I would make it match the vanity and have them flow into each other. You will get a lot more space in a cabinet with 3/4" ply walls than building one with drywall.

12" is really too shallow for drawers: you could do a flip down door like a drawer front, if you wanted to have some access without opening a big door all the time.

I'm not a big fan of linen storage in the bathroom as I think that it can leave you with problems from musty-smelling towels due to the higher humidity in most bathrooms. I prefer linen storage to be just outside the room, where it's convenient, but not in the same space.

However, if you live in a dry climate and have windows open year-round to ventilate the moisture from showering, then I think it might be OK.

It's not that I wouldn't use that space for storage: TP makeup, soap, cleaning stuff, etc. It's just that I wouldn't keep my clean-but-not-in-use linens in there.

If you do go ahead, you might find you could "cheat" the space back a bit by letting in some framing between the studs on the wall behind the space and therefore get a bit more depth. This is sometimes done in tightly-packed kitchens to deepen storage space in bottom cabs, or cram in a non-cab depth fridge w/o it protruding too much. Twelve inches (including thickness of door) is pretty tight for storing bath towels; folding them that small might be a pain, or worse have them pushing the doors open all the time. Even an inch or two more would make it easier. Twelve inches for other kinds of stored-stuff, would be fine, though.

Another use for that spac would be for towel racks. I didn't see where they are in your plan. Maybe move the linens out of the room; have smaller storage for other stuff, and still have wall space for hanging towels?

I love your inspiration pic and tile choices!
HTH

Please consider adding a pocket door when you do the reno, so that you donÂt have to deal with the swing of the door eating up some of the space as in your drawing.

Honestly, I would want the shower where sink is, the toilet behind a half wall where it is now. Change the swing of the door (unless you do a pocket door) so that it swings against the linen storage, and have the vanity sitting on the two walls where the shower is, allowing for a second sink or a sit-down vanity area.

I want access to the things in the bath that I am going to use most often- the vanity and toilet.

As to the finish on the cabinet, with the layout you proposed, I would do the same wood as the vanity, with hidden doors running top to bottom. Have doors on the bottom to about the height of the vanity across that linen area. On the top half, have more doors on the half closer to the entry. On the other upper half, install a wall-mounted towel warmer.

I'm not a floor-plan expert, so no comments there. As far as linens, if it is only towels and your shelves are shallow, you could leave them open and roll all your towels (spa style) for a nice display and easy access.

If the plumbing wall for the shower was the south wall of the bathroom, a pocket door would not really be feasible. It does not look by the drawing the pocket could go off to the right.

The wall would have to be very thick so that the door bypassed behind the plumbing. There would have to be framing in both sides of the pocket wall that allowed access to the valves,(pocket door studs are a specific dimension with metal capping to stiffen them) and the door would have to be in the closed position to access the valves. Which may not be too practical since you want to be able to get in and out of the bathroom if you are fixing something.

Since a plumbing wall already tends to be 5-1/2 minimum instead of 4-1/2: 5-1/2" + 1-3/8" door + 1-1/2" wall on outside of pocket door = a wall roughly 8-1/2" thick. The pocket construction would involve the wall outside the bathroom which may not be in the scope of the project.

Thanks all for the input, it truly is appreciated.

palimpest, you've made some great points and I'll definitely keep in mind as we design this.

liriodendren, I tend to agree with you linen storage outside the bathroom and our architect originally drew it that way, but we had it changed to preserve more of the area open to the living room below as well as limit the amount of doors in the hallway (all seen from the living room). Also, I seem to have a lot of "stuff" that a small vanity, as this 8x8 bathroom seems to be destined for, just can't contain. It's definitely a tradeoff. The one thing I'm feeling good about is that with two windows (one quite large -- we're surrounded by woods so things are quite private here) and a good fan we should have pretty good ventilation.

Les, excellent idea about the pocket door and one I really wanted to use, but as you can see from the rest of the layout upstairs, something that's just not possible. You make some good suggestions about the layout, but one of the nice things about the existing layout is that it matches up with the bathroom directly downstairs, so my understanding is that that helps with running the plumbing. Certainly that wasn't the only concern, but any little bit helps. I've already complicated my life to a point I didn't want to with a custom shower shape, so anything that keeps thing simple is looking pretty good these days. Also, the placement of the window by the vanity, which I insisted on, is not something that can be changed (because of appearance on the exterior) and we didn't want a window in the shower.

Again, thanks for the comments, and if anyone else wants to weigh in, I'm open ears!

Here's the exterior view on the bathroom side (back) of the house, so you can see the window thing (bathroom side is the right side as you're looking at the drawing). I wish the window downstairs would line up with it, but oh well ... that's why it's the back of the house. The other view shows the small window over the toilet.

I like the little window off to the right on the first floor, it adds character to a house like this. Actually the two right windows are on an axis but one the upper extends to the left, while the lower extends to the right.

Compositionally this is less "static" than if the were all aligned. If you look at old houses, even a very formal facade arrangement is often not strictly symmetrical, and sometimes it is so subtle it is hard to pick up on, but it makes the facade pleasing. There is a book called "The Old Way of Seeing" which talks about things like this.

You've got a fun little puzzle here--
I read this just before going to bed last night...and then dreamt I was folding towels with you to see what would fit in 12" :))

Yes, if it works in the budget, you'll get the max space with a built-in opposed to free-standing; and I like your thought of continuing your vanity wood along the wall to the linen for visual flow and lengthening the room, as in your inspiration photo.

