Goodness, it looks a lot like my vanity in my bathroom, except mine has a sink.

First and foremost, before you spend money on this, you need to decide if you just want to redo this and make a bigger MBA.

If you don't, then I have a few thoughts. One, if you have mirror it should cover the whole area IMHO. Two,how much room do you have to put cabinets in the walls, to the right and left? That's what I have.

Were it mine, I would want to incorporate the area into a full renovation that resulted in a larger bathroom with a soaking tub that I could enjoy using every day. However, I admit that I've never liked those alcoves. They serve no useful purpose for my lifestyle because I put on my make-up standing at the sink.

Of course, you should do whatever makes most sense for your lifestyle. For instance, I've seen those alcoves turned into a wet bar with a wine refrigerator and/or a coffee maker. I can see the space acting as a desk with a laptop for early morning stock trading or if you could move the baseboard heating forward, you could build in a dresser and linen storage.

For resale I think some potential buyers would want a tub in the master bath. There was another discussion about this not too long ago.

I think if I were just going to do something with the alcove, I would have the mirror go all the way across the back. In the center on top of the counter I would put a set of narrow, shallow drawers to hold makeup and lotions to free up the counter space. On one side of these drawers I would put in a small sink. The other side I would use as a vanity. I'd put in some base cabinets too that wouldn't interfere with the vanity chair.

If you are seriously considering a bathroom redo, then I would hesitate to do much here, as I would see this area, the linen closet and the existing bath becoming one area.

However, if you are happy with the bath for your purposes, and not really interested in changing things, then I think you need to consider how YOU would like to use the area.

First, do you need the baseboard heat in that area? If not, I believe it could be disconnected. That would solve the issue with installing cabinetry.

I would not try to create a symmetrical design here. I would run cabintry above and below (assuming the heat could go) on the left side that would take up about 1/3 of the width. I would be inclined to either match the cabinetry in the bathroom area, or do white paneled cabinets to compliment the doors in the area.

There could be a built in space for a coffeemaker/wine area at counter level as a part of that tower of cabinets. You would lose the light on the left side of the soffit, but then add under-cabinet lighting instead for the counter space.

The upper cabinets could be lighted with glass doors for a lighter feel, or solid doors. There could be drawers on the lower cabinet.

To the right, I would then just have counter space with seating, and a great light fixture centered over the new counter area. I would frame out the mirror to match the cabinetry.

Those areas are common in homes in my neighborhood, although I didn't get one. :(

Going through open houses I always think what I'd do, which is usually add space to the MBath. But I wouldn't add a big tub. Those are not so desired today. Big walk in showers are. Certainly two sinks.

The other thing that I mentally designed was a bench seating area for dressing. In one home they had this tiny room off the master bedroom that backed up to the closet. The closet doors were in the BR taking up wall space where a bureau could go. I would have flipped the closet doors into the alcove side, added a narrow bench and sofa table, and had a real dressing area.

BUT.. I also saved a couple heater cover pics that you might want to see. Let me find them and I'll put them up in another post.

I think those areas have many possibilities!

Found them. :)
Now I know these are DR areas!
And yes, they are covering radiators.
But it's the *idea* that you can build something along such a wall.

Granite shelf over heater.

Full cabs on either side heater

Of course it involves a carpenter, but I've found them to be less $ than one might think.

HTH!

I didn't read all of the replies but I thought of two suggestions...1. Put plumbing in and add a sink...if the plumbing isn't too far away. That way you have his and her sinks...2. Take out the vanity and put in a lower bench/seat (sort of like a window seat) to be used for sitting down and putting on your clothes. If you wanted to put a window in, then I guess you could.

I would wait to re-do the entire area in a major bathroom renovation or Phase Two. Basically save your funds for the major changes or extras like hardware updates. Consider a large walk-in shower, two sinks/vanities with two mirrors and a tall cabinet between them. Perhaps add a large linen cabinet? Just some quick thoughts!

BUT -- some ideas for this area -- just for NOW.
A)Vanity Area Redo:

Knock out current configuration -- and simply buy a pretty antique desk/vanity with a large triple folding mirror to slide into that area. Add pretty pendant lamps. Add pretty stool/chair. Add small artworks on side walls.

