I'm not sure I'll be much help, since ours isn't quite finished and fully operational yet. It sounds like what we're doing, but I don't have the washer and dryer for that room yet (our main laundry is upstairs), and we're just putting the craft/sewing area together. I can show you renderings of what it will look like finished. It's such a mess right now. We only have the counters and lower cabinets in place, but we sewed on them for Christmas projects and it seemed to work really well. (each corner serves as a sewing station...one for me with sewing-embroidery machine and serger, and one for the kids' machine) I only seem to have a floorplan already on photobucket and I'm at the wrong computer to add others, so I will have to do that later. In the meanwhile, here's the floorplan of the room. The kitchen is off to the right. The door on the left goes outside onto our side porch.

I am a builder: In June of 2009 we received shipment of interior MDF doors from Holzkraft. The doors arrived pre-primed from the manufacturer. Being a LEED project, zero VOC latex paints were used. The painter lightly sanded the pre-primed doors, used a tack cloth to remove any loose paint and applied a Benjamin Moore paint, Eco Spec. product directly to the door. The paint did not stick to the door and could easily be removed with a light scratch. We called the paint store who lined up an on-site meeting with the Eco Spec. representative who confirmed the techniques being used by the painter were part of the correct process for his product. He suggested we use a primer to go over the manufacturers primer. The painter then primed all the doors before applying the final coat. The finish paint adhered to the new primer. Two years later the homeowner has noticed several areas were the paint has been removed with the least amount of effort. The confusing part of the equation is the painter used the same process on the MDF baseboards and casing through out the house and the home owner is seeing no signs of problems. I am in the process of hiring a surface engineer who has assured me that his firm will find the problem. I will post the results.

I think the answer on the Remodeling Forum explained it well. The cleat is just distributing the weight so that the bracket doesn't sink into the drywall. The horizontal piece of wood prevents the shelf from sagging and also provides the main attachment for the bracket. Since the horizontal piece of wood is attached to studs as it goes across the wall, that makes it well secured. The bracket creates a small amount of downward 'pull' on the shelf but the horizontal wood and the cleat are carrying the majority of the weight.......especially the screw in the keyhole slot. If your hanging rod is going to be holding a lot of weight then attaching to a stud would be ideal. DS had a storage closet that had a huge amount of stuff on the shelf and the rod was packed with clothes. The whole thing came crashing down one night..............

My first collection of comments are related to your revised drawing/plan: As I look at your revised drawing it doesn't look square. You state that the room is 6x6. But even so I think you will only get about 19-20" between vanity and toilet. Unless you got an 18" vanity, which is what I did in my East Bathroom that is 6.5' wide. If you remove the chimney you could put a window there. I've placed a small window in my West Bathroom, that previously was lacking one, and I love it. In my West Bathroom (I show in the last set of pics) I have a cast iron Kohler shower pan that is 36x60", with glass doors (French). I could see you doing something like that in your room. The curb is about 2" finished floor. Easy to get in and out of. The cast iron is a dream to maintain. Even better might be using a 36x48" pan then have 18" to one side for storage, as you can see in East Bathroom pictures, to the left of the tub. The storage could be in the form of pullouts like a pantry, or cabinets with pullouts like mine. They would be deep, so the pullouts would be very helpful for access. If you did cabinets, the lower drawers wouldn't be as deep, to allow for the toilet. The upper ones could be deeper. The plumbing could be housed in that pocket too. I like the idea of moving that closet wall to give you the width you need for the toilet and vanity. My East Bathroom; to demonstrate 6.5' wide room with 27" toilet round bowl, with 18" vanity. The floor tiles are 6x12 to help with floor scale. The pull outs at the tub are not as deep as the 30" tub, due to the toilet in the way, but are great for storage. roughing in: the pullouts, the plumbing is in there too and you can just sort of see the wall mounted tub fixtures. the pullouts come out as far as that door, just to the toilet tank: This toilet is the Toto Promenade in the round bowl. I love this toilet and would recommend it. But I love Nancy's idea of the wall mounted toilet with the tank in the wall. I have a Bidet on it now as you can just slightly see by the toilet lid in the pic above): These second comments relate to the plan where the chimney stays in place: I like the idea of expanding the shower. Here, a Kohler pan 36x48" could work well. One thing I did in my West Bathroom was a long wall niche that allows for a bit more elbow room. Its the only thing I like about having a niche, because they can get bogged down with products and trap water on the shelf, causing mold. I wipe down my shower daily following the showers. Last one to shower gets the honors. Its a quick wipe down of all walls and glass. Floor gets a clean every couple months, if that, depending on the shower load. I haven't had to "clean" my shower in 4 years, because of my daily habit (that I never had before). So glad I adopted this habit, I did not want the ugly mess that my old acrylic shower/tub combo had become. Since your wall is not an out side wall you could put a niche there. I only place 2 bottles of product on that shelf, lol. Any extra go in a basket that sits on the shower floor at the far end. I have a nice clinical shower stool in there too, with a gray seat that matches the floor. Nice to sit once in a while to let the rain shower head run on me. Having your toilet move down into the new expansion would be great. If you could move the wall 18" you could have that left wall become a wall with shallow built in 15" cabinets. Maybe a even a pass through into the closet for some things. It could even have a counter and uppers sort of like a kitchen. My West Bathroom; 5' shower space, with grab bar, niche, Hansgrohe rain shower head and hand held, and Fantech brand exhaust fan with light on the ceiling. The motor is in the attic and split into two locations in the bathroom, on at the shower and the other at the toilet: French doors, allow me to open the whole thing if needed, but I just use one normally: Kohler shower pan, in remodel process. This one has a center drain: Don't forget the exhaust fan, and a gap under your door to allow for make-up air to enter the room so the fan can work at evaluating the moist shower air. Click any photo for enlargement and full view.