I doing the same, trying to enlarge my bathroom and closet for my tiny en suite. Just wonder why you want 2 doors from your bedroom? if you have arch opening from bathroom to closet, why bother to have another door? in my plane I will make a door to Toilet and shower ares ( I don't have room for tub, so the sink is open to walk-in closet, kind like make it dressing area. If you have space, it is better to have closed WC, if one person using toilet another one still can use sink and closet. I hope you have this figured out soon. Good luck

I doing the same, trying to enlarge my bathroom and closet for my tiny en suite. Just wonder why you want 2 doors from your bedroom? if you have arch opening from bathroom to closet, why bother to have another door? in my plane I will make a door to Toilet and shower ares ( I don't have room for tub, so the sink is open to walk-in closet, kind like make it dressing area. If you have space, it is better to have closed WC, if one person using toilet another one still can use sink and closet. I hope you have this figured out soon. Good luck

IRL, I don't think you'll get your recessed mirrors/cabinets above the sinks as shown because that wall will need to have plumbing venting, and power. The venting, in particular, will likely mess up your plan for recessed cabinets ( or you'd need to have a very understanding, clear discussion with your plumber and pay more $$ to get it done out of the way.

I also don't see the reason to have 2 doors from bedroom to bathroom. Just one--through closet--would be sufficient if you don't plan to close off the opening between closet and bathroom with a door.

Thanks for the advice, kirkhall. Sometimes I'm so about the design, I forget what is actually doable, lol. I think I could probably nix the recessed cabinets, since there's plenty of storage in the liner towers and vanities, and just use wall mirrors.

As I said in my reply to liveinseattle's comment, I like the two doors. If this were my bathroom, I would want quick access to the bathroom in the morning, but also be able to access the closet WITHOUT going through the bathroom if it was occupied x

Upon the advice I have been given so far, I've made a few minor alterations to the plan. I removed the recessed cabinets in the bathroom to ensure they do not interfere with the plumbing. Also, I removed the door from the bedroom to the closet, and added another storage bench, because I like the symmetry and it emphasizes the his and her's sides. I prefer it with the door, but what do you think? x

I like alot of what you've done, including the space and the symmetry, but I have a couple of thoughts if this were being considered IRL...

The towel warmer is too far from the shower door to easily reach after a shower, when you'd really appreciate the luxury of a warm towel.

Love the two-sided fireplace but I wouldn't bother with a towel bar above (too high and hard to reach from the tub). Instead, I'd roll some towels up and put them in a beautiful large basket on your tub bench at the other end.

I've seen pictures of arched doorways between bathrooms and dressing areas and they do look nice but personally I'd eliminate that doorway entirely for a couple of reasons. First, the lack of privacy using the toilet while someone was in the closet would bother me. Second, 48" vanities seem a little small considering how huge the room is. I would bring the makeup vanity into the bathroom, perhaps as the center between your current vanities. Obviously, that would result in having to go back into the bedroom to access the dressing area, something which you may be trying to avoid. Unless I had a beautiful closet system, I don't think I'd like to apply my make-up surrounded by my hanging clothes. Of course, if my closet were that large, it might have an entirely different feel than my disorganized overstuffed racks!

Very nice design overall! Can you tell me more about Paint? I like what you were able to illustrate with it.

My comments were related to your first version.

Looking at #2, my same comments apply, I guess. I can see the advantages to having access from the bathroom to the closet but I wouldn't prioritize it high enough for the trade-offs if I were building this as my dream home.

This post was edited by treasuretheday on Fri, Jan 25, 13 at 7:58

Treasuretheday - thanks for the comments. I agree about the towel bar placement above the fireplace, was thinking that would be used for decorative towels more than anything, but the basket on the tub deck sounds nicer. As for the towel warmer, I agree that it is quite far away from everything, but couldn't find anywhere else to put it lol.

As for the doors, I like being able to go straight through to the closet from the bathroom, so that if you are getting ready whilst someone else is still sleeping, you do not have to disturb them.

I felt like the vanities were a good size, and that any bigger and it would just be wasted space, especially with all the storage (wouldn't need lots of clutter on the counters) and with the make-up vanity (wouldn't need to use the vanity for those activities, just washing hands, brushing teeth, shaving (for men) etc)

With a closet this size, the closet would be very organised, and I'd probably have glass doors on the closets to protect the clothes but still be able to see them.

As for using Paint, I like to use it because I can scale everything correctly, and design any shape or size I want. To create the grid, I use large squares and split them into 1, 3 and 6 inch increments using different shades of grey to differentiate, then it's just a case of drawing the fixtures to scale in reference to the grid. I usually start small scale, using small squares, but you don't get much detail, so once I have the basic design, I scale up using bigger squares to get more detail. Hope that made sense x

I hated our master closet where the only access was through the bathroom. More likely to get a little steamy, even with a fan and it just seems awkward to me. I preferred our last house that had the master closet with door from the master bdrm and separate door to bathroom. To me, it just seemed to make more sense.

I also have kids who liked to use the soaking tub and they were teens who needed privacy so in the house with the bathroom access, if a teen was using my bathroom then I was cut off from my closet.

It really comes down to what you are most comfortable with and what works for you, there is no right or wrong decision.

Thanks, Laura, I totally agree, that's why I wanted all the doors, even if it does make laying out the bedroom more difficult x

I completely agree about having an access from the bath to the closet. Ours is that way and find it a good setup for getting ready without disturbing my sleeping DH. Thinking about how we use our setup, there are many times I'm in the bathroom and my DH needs to enter the closet. Our toilet and shower are in a ponywalled alcove and out of view of the "common area". If this was not the case and we couldn't have privacy while conducting our "business", I would want a seperate entrance into the closet. Seeing your purposed layout, I would rather have the 2 seperate entrances or the only entrance to be in the closet. It looks as if you have plenty of room in the closet, so I'm not sure what the negative feedback about the 2 seperate entrances is about, seems very functional to me.

In regards to the towel warmer, I was thinking the same thing about it being too far away. Using your current layout, I was thinking you could make the glass shower wall between the shower door and the tub a solid wall, perhaps tiled with accent tile like a feature wall, then you could install the towel warmer there. The door and wall that divides the shower and tub area could stay glass to keep the open feeling. I've seen this type of thing before, wish I could find the picture now! Hope the desciption was clear enough...just my 2 cents :-)

Not having found the photo I was thinking of to illustrate the idea for shower area, I found one that LOOSELY resembles what I was thinking of. I have circled the part of the picture I am referring to. It could be anywhere from a 1/2 wall to a full wall.

This post was edited by abfabamy on Fri, Jan 25, 13 at 12:16

I guess if it were me, and took your priority to have a door between the closet and bath, the door I would have eliminated would have been the mbr-bath door, not the closet door.

If I were doing it for me though, I would get rid of the bath-closet door. For me, I can walk softly between the bathroom door and closet door not to disturb my DH. But, then again, I am one who likes WCs. Ha!

Another way to "solve" the issue I am having (with privacy) would be this:

Move one vanity over to the outside wall, and door off your toilet/1 vanity area (this solves your condition of needing a sink in the same room as the toilet). This gets privacy to the toilet area. Then, you can get to the closet however you want when whomever is using the loo.

I like your idea, abfabamy, but would definitely make it a 2x4 half-wall topped with glass, with a small towel warmer, to keep as much openness as possible (all other walls are 2x6 because 1) more room for plumbing/insulation/etc and 2) it's easier to draw that way lol).

I'm glad you agree about the doors too, I think they're all functional and make getting ready much easier because you can go straight from the bed to the bathroom (if you're like me and need to "relieve yourself" first thing in the morning), then into the closet and back out into the bedroom in the least convoluted way, saving time and not disturbing anyone.

So, here's an updated version taking into consideration those things x

I really like that layout. What is the faucet wall of the shower made of, glass? If so, how does the plumbing hookup go, Is it some sort of solid tower with glass on both sides? Can you explain that wall better to me?

It appears that it is a tower with glass on either side. If this is the case, maybe you would consider making the wall on the right side of the rain tower (as you face it) solid so that you are not staring into the side/behind the toilet, not a great view anyway. I would leave the left side of the tower glass to catch the light from the window. Or, in keeping with the changes, make that wall a 1/2 wall on either side of the tower, thus giving the toilet area a little more privacy but still let in the light across the whole wall.

Abfabamy, yeah that's a tower with glass either side. The inspiration for this design was actually taken from this bathroom. http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/6334654/thumbs/Gorgeous-Bathrooms-
(Ignore the first four pictures [they're from another bathroom] and see the last picture for the shower). I was trying to replicate that design, with a few changes to suit my personal tastes. I could do a half wall, but was trying to keep as much glass as possible, as I much prefer that look. I think there's enough privacy for the toilet behind the tower, and I doubt two people would be using the toilet and shower at the same time. I dunno, it's getting late here, so I'll fiddle around with the design some more tomorrow, see what I can come up with. Thanks x

Abfabamy, yeah that's a tower with glass either side. The inspiration for this design was actually taken from this bathroom. http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/6334654/thumbs/Gorgeous-Bathrooms-
(Ignore the first four pictures [they're from another bathroom] and see the last picture for the shower). I was trying to replicate that design, with a few changes to suit my personal tastes. I could do a half wall, but was trying to keep as much glass as possible, as I much prefer that look. I think there's enough privacy for the toilet behind the tower, and I doubt two people would be using the toilet and shower at the same time. I dunno, it's getting late here, so I'll fiddle around with the design some more tomorrow, see what I can come up with. Thanks x

Your design is very close to mine for my next house. I have the water closet in my design, as I do in my current house. No need to even close the door to it and 'touch' it, if you're the only one around... I do not have the door between the bathroom and the closet, both doors go to a hall type area, which has one door to the bedroom. That way I have a dressing area, only one door to close off the noise from me so my dh can sleep, and my closet space and counter space have increased. I can go back and forth between the rooms as needed, have a chair or my jewelry chest at either end of the 'hallway' area, have hooks for things like a zip up sweat shirt, that my dh wears daily. Sorry for the crappy pic, just tried to mock one up for you to see.

Thanks back2nd. I like the look of yours, and it obviously works for you, but I feel like the hallway would be wasted space for me, which I hate. Thanks for showing it me though, nice to see other peoples designs and ideas x

After a bit of fiddling around, I found that I didn't like the half wall idea, so off to Google I went, and found that you could get free-standing towel warmers, so thought that would be better, and placed it near the shower and bathtub so you could reach a warm towel easily. Only problem is I think they need to be near a socket to be plugged in, so I don't know how that would work, but it certainly looks better than the half wall. Does anybody know how they work? x

Yes, they do plug in at the bottom of the rack. Do you plan on leaving it in this location always? Perhaps you could place an outlet in the tub surround skirt.

That sounds like a great idea, abfabamy. I probably wouldn't move it, because it can be accessed from the shower and tub and that's all you really need it for. I think this final layout is a good one, I'm very happy with it! Thanks everyone for the feedback :) x

This is not 7' x 13' . Your floorplan is 9' x 15'. Doesn't help me.