I've never had a problem with towels staying fresh when stored in bathrooms. We do have a button timer on our exhaust fan- so it runs for 30 minutes each shower. Though you have windows...consider a fan w/ timer if not planned already.

I agree with bumping into the stud area if feasible for an extra 2-3" of depth in linen area...even if you decide to use a stand-alone piece, setting it back (and eliminating baseboards there) when looking at options for 14" depth rather than 12".

Lightswitch / fan control- seems this would go on your right as you walk in...so plan for linen piece to allow for this access.

*Idea* Like your inspiration photo, picture the linen storage as a continuation of the vanity and in the same footprint as your drawing, but the linen cabinet rises to tall-dresser height (around chest height, 48"-54") with doors the same as your sink area and topped with the same counter material; above the linen counter, the vanity wood (or a mirror) is applied to the wall up to the ceiling (like in your photo). This allows the linen storage to span all the way to the entry wall, and the light switch would set just above the cabinet, next to the door.
These photos don't fit my input exactly...but in abstract ways I thought of your space when I flipped through my saved images, so included them in case they help you....

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I keep seeing any doors on the linen area bumping into the door to the bathroom. However, If you have open shelving where the door swing would otherwise interfere with the bathroom door and closed shelving on the other side, it could work.
As for linen storage in the bathroom, I don't find any musty odors in my towels, but my bathroom is bigger than yours will be and, when it's less humid outside than inside -- not like today ;-) --, I do open the windows in the bathroom.

I do like that you have two windows, but I forgot to ask a question about the one over the toilet. What is the windowsill height and do you plan to have a more or less permanent curtain or shutter/blind on the bottom of it?

I ask for this reason: men using a toilet to pee do so standing up, of course, and may be disconcerted to have a window opening low enough to be revealing. I wouldn't have thought of this, except my DH pointed it out to me when I was proposing some changes in our bathroom. We live far out in the sticks and though we have no curtains in the bathroom, our current bathroom arrangement doesn't present this problem. But when I was proposing movng the toilet closer to window it changed the geometry enough to make it an issue.

Am I reading the plan right that you will walk out of the bathroom to the open area of the stairs and then into your bedroom? So the bath is shared between the two bedrooms?

It looks as if you originally had the bath coming down a bit further. Honestly, it is hard to tell just from the drawings, but that would seem to make more sense, so that you have more entry, more floor space in the bathroom.

However, you might also consider, since it is a shared bathroom and linen storage, to take the linen space out of the bath, just extend the counter space a bit, have the door swing in to the right rather than against the shower, and put a linen closet on the end wall where the shower is, but with the doors opening out to the landing rather than in the bathroom proper. THat way the sheets and linens are accessible all the time rather than being limited by people being in the bathroom, and you could store cleaning supplies, a vacuum and other things in that space as well.

It appears as though the linen closet was originally just to the left of the bathroom door, out in the open balcony area of the second floor. For accessibility reasons, like Les said, I would find it preferable to have it there, instead of inside the bathroom. You will still need space to hang towel bars or hooks, and the only available area right now is behind the bath entry door, which would be cramped because both hooks or bar would impede the swing of the door.

A narrow countertop running along that wall, with narrow shelving underneath might be possible, but I would leave room above waist level for hanging towel storage, or heated towel bars.

Good suggestions all, and I'll discuss them with the GC and my husband.

The bathroom is a shared space (although since there's just the two of us and we rarely have overnight guests it's sort of a moot point). I know it sounds crazy to not have a "master" bathroom connected to the master bedroom, but, as you can see, the bedroom (labeled Bedroom 2) had to give up a lot of space for the bathroom and I didn't want to make our bedroom any smaller than it already is. Also, I prefer to have our bedroom on the south side of the house so I didn't want to switch to the other bedroom.

Nanny is right, you can see that originally the architect drew a linen closet outside the bathroom. We eliminated it because it took up too much of the area open to down below, which is one of our favorite features of the house.

Here's what the existing "hallway" looks like now. This would be looking from the bathroom area. Of course the dormer area you are looking at will be gone (we're raising the roof) so there will be additional height there. After the reno there will a wall there, which is the backside of the walk-in closet.

This is a tiny bit of the view into the living room from the upstairs hallway. You can probably understand why we didn't want to lose that open feel.

I was planning on putting a wall-mounted towel warmer on the wall next to the window (between the window and the toilet), although since multiple people have mentioned it, perhaps I should be considering moving that to where the linen area is (although that's a long way to reach for a towel when coming out of the shower).

Thanks again for your advice and opinions. I realize it's difficult to picture these things, especially when you're only seeing plans for the half of the house that's being renovated.

This is the existing house (looking at the south/front of the house):

And here are the south and east elevations for the renovation. Believe it or not this whole project started with having to remove those dormers because of a bad roof design. Hopefully this gives you a better big-picture view of what's happening. As always, your opinions are appreciated.

I am normally not an angle-y person, but if you angled the entry into the bathroom between the left jamb of the current opening and the top jamb of the bedroom #2 opening (roughly), and hinged on the right, you could have the doorswing into the bathroom against what I am assuming is the chimney. Then it would swing against blank wall instead of the linen cabinet or the shower.

wi-salorgirl~ thanks for posting the photos- the upper hall is dreamy among the open rafters- I really like all the textures playing together- the stucco, beaded wall planks, fireplace and on....and I thought of this photo copied in my "nice rooms" file...it's been around, you've probably seen it...but, just in case...

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