I like the idea of a large wall to wall shower with glass doors, then a free standing tub in front of it. But....I'd have to see the layout of the walls to design anything. I'd not put a bathtub inside of a shower stall if that's the thought here....

It doesn't appeals to me, but I can see doing it in a long narrow bathroom in order to have both a full size shower and a tub. That's clearly not what's going on in most of the spaces that have that arrangement however.

WASTE OF SPACE these separate spa soaker tubs then a shower enclosure too. Wipe out a tub every day?!! WHY?? If you don't bathe why would you put a tub in? Resale lore says every home should have one bathtub. It's a thing. Every bathroom HECK NO!!

"every home should have one bathtub"

I believe that too, mostly because even a single adult might need to soak some body part(s) someday, and in my case, that will have to be in the master bathroom. But because I rarely use it (and because I'm getting older), I want a separate walk-in shower. Right now, my tub is holding my drying rack (for non-dryer-friendly things).

Agree with chispa 2000%

It sounds like a poor idea. You ought to think long and hard before doing something that unconventional, and I'd hope that at the end of the thinking period, you decide against it.

The trend in my area is to take out bathtubs, so long as a home has at least one. We did that when redoing our master bathroom and the added space is much more useful (and the house still has two other tubs). I can't help but expect that a prospective buyer would see it as a negative.

We have 3 full bathrooms in our home. The downstairs bath has a tub with a shower head and a fabric shower curtain. The other 2 only have showers. We need our tub for more reasons than just bathing ourselves. We have 2 dogs and sometimes have to hose them down in it. We have a well, and when we lose power we have no water. We fill our tub so we have one flushable toilet when storms are predicted. I also put a drying rack in it when I have fabrics that need to drip dry since the laundry is in the downstairs bath. I haven't soaked myself in a tub in over 25 years.

I wouldn't put the tub in the shower enclosure. It's a lot easier to rinse out a seldom-used tub from time to time than trying to manage a constantly damp but still seldom-used one. That's assuming you actually want a tub. I'm not convinced every home has to have a tub. Big homes for families, yes; one or two bedroom units or apartments, not so much.

I agree with the above about placing the tub within the shower. That is a cleaning nightmare. We have one tub. Used very very rarely.

It sounds like it's some designer's idea of being fashion forward, or something, with limited actual utility (though I can see the benefits for a long narrow bathroom, as Moxie pointed out). I'm glad to know I'm not missing some benefits of some great new arrangement.

I have seen too many "designer's ideas" that resulted in some of the dumbest, most bone-headed things I've seen in houses. More in kitchens than in bathrooms but in both.

Since we moved to Florida we downsized, the house we bought has three bathrooms with one bathtub. This bathroom serves the other two bathrooms. The master bath has a shower.

I wanted to remove the bathtub serving the other bedrooms but our realtor said it would make the house harder to sell if it did not have at least one tub. If a potential buyer had small children, they'd need a tub.

Since the only people using the guest bedrooms are adults, they hate taking a shower in a tub. I do too.

I'm tempted to remove the tub and put in a nice shower. I'm still on the fence.

Jane

The absence of a tub would make a home unattractive to families with little kids - I suspect that's what the standard advice is that every home needs at least one. If the home is in a senior retirement development, then it wouldn't matter.

"We fill our tub so we have one flushable toilet when storms are predicted."

An added bonus I hadn't thought of, but it's a good one. I'll remember it at my cottage, where I am also on a well.

You mean something like this?

We live where it's cold much of the year so I want a smaller shower stall which the hot running water can heat up nicely for me. I think a larger space that accommodates a tub too looks colder and draftier.

I think the 'wet room' is a dumb idea, even worse when it includes sink and toilet. I don't spend hours IN a bathroom, and I wouldn't want to double that time with cleaning. Like Annie, I want a space small enough to stay warm and draft-free when I'm wet. I do like a bath, and have a jet tub 'just my size'. Our 3 X 5 shower has a frameless glass door and one half-wall of glass. We have hot water in six seconds at every faucet thanks to the recirculating pump on the hot water lines. My 'needs' in a shower are enough elbow room and one adjustable-intensity spray handle on an up/down rod (for bathing and ease in cleaning).

Yes to a handheld, and yes to a seat in the shower. My favorite thing in the bathroom though is the heated towel bar. Nothing so wonderful as wrapping in a warm towel when you get out of the shower.

Annie: That photo is dreadful. No amount of nice tile could save that.

The original European idea of the wetroom is a solution for a small space, and in my experience (limited to England) was that the shower and the *toilet were in the same room and the toilet kinda sorta could be shielded by a part of the shower curtain. There was no sink in that space, and then my room had a sink in it.

