Put the sink and vanity on one wall facing the bathtub, a typical full bath layout vanity next to the door, and a toilet behind the vanity next to a window.

That said you have too many pocket doors in the wrong locations and why all these pockets doors is someone has a "pocket door phobia" :-)

The pocket door to the bathroom can have a regular door.

Not sure what's going on at the lower portion of the picture with the pocket door to the utility room but it looks like that door can be taken out and a reg door can be put on the opposite side of the utility room across from the bathroom to enclose laundry room area or there is room to enclose washer and dryer from the view if you don't want the door there.

It is no fun when the first comment gets it right.

LOL

If you think you'll still see the toilet at the better location, use a shade, curtain or raise the bottom of the window. Shades are available bottom up.

I agree with the new layout particularly from the view Inside from the door.

But really the least likely place to see the toilet itself from outside is if it is under the window, if the sill is high enough, because of sightlines. You will see the toilet in the upper right corner when you approach from the left more readily.

But the big question here is why will you be seeing it? The window will need to be covered with some type of treatment anyway or you will walk by and see someone using the toilet if the window is uncovered. Especially men who may actually be standing in front of the window sometimes.

I also agree about closing off the laundry room with a regular solid door, too, unless you want to hear the laundry going out in the living area. Not the end of the world but sometimes it might be annoying.

It sounded to me as if the OP was as concerned with seeing the toilet first thing from the inside of the house, rather than the view of someone using the toilet from the outside.

OP doesn't want to see the toilet front and center from inside ...

"after walking through the house in real time, I’m not too excited about looking into the bathroom every time I come home and seeing the toilet."

I don't think the OP is concerned with the view from outside, he doesn't want to see the toilet the minute he opens the door.

Another vote for NO pocket doors into hallway bathrooms.

Sure, but if you are going to use the back yard at all, the view from outside needs to be taken into account, and given the general squeamishness about people actually using the toilet in this forum, I am surprised that isn't getting addressed.

My parents had friends who lived out in the country, nothing but woods behind their house, and when you were using the pool, there was a great view of men standing in the window of the bathroom that looked over the pool and patio, and the sound effects were pretty good too.

Of course if you don't go in the backyard this may be a moot point.

Thanks for the comments! I like the first post layout - not sure why the obvious didn't hit us in the face. We'll have to see if our vanity idea will fit the space.

The three pocket doors are present so we can elect to close off the Utility room or not from the kitchen without always having to look at a door. The pocket door to the bathroom was placed to allow this to be open or closed without impinging on flow - wife's preference. The third door at the bottom of the screen is a pocket door that leads to a butler's pantry. The original plans had a solid wall here, meaning we'd have to walk into the kitchen and then into the buttler's pantry. This allows us direct access to the pantry with groceries, etc. and for us to close off for noise, if needed. All 3 pocket doors are solid core and should help reduce noise when we need and keep an open feel when we don't (i.e. tucked into the wall.).

The line of sight of the commode is not from the outside, but rather walking in from the garage into the kitchen via the utility/mud/laundry room. I'd rather see a nice vanity rather than a toilet :)

GN Builders L.L.C - 'someone has a pocket door phobia"

Fetish, not phobia. ;-)

And to the OP - If you are hoping the utility room will be some sort of drop zone - you should enter THROUGH it. We're a fundamentally lazy people...

Except for the bathroom, the pocket doors shown are perfect examples of their best use. Not often opened and closed, out of the way 90% of the time, and closeable when you want to keep company out of your utility spaces, or the puppy IN the utility spaces.

A swing door on the bathroom is a better choice, so it can be easily left half-closed. But But, um, why a tub there? To wash the puppy?

If that entryway bath gets a lot of use, I agree, I would rethink the pocket door. They really work better for lesser used doors. One of our bathrooms has a pocket door pretty much out of necessity and when people use that bathroom they tend to close the door to the entire room that bathroom is in rather than fiddle with the pocket door.

Also you have a large laundry area, but with no sink in it?

@bpath, the tub is in there as a space holder - these are not the final renderings. This space will have a tiled shower. I appreciate the input on the swing door. I agree with you and the other posters about this.

@just_janni, our entrance from the garage is directly into the utility room. We had no way to get directly into the butler's pantry from the garage :( Because of this, we opened the wall between the utility room and butler's pantry. However, the lockers in the utility room will serve as the major drop zone.

@palimpsest we didn't feel the need for a 3rd sink in this - area

The full bath has a sink

The butler's pantry has a sink

We felt it redundant to have a sink in 3 rooms in a row and the kitchen which is on the opposite wall. We debated for a long time, but felt if we really needed to wash something dirty, one of the other 2 sinks would be ok :)

I don't think you will want to wash or soak something dirty in a small vanity sink in a powder room, so I would think about making the butler's pantry sink big enough to possibly handle this. I did not think much about utility sinks until I lived in a condo and had to wash things in the bathtub.

