A powder room may have everything that a full bath has except no shower or bathing facilities. The usual equipments are lavatory, toilet, towel and wash cloth bar, and wall cabinet(s). A mirror is positioned over the sink.

My sister bought an old farm house many years ago, and her bathroom was off her dining room. I thought it was so gross to sit at the dinner table, and see her toilet if the door was left open. And who wants to hear someones bodily functions while in the bathroom, while you're sitting at the dinner table enjoying a roast beef dinner?

I saw a picture on the internet the other day. The toilet was IN the kitchen! Seriously. I wish I could find it now to show you. I almost died laughing.

Hi Deb of AB,

I'm surprised ...

... I thought that Alberta had graduated from that sort of thing!

o j