wowed, I agree with your response, and it's interesting to me. I would want at least sound, if not visual, separation, between a lavatory/dressing area and a bedroom. It's interesting to compare the bedroom/lavatory area/toilet and bath area layers to a palace set up: the anteroom, the throne room (no pun intended) and then private quarters. In the same way, access and function are layered. I think most users would agree this sort of layering is a good thing. Contrast this to the evolution of design of the kitchen/dining/family room area of a house. For me, sound separation of activities (eg., tv watching vs. a conversation in a dining room, or relaxing in the family room without the din of dish stacking) or visual separation (chatting with guests in the dining room while not worrying about how the busy food prep area looks) or even olfactory separation (reading a book in the family room while onions are sliced and sauteed in the kitchen). The grand, open flowing floorplan for these areas is popular, but for me, I prefer a little segregation, especially as the number of users and potential simultaneous uses goes up. Seems to me, as the average household size has shrunk and more people are living in a house of only 2 or 3 people, sure, the open floor plan can work. But for now at least, I want a little bit of separation of activities, and I like my "antiquated" floor plan, with separate kitchen, dining room, family room (tv) and living room (piano). A tv and piano in the same room would be a nuisance for us. So I guess on a more micro level, I'm looking to separate activities in the bathroom. But I agree, if in the process of pulling them apart and relocating them, I mix grooming and sleeping, well, yes, that would be a disastrous unintended consequence! responding to another post, I don't know why that link didn't work, here is the direct url: http://www.farrow-ball.com/Company/FBStyles.aspx?language=en-GB&style=5

Many thanks to everybody who answered, you have all been very helpful in clarifying my very muddled thoughts. Here is a hopefully clearer description of the situation: The house is a 50's ranch style, with 3 bedrooms and a hall bath (4.5x8.5 ft) clustered on one side of the house, and the kitchen, office/den and another hall bath (4x9 ft) on the other side of the house, with a great room in the middle. We plan to stay in this house as long as we can, but we are in this city for my husband's work, and if something happens (although unlikely with his kind of job), we know we'll have to move somewhere else; therefore, we'd like to make updates to the house while keeping resale in mind. Our (excellent) realtor said that for resale we should have an ensuite. After reading the comments, I have to clarify with him if he thinks a lack of ensuite will narrow down the market significantly, or if we 'simply' would not get the best price for the house. Most houses in the area are old (in the whole city actually), and we saw plenty without ensuites. We saw two of the neighbors' houses, and they did not have ensuites. This is what we considered: 1. Redo the bathrooms with the existing footprint (not that we have room to change anything inside), but we can go far into making them pretty, 2. Add a door from the master bedroom to the hall bath next to it, and close access from the hall. This I think would be a bad idea, not only because the people in the other two bedrooms will have to go across the house to the other bathroom, but also because the master bedroom will end up with windows on two walls, three closets on another, and two doors on the fourth side. Not restful. 3. Add another bathroom next to the master bedroom where the closets are, with one closet door transformed into a bathroom door. This bathroom would be 4.5x12 ft, although it could go to 5x12 if need be (but no more, because we'll hit a big window), which will have a shower but no bathtub. We talked to a professional who said it will fit fine with the caveat that the toilet will likely be the first thing you see in front of the door because of the current clearance requirements. 4. Build an addition. This again I think would be a very bad idea, since it would be blindingly expensive and the house is already on the higher side of square footage for the surrounding area. We will of course fix everything that is broken. The interior doors are the original 50s doors, hollow core dark wood look with lots of scuffs and holes, and they were cut short to fit the now non-existent carpet, so I would qualify changing them as fixing what is broken (and they bug me every time I look at them... ). The windows are a perk; we are still divided on those. I tend toward option 1, while my husband is going for option 3, although he agrees we do not need another bathroom. The reason I feel ill equipped to make this decision is that I'm originally from Europe, and even after so many years here I feel mildly perplexed about the North American love affair with bathrooms. Our previous rental was built in the last ten years and had a huge ensuite which I didn't like. I found it hard to keep as clean as I thought it should be, and it was so large I felt as if I was doing my business in public. Given the bathroom pictures on Houzz, I'm clearly in a minority. Your comments help ensure that I don't miss anything that might otherwise be obvious, so thanks again. And extra thanks to whoever makes it to the end of this post...

" light grout that is impossible to keep clean " A bath used by males is best with epoxy grout. The Pro tiler needs to have experience using this type of grout. I have it in my baths...it is impervious to any stain / dirt.

A few thoughts: - We wanted a black curb and pony wall top but could not find anyone to do it for a reasonable cost. Black on its own is available in 6" widths at Floor & Decor type stores, but not with matching vanity, and that was too wide for our curb and wall. We gave up in the end and did the vanity and curb/top separately in white marble-look quartz and actual marble, respectively. If you are doing multiple bathrooms, though (I think you are?) you can work with a fabricator for that and use materials for multiple baths, so I would try to coordinate the vanity/curb materials (if not the surrounding aesthetic). - I would do a neutral colored vanity with popping red accents rather than a red vanity. Less to change later and I think you could get a lot of red in there with knobs, accents, wall color, etc. without committing full-on to a custom red vanity. - At GC and tiler's rec, did not tile the front of the pony wall--but we also didn't wrap the tile onto the wall, and it makes sense to if you are going to do that. It you have a good tilesetter, he/she should be able to miter cut the edges to wrap the corner cleanly, and I'd personally prefer that look. Depending on the tile you choose, they may also make trim pieces designed for outside corners. I like your tile, but it's going to make for a very dark room. I actually really like the variegated blue tile in your rendering--I wonder if you could find something like that to introduce a little variation? If not, I would only take the blue partway up the wall and would then switch to a lighter color from that tile line to go the rest of the way to the ceiling in the shower. -Niche on the tall side wall or else on the shower head wall.