Funny you say that. We’re living in a townhouse right now and often use the tub for lots of various things other than bathing. We sold our house with the intention of being finished with our build in 7-10 months which isn’t the case.

Move the door opening to the right. Do not bother going through plumbing changes. Easier to just move the door to open onto the vanity instead.

How are you venting the dryer?

Also you have a large laundry area, but with no sink in it?

I have never needed a sink in my laundry area. Nowadays everything that has spots gets sprayed first.

Move the door opening to the right. Do not bother going through plumbing changes. Easier to just move the door to open onto the vanity instead.

That was what I was going to suggest.

@cpartist the plan is to route down into the mechanical room directly under this area of the house and vent outside the house on the wall the bathroom is on

And how many feet will that hose have to run both vertically and horizontally. With a dryer vent you want the shortest distance to the exterior as possible. Much safer that way.

I have never needed a sink in my laundry area. Nowadays everything that has spots gets sprayed first.

I don't wash paint brushes, tools, empty buckets of dirty water, mops, the filters and canister for the vacuum cleaners, the litter box, stuff like that in the bathroom or kitchen sink. I don't soak the grates for my stove in the kitchen sink. The racks for the ovens don't fit in my kitchen sink and I don't want to scratch my bathtub.

I don't know, there may be yet another sink in the basement or garage in the OPs house, but often there isn't if there is a laundry room off the kitchen.

We lived in our present home for a year before noticing the pocket door; years before noticing two of them in our last home. Never used any of them.

A client insisted on pocket doors for the home I built them. For at least a year after, the trim carpenter was regularly servicing them. Similarly, none of the century homes we owned had working pocket doors.

" . . . close off the Utility room or not from the kitchen without always having to look at a door."

Consider purchasing better looking doors.

I appreciate all the input about our door decisions, but the spirit of the post was more centered around if anyone has experience with a bathroom mirror not directly associated with the sink. Meaning on a different wall than where the sink is.

The first poster offered a great and obvious solution, but I’m still curious if anyone has seen a mirror not with the sink AND it looked good.

Again, thanks for the advice

I don't wash paint brushes, tools, empty buckets of dirty water, mops, the filters and canister for the vacuum cleaners, the litter box, stuff like that in the bathroom or kitchen sink. I don't soak the grates for my stove in the kitchen sink. The racks for the ovens don't fit in my kitchen sink and I don't want to scratch my bathtub.

I don't know, there may be yet another sink in the basement or garage in the OPs house, but often there isn't if there is a laundry room off the kitchen.

That's called a slop sink. Usually one has that in the basement which I did in my last house, or in this house, it's in the garage.

The first poster offered a great and obvious solution, but I’m still curious if anyone has seen a mirror not with the sink AND it looked good.

I've seen it but it looked off kilter.

Jay, depend depending on that dryer exhaust run, you may want to install an inline Fantech laundry exhaust fan. They are a dream, and really speed up drying time. But. You must be able to access them for occasional cleaning, and need a standard electrical outlet, so you might want to plan for that now.

Re pocket doors, I absolutely love them. No clue why. My dream house would have nothing but. That said, I’d never actually had one until we bought our current home three years ago. Now we have four. Four SOLID OAK slabs. The double set between our gym-locker room were shot when we bought the house, and I plan eventually to rip one out and re-drywall. The ones in our master bath rumble a bit, but after 40+ years, do still work. But solid oak slabs were a very poor choice. My sister has a louvered one in her master bath, and it has worked a charm for 50 years, never needed a thing.

DH lived in a house with a window over the sink. It looked odd. Maybe we are all so used to seeing a mirror, not a window, there. OTOH, in my mom’s interior guest bath, the mirror is over the vanity to one side of the sink. It kind of makes sense. where someone might adjust their tie or makeup, doesn’t have to be over the sink. Above the sink is just the wallpaper (tone-on-tone, not too ”in your face”.)

Take your mirror down in your current bathroom for three months, and see if you make the three months.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CgjuzBeLbUD/?igshid=NTdlMDg3MTY=

Did you say the tub is a placeholder for a shower? Why a shower? (I think a tub with handheld showerhead would be useful there.)

Without a lengthy background explanation, we felt a shower here would better serve our needs over time.

@Jay Owen "We’re living in a townhouse right now and often use the tub for lots of various things other than bathing."

You are right, a bathtub can be used for many things other than bathing

But having a vanity without a mirror above I don't know about that...almost 40 years in business I never came across a vanity under a window or without a mirror above...

But as I say "to each their own".

Good luck

I design a lot of lake houses that are second (or third) homes. I half jokingly advise my clients to provide one bathtub in the home for the bathing of small children and the storage of their catch of fish for the day.

I once designed, per the request of my client, a master bedroom sink beneath a window with a mirror that slid in front of the window when wanted and to the side of the window when not wanted. Everyone lived happily ever after.

I think the best take away from all the responses is “everyone lived happily ever after”.

I appreciate all the comments and input. Also, the beer tub looks great!

Happy 2023