To think ensuites are unnecessary and a bit passé

[Foolishlady]

Just bought a new house. 4 bedrooms but just one tiny bathroom. Dh wants to put an ensuite in the master bedroom but I think it will ruin the dimensions and isn't really worth it. I've never really got the appeal of ensuites- unless spacious they always seem a bit cramped and grotty, and the bathroom is only across the hall. I want to make a combined wet room and downstairs loo instead (we're doing an extension so there would be room) but dh says that's silly. So aibu?? Or is he?

I have a downstairs shower room ( with a loo in it). I prefer this as means we have a downstairs loo, the boys and visitors have their own bathroom and I effectively have my own bathroom because I am really the only one who uses it. Having said that if the house had an ensuite that was designed properly and wasnt making the bedroom small by doing it then I wouldnt say no. But wouldnt make my bedroom small for the sake of it - a downstairs shower room works just as well

I would always have a downstairs loo, no question, but an ensuite would be lovely. No room for it in our house, which doesn't worry me. They are a luxury. however, if i was buying a new house and there was an ensuite, i would be sorely tempted! YABU

Our ensuite is essential. I have mobility problems and so can get to the toilet easily in the night - also nerve damage that means I don't get much warning when I need to go! Also have downstairs loo for the same reason.

I disagree with the general opinion about downstairs bathrooms.We put in an extra bathroom downstairs off the utility room.The utility room is a biggish room in our house and is really a laundry room there (2 washers , dryer, rack , ironing board and TV ) .The only people who have baths are the kids and it is just better because I can have the door open and watch them while I am doing laundry and no worries about them flooding the bath.I think downstairs bathrooms are fine