Deciding between moving vanity/toilet vs adding 2nd door to bathroom

last month

Background info: 2nd floor en suite bathroom (each room has it's own bathroom). We are in the middle of a new build. Plumbing rough in, electric, dry wall already in.

When we checked on our house today we noticed that drywall had gone up where a door was supposed to be (red arrow; Bath 2). I guess we'd missed this at the framing stage. At least according to chatGPT, there probably shouldn't be a door there if every room has it's own bathroom. This makes sense to me. But that puts the vanity way in the corner. I feel as if my two main options are 1) add that 2nd door or 2) redo the layout (which is what I'm leaning towards).

Wanted to make sure hallway door was better to avoid before redoing all that work.

Floor plan (pre-construction)

Current Bath 2, viewed from inside bathroom (floor plan would put door in far wall)

Example finished with 2nd hallway door (from which our floorplan was based on)

Redesign idea (even allows addition of toilet door):

Other photos if helpful:

Featured Answer

WestCoast Hopeful

last month

I hate bathrooms with two doors and would rather see this as a hallway bathroom and not ensuite.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (13)

Sigrid
last month
I like the idea of a second bathroom up the stairs, in case you have a lot of guests and need two.
T L thanked Sigrid
chispa
last month
Was going to say the same thing ... would you host large gatherings and need another easily reached bathroom for guests? How many guest bathrooms are on the main floor? My current house has two powder rooms, so no need to send any guests to a full bathroom.

Do you have a TV/play room upstairs that would have kids/guests that would need to use a hall bathroom upstairs?
T L thanked chispa
Related Professionals
Tustin Home Builders · Jamestown General Contractors · Jeffersonville General Contractors · Point Pleasant General Contractors · Aspen Hill Interior Designers & Decorators · Royal Palm Beach Architects & Building Designers · South Elgin Architects & Building Designers · Jefferson Valley-Yorktown General Contractors · Mount Prospect General Contractors · Schertz General Contractors · Paducah Bathroom Remodelers · Sicklerville Bathroom Remodelers · 77505 Glass & Shower Door Dealers · Warr Acres Cabinets & Cabinetry · Rancho Santa Margarita Window Treatments
T L
Original Author
last month
@Sigrid @chispa Ground floor has a powder room + a bathroom (smaller than the one in question) connected to a study vs bedroom. Designed to work as backup bathroom for guests. There is also a basement powder room where the main TV/play area would be. I figure that's enough to mitigate having a hallways bathroom upstairs?

@WestCoast Hopeful Given this is our main guest bathroom, I feel like making it primarily a hallway bathroom would be a bit weird too. ie guests would have to walk into hallway to take a shower. Still appreciate the point of view.
WestCoast Hopeful
last month
In that case i would make it just an ensuite. Honestly two door bathrooms are not remotely comfortable.
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
last month
Your third and best option is to leave it as the way it is currently constructed based upon the information provided.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last month
I do not think you need a hall bath so just close up the wall that they framed in for the door not really sure what the problem is .There is no reason to have this available for guests since there are no extra bedrooms for use of that bathroom , FYI the closets you show are really not walkins .
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
last month
Along Patricia's comment regarding closets, a six foot wide closet that provides an at best two foot wide isle is substandard and poor design.
Kendrah
last month
As someone who used to be a nanny and a house manager, there were many times I needed to use a bathroom upstairs and greatly appreciated having one to step into from the hallway, even if it was also attached to a bedroom.

I would leave the second door where it is. Whomever uses that bedroom can choose to keep the hallway door always closed, locked, or not.
WestCoast Hopeful
last month
Just reassuring you that walk in closets can function just fine on the smaller side. Ours is 5 feet wide. Shockingly we do just fine
bpath
last month
Why does that bathroom need two sinks? Close off the door, and the toilet closet. From the window wall, single-sin—vanit—-toile—-tub, with tub running 90° to what it is now. There will be leftover space now beyond the tub. Turn that into the hall linen closet, and make the bedroom closet wider, taking over the current linen closet.
dee_mckervey
29 days ago
It looks like the plumbing is already in. Rearrange walls if necessary ( add to closet?) but leave fixtures as is. If you moved the vanity ACROSS that wall where the hall door was originally you could move it forward into the bathroom and make it a single vanity. Use the space behind for additional closet space?
dee_mckervey
29 days ago
Hhhmm looking at the floor plan with the tub there in the original plan, that wouldn't work. It would have been good to have the tub across the now back wall where the door was supposed to be -but maybe not feasible because of plumbing.