B)Additional Storage Area:

Knock out current configuration -- including the heater. Head over to Ikea and buy bookcases with glass doors to fit the exact area. Or buy one of their wardrobes or armoires.

c)Additional Storage:

Knock out current configuration including heater. Add large antique armoire. Add coffee/station inside armoire.

Just some thoughts -- hope you don't mind!

Now you can see why this has taken me 10 years to get to this stage. I'm torn between adding this area onto my bathroom, expanding it.

On one hand, I'm sure it would make this bathroom more desirable for future buyers (I have no plans to go anywhere for some time yet), however, I wouldn't use a bathtub, which this new layout would sort of have to have because of its size. I do have one tub (and dual sinks) in the hallway bathroom - just down the hall.

I've thought about changing the dressing area vanity into twin sinks, but I'm not sure the plumbing would be easy at this point. Right below the area is my newly done (as of last year) kitchen. It would have been a snap to add plumbing then, but now the finished cabinet area would probably have to be disturbed.

I love those pix, biochem101, hiring a carpenter is no problem. I had a custom cab maker for my kitchen. This would be right up his alley.

Removing the heating is probably not possible, Les, as it's a closed, circulating system. I could bring the piping forward most likely, but not eliminate it.

Of course, it would also mean that I'd have to relocate the closet door to inside the bedroom so that the closet can be accessed if someone is using the bathroom. Right now the bathroom isn't much bigger than a toilet closet, with a door of its own and therefore the alcove and the door to the closet can be used even if the bathroom is occupied. I could, if I were so inclined, and the lighting was better, even use the vanity area to do 'vanity things' if the bathroom was occupied.

The other thing I can't get past is that the way the alcove is floored with carpeting helps extend the look of the bedroom. If I were to incorporate this area into the bathroom, then the 'bathroom" as defined by the tiled area would begin immediately as soon as you enter my bedroom, as the door to the alcove is immediately on the left of the entry. I hope I'm making myself clear hear; I'm not sure I understand it myself. :-)

I'm going to draw out the bath and alcove area and hopefully you'll help me brainstorm.

Helene

Helene - I totally get your dilemma. We have a client with the same configuration, & we've spent hours trying to solve it within her budget. She has a sagging vanity area like yours with a bathroom to the right & walk in closet to the left. She decided to upgrade the bathroom area & didn't like the idea of the cost of combining the bathroom & walk in closet with the vanity area. So we just slightly upgraded each area. She didn't have enough room in the bedroom to add a separate vanity, so we upgraded the vanity area & bathroom without combining them. It is exactly like yours. We took out the soffits, put in shallow side cabinets that stretched up to transom windows that spanned the space, put in a small window in the center, a granite counter top, & drawers that accomodated makeup & hair products & appliances. We did all the cabinets in walnut with seeded glass doors, then did the side walls in horizontal walnut planks. We hung a beautiful chandalier from the ceiling. I love to be surrounded by natural elements & see as much tree branches & sky as possible as I think these are healing elements, so I immediately think of these elements in design.

~Jeana

Jeana,

Would you happen to have a picture? It sounds very much what I'm looking for. It's not really the money which is stopping me, but rather, the results. I personally don't need a huge bathroom, just a slightly bigger one would do, but I'm looking ahead, perhaps wrongly, to what a future buyer might want. Of course, since I don't plan on leaving any time soon, that newly done bathroom might need to be redone by then!

So this vanity area doesn't have any mirrors, as far as I could tell from your description? I have a very wooded area behind me and the windows would look out over it....

Helene

Helene - I do have a pic, but I'm soooo computer illiterate that I still can't figure out how to do it. LOL!!! I'll work on it...my apologies.

~Jeana

I have the exact same setup in my master bedroom, although bath/closet is switched - vanity with master bath door on right, closet door on left. I am not sure my answer will help you though but here goes.

When I first bought the house, I thought it was a total waste of space and thought when I redid bathroom (which is still not done!) I would encorporate it all into larger master bathroom. Also, the way it came from builder was with a sink on this vanity. The PO of my house did not have the sink put in (although the plumbing is there and can easily be added). I was also annoyed that they didn't add the sink. But, after living there, I realized that I LOVE this area. It is where I blow dry my hair and put on my makeup and jewelry. I love that I can blow dry my hair outside of the steamy bathroom, and that I can be seated while doing that and putting on makeup (guess I'm lazy, hate standing while doing all that). Also, my area has a big skylight above, so it has a lot of natural light which is helpful for these purposes. Turns out I'm glad they didn't add sink as I like the large uninterupted counter space.

So, when I redo my bathroom (which is hopefully soon!), I will not encorporate it into bathroom. The vanity here matches the vanity in the bathroom. I will be painting them both (they are solid wood, but oak and I don't like the color), and replacing laminate counters with something else (still to be decided, probably granite, but not sure).

The only thing I don't like about the area is that it is carpeted like the bedroom, and it's much harder to vacuum up the hair from the carpet after blow drying than it would be if it were tile. But, like you, I think tiling it to match bathroom when I retile bathroom will look strange from the bedroom.

I've also considered adding some sort of doors. Not full floor to ceiling, but...something...to cut down on blow dryer noice in bedroom. My DH has never been crazy about the setup because when I leave for work before him and he's still sleeping, the blow dryer wakes him up. But, I think in the 16 years we've lived here, he's gotten used to it. Or at least stop complaining about it :-)

Sorry this is so long and probably not much help to you since you don't seem to want/need the area for this purpose. I think if I didn't use it like I do and I didn't want to incorporate into bathroom, I would do a window and window seat and make it a nice place to get dressed, and it would look beautiful from the bedroom.

I like teacats suggestions and recommendations the best. Built-in furniture is expensive and commits you to one option or another since you put in costs that are not easily recouped. If you demo what you have now and put in some freestanding furniture, perhaps with a pretty chandelier, should you or future seller decide to expand that MBR at later date, no one need feel bad at demoing a nice built-in dressing area. Freestanding furniture can easily be bought and sold on Craigslist and recoup a majority of your expenses.

Personally, I would strongly consider incorporating the space into a larger bathroom at some point. However, since you are not to that point yet, I'd aim to make it functional for you. What do you need more of? Storage space? Seating for putting on shoes? Display? Reading nook? Personally, I'd probably take out the vanity and put in a dresser of some sort. I'm not an expert on baseboard heating, but I imagine if you choose furniture with legs, it will not interfere with the heating. For me, having a vanity area like that would be a waste of space and would simply end up a dumping grounds. I'd much rather have useful storage with the possibility of incorporating it into a larger master bathroom (or maybe master closet?) someday.

I may be out of line butting in here, but last year we did a very high-end makeover of a space off a master bath. We converted the space to a walk-in closet with a real dressing area. It incorporated a full length mirror, an upholstered bench with storage under for shoe related items and a small antique dresser with drawers on both front and "back"-two fronts actually for jewelery, cuff links, accessories, etc.

It was a true dressing area, or finish dressing, area. The lighting was perfect. The bench was in the center of the room and two people had room to sit and finish dressing.

My point here is, if it fits your life style, as it did our clients, make it a real dressing area. Dress not in the bathroom, not in the closet, and not in the bedroom. Now my clients were very into dressing, either for going out, or entertaining in.

So, if you don't really need a dressing area, make it something else. I thought it was sort of neat, and quite luxurious. What are your NEEDS? Let that determine what you do with it.

Many of you have voiced my dilemma regarding this area perfectly. Thanks to this discussion and all your thoughtful input, I think I've reached some conclusions. Realistically, the size of the bathroom is fine by me. In my previous home, I had what I called an "L-shaped bathroom with 2 toilets." From the master bedroom there was an adjacent bathroom with a toilet and tiny vanity and another door which led into the main bathroom with another toilet and a bath/shower combo. That main bathroom exited out to the center hallway. So in this "new" house I thought I had it really luxurious - a bathroom devoted solely to the master suite along with a generous sized dressing area along with a very roomy walk in closet.

Much of the dilemma is the HGTV effect - thinking about what future buyers want....do I really care as long as I don't make it unsaleable? The size of the bathroom works for me because we're retired and almost never need the sink at the same time. If we should need to, we do have another bathroom on the floor.

Also, there would need to be a fair amount of reconstruction and relocation of the entry to the closet.

I've thought about buying a nice large dresser as I've also seen them on Craig's List (truthfully, my own bedroom set has a nice dresser - it's 43 years old), but my husband vetoed that idea.

I'd also broached the idea of a reading nook area, but was voted down too, as we have a reading area in our bedroom.

I'm not likely to be moving soon...I'm old enough that perhaps in several years we'd like to downsize, but it's not imminent, and my gut reaction is sort of telling me to keep the area as a dressing area and let the next owners deal with it....either keep it the way it is or rip it out...I'm not expecting any payback - just doing it for me.

When we moved in 10 years ago we thought we needed a window in the area and we almost had one put in. Talking to some of the younger people of the neighborhood at the bus stop (we're the grandparents there) some of them have a window in the area, some don't - I guess it might have been an option when the house was built.

At this point I guess I've come to the acceptance that it will remain a dressing area. Now I need to decide if I want windows or a mirror (i don't think that with a 6 foot width there's enough room to do both), but I'd love to see any and all examples.

As RRM1 and jillinnj mention, it's a nice place to get dressed and/or do hair and makeup, but now I'm looking for a nice layout of cabs and am prepared to use my custom cab maker to do so.

So bring on the pix and the ideas for windows and cabs....I promise I'll upload a room layout tomorrow.

Helene

Oh, I saw something like this years ago, in a magazine. They put cabinets in below and left the counter area, with shelves and cabinets above. Then, they added a 'morning coffee area' with a little sink and space for the coffee pot, sugars, mugs on hooks, and I think it even had a little undercounter fridge for cream, chilling champagne, etc. They may have even had a little microwave, for heating up coffee and other treats.

The bedroom was upstairs (it was a very fancy, european style bedroom) and the owners didn't want to have to go downstais to have coffee and croissants :)

Decadent, but lots of fun!

This link isn't from the magazine article, but it's similar. The magazine was even fancier, if I remember. It wasn't my style, but it obviously left an impression. (LOL)

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to coffee area

Finally, a drawing of the area...again, I'm pretty sure that I'm not touching the bathroom to include it ....so...do I put in a window? do I put in a new mirror? do I put in transom windows and a mirror as was mentioned? My ceilings are 8 foot..I can't quite picture transom windows in the area...any pix?

I'm thinking I want upper cabs to hide all the stuff which my husband is forever charging....his shaver, the phone, my iPad. In addition, I think I'd consider enough storage to ultimately remove the linen cab one day (which I see I forgot to include - it's the first door on the lower left as you enter the dressing area, the second door is the door to the bathroom) and extend the shower area to include a seat with a niche for storage...but that's work for another day.

It would also be a great area to blow my hair dry, so storage for the hair dryer and all the accoutrements would be great.

How would it look to just tile the area immediately in front of those future cabs, but not extending it all the way to the bedroom doorway? As you can see, the entrance to that alcove is immediately as soon as you enter the bedroom, and anyone coming up the stairs or in the hallway would be able to see a tile floor if it was extended to the doorway. I'd rather see the carpet....And, no, the closet doorway and the bathroom doorway are not exactly opposite to each other...

P.S. a coffee bar would be great, but neither my husband nor I drink coffee in large enough quantities to justify it.

Helene

This is as close as I can get to what I can see for your space.

Obviously the bottom cabinet would be on legs that would mimick an antique dresser.

The lower cabinets (that rest on the vanity) on top could be roll up appliance garages that could house your hairdryer (obviously with outlets inside) & the other side could be a charging station for all the electronics - ipods, cells, etc. And there's plenty of storage.

I wonder if the area of the alcove to the lower right couldn't have an L-shaped "dressing bench" that was suggested??? It could have stoarge inside or could also have open shoe storage.

Hope this helps.

~Jeana

Here is a link that might be useful: [Vanity[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/ingleside-modern-1920s-shingle-style-traditional-closet-grand-rapids-phvw-vp~121772)

Jeana,

That picture is absolutely great! Now to decide if I want/need a window and use a 'makeup' mirror, or just use a large mirror as in this picture.

Helene

Totally agree - make it exactly what you want it to be. I would LOVE to be able to do something like this. Happy planning! Please share pics of the progress:

A little inspiration for you: http://www.houzz.com/photos/query/dressing%20area