With a wetroom large enough to keep the tub from getting wet all the time it subverts the original idea and turns it into a gimmick. In addition, a shower system as large as Annie shows often requires it's own hot water system and pressure system. One of my client's ex-husband had wanted the giant shower with all sorts of sprays and such and with the standard hot water heater a hot shower lasted about 5 minutes and all the sprays could not be used without a pressure system added.

Fast forward several years after they got divorced and she sold the big house bought a small house down the street, one day the entire back wall of the shower started to collapse because it was not waterproofed properly and there was a 6'x6' area on the back of the house corresponding to the shower that started falling into the yard.

Another vote for a dumb idea. You either take a shower or a bath, not both at the same time. And I don't want to think about the amount of work to wipe it down every time like we do with the shower now.

I use to take long soaking baths but can't get in and out of the tub any more. We have a shower in the same room on the opposite wall. I use that with a hand held shower head and shower chair. It is a corner shower with glass walls. I wish it was bigger like some of those wet rooms. I have this fear of losing my balance and crashing through the the glass panels.

We have two bathtubs with showers in Los Angeles, but in Cathedral City (Palm Springs area), we got rid of both bathtubs and put in nice walk-in showers. If someone wants to soak a body part, they can do it in the spa, just outside the master bedroom. My real estate agent said that no one takes baths in Palm Springs (probably an exaggeration) and our neighborhood has mostly retired residents - therefore no children to bathe. For resale (which won't happen any time soon), I think that buyers without children will have larger budgets than those with children and will also appreciate the spacious walk-in showers.

Bathroom mirrors never get fogged up here because the air is so dry, but that also makes it difficult to shave.

I'm fine not having bathtubs here - I get too hot here in a bathtub, and I tend to keep the A/C set to 75-76°F. We require very little heat in the winter, although it does get cool in the mornings.

I would never put a tub in a shower enclosure, for reasons already stated.

I have one bathtub in each house I own. The grandchildren use them exclusively. I don't like the en suite setup in one home but some guests ask for it exclusively. It doesn't matter to me, DH and I have our own primary suites in each house for ourselves so the guests are welcome to bathe however they wish and the cleaning service is very good about keeping it all sparkling clean for us.

I was reading a little more about this idea (because I'm curious about why this is a thing), and I think it comes from Japan, where the shower and tub are in the same room, but for very different reasons -- the tub is used just for soaking (no soap, shampoo, etc), and the shower is used for cleaning before you get into the tub (or even if you don't get into the tub). That makes more sense to me, using it like the spa Lars said is available outside his Master Bathroom.

We lived in Tokyo for a few years, and although we had a large western style apartment one of the bathroom was a wet room with a tub and shower. The room was like a whole waterproofed pod made out of composite materials. The door had water proof seal. You could basically hose the whole room down. This was the bathroom closes to the kids rooms and they loved it ... they had overflowing bubble baths and bubble bath fights and it was all contained in this waterproof pod. I also had a daily housekeeper while we were there, so I didn't have to clean that whole "room" either! I think most wet rooms there were more utilitarian than the interpretations you see on Houzz.

10 years ago we added an addition to the house to include a full bathroom. I'm not a tub guy either so I decided to install a 10 jetted personal jacuzzi tub with a shower overhead. I use that jetted tub at least once a week and so glad I have it now, esp after a laborious day outside. In fact I just used it, it's a pleasant change from just standing in the shower. Once I'm done jacuzzing I then switch over to shower mode to wrap it up..

Two ideas presented here are silly but one I agree with. The draft is definitely a concern. However, from experience I know it is not necessary to wipe down a tub that is positioned in a shower room every time the shower is used. Secondly, this is not a newfangled idea. I had a shower room in my last condo (2004-2012). In this particular wet room, one stepped through the double-headed shower (7' x 6') to get to a raised platform with an alcove tub. Even though it was a traditional acrylic tub, it was a zen experience with lighting, music, and a view of the river. I cleaned the tub after use & weekly, but not if I was just showering. I sqeegeed the shower's glass wall and door after each use. When I sold the condo, the view and the master bath 'sold' the condo.

I'm planning a shower room in my current renovation. The space is 9' x 7', on the second-floor w/a window looking onto the Master bedroom's porch (11' x 17'). This is still a work in progress but you can see the current Master bedroom plan below. There are two bedrooms on the north side with a jack n jill.

My spouse and I have very different daily routines bc of work and how we spend leisure time; thus the bath/closet space is compartmentalized from the Primary Bedrm.

All comments appreciated!