Remove the bathroom to fix the floorplan?

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

We bought our 1950's cottage and are trying to figure out how to make the floorplan to as functional as possible. Our issue is with the only bathroom. It juts out between the living and kitchen making for a bit of bottlenecking whenever more than 3 of us are trying to move around the house.

Should we move it to the laundry room and make our space open concept? Or would it be too weird having a full bathroom on the back of the kitchen? Would it be better just to fix up the bathroom and kitchen and leave the placement as is?

Eventually we will add a master bath off our room (taking up some of the back porch) but with kids we'd like to have a second separate bath.

View from the living room to the kitchen

View from the hall to the bathroom

View from the kitchen facing the living room. Sorry about the paint job, I ran out half way through. Thanks for your thoughts!

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Deb Bayless - Design for Keeps

9 years ago

I agree . . . I would leave the bath where it is. By relocating to the utility area, you only create another bottleneck with everyone trying to get through the kitchen to use the bathroom. Not good. And, yes, a 5'x8' bath is very common and could work well. Try an enameled steel tub (Kaldwei has some narrow versions that are fantastic!) and you'd have 30" for a tub, 30-36" for the toilet and still have a 30-36" vanity. The bath door also looks like it is offset which allows you to have that wall shelf but makes entering the bath claustrophobic. I'd get creative with the vanity area (build a ledge above for supplies or "banjo" countertop). Storage could also go above the toilet (see wall mount bar from CB2) and a train rack for towels can be in the tub area opposite the shower head.

In future, building a master bath using a portion of the back porch would work well, I think.

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Comments (10)

katinparadise
9 years ago
I would leave it where it is. It would be really inconvenient to have the bathroom so far from the bedroom. As is, it serves as a guest bath for company and the bath for the bedroom. A standard hall bath is 5x8 so you could gain a couple of feet if you changed it from a 5x10.
eld6161
9 years ago
Take this over to Home Decorating. There is a lot more traffic there.
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auntthelma
9 years ago
Kind of radical - but if you switch the M Bedroom with the living room, you could have kitchen/living in the back of the house and bedrooms in the front.

That means turning a window into a front door and taking out at least part of the wall where the kitchen table is.

Just a suggestion to get you thinking.

As it stands, I think I would leave the bathroom where it is and simple have a separate kitchen. You can make the kitchen more social if you replace the table with an island you and your family can sit at. But that leaves you with no dining table.
Judy Mishkin
9 years ago
i had the same thought as auntthelma, switch the master bedroom and living room and go from there. you will improve your kitchen to living room floor plan immensely.

give it a couple minutes thought.
whatevermannn
9 years ago
I agree auntthelma. Matter of fact, close off kitchen from the entire bedroom suites.
Maria Privat
9 years ago
Hey Bella, you put up kind of the same post? Fun to read that you get the same suggestions all over again: switching the family room with the master bedroom... Three more people see it as an option now.

But we still do not know if that can be an option for the way your house is situated.
caroline94535
9 years ago
If you switch the LR and MBR locations, turn one of the “Now BR” windows into the new front door, and close off the bottle neck between the kitchen and hallway...

Would you really want to shorten the bathroom to 5x8?

Switching the two rooms will eliminate the bottleneck, and most everyone (that I know) would love to have any measurable extra space in the bathroom.

I love your floors, doors, and “feel” of your house! How many munchkins do you have?
writersblock (9b/10a)
9 years ago
I would leave it alone.
Quinn Eskimo
9 years ago
Another idea - if you plan a remodel in the future that moves some of your master into the back porch, you could also "flip" the existing bathroom to the other side of the house, where your master closet is now. The bathroom would be between the two bedrooms, your living room and/or kitchen would gain some extra space, and your house would be more "open concept" as you mentioned. I wouldn't consider it until you do the other remodel, though, because you'll lose some space in your master (as well as losing your closet, of course).