Designing a Bathroom

The bathroom is the place where you get ready for the day and get ready to end the day. The bathroom design should be up there with the other vital locations of your home.  It is one of the most common places we get asked to remodel with the kitchen being number one.

We are going to be looking at a bathroom layout we designed for one of the homes in the 2019 Parade of Homes event. We will explain why we went the route we did and give some areas to think about with your design.

Let's start with the area that will affect you the most, the layout. We chose a 3-wall design for this home. The left wall has a larger vanity and sink space. The back wall has a smaller sink space that is typically meant for the man. The shower and tub have their space on the right wall.

Her vanity with a site down area to get ready.

One of our goals in this design was to use as much wall as we can. We also wanted to include lots of storage. A typical complaint we hear when working with clients is their previous home didn't have any storage space. Creating spaces for each person allows us to focus on their needs and how they might use the bathroom. The vanity on the left has a sit-down space to do makeup and lots of storage for hair or cosmetic items. Meanwhile, the husband needs far less space, and the vanity is smaller for him.

Moving to the shower, you'll see a half wall above the tub. The half-wall solves the problem of feeling confined while in the shower and lighting, which we will discuss in a bit. However, there are still some downsides to this layout. The walk-in shower can be cold at times, and some people don't like to clean glass. Just toss up the options and see what is more valuable for you.

Walk in shower with a half wall to feel more open.

Now, to lighting. If your power has gone out in the morning, I am sure you realized getting ready in the dark isn't fun. With this in mind, we try to design homes that have window light flooding in. Not only does it help if the power goes out, but it also helps create a brighter room even when the lights are on. However, there are times where constraints kick in with the lot and space allowed. In these situations, like here, we won't have a window included. When this happens, we focus on creating a lighting plan that provides bright light without the sun shining through.

Hopefully, this reading helps you make a well-informed decision when looking at another 3-wall design in the future. It can also convince you to design one in the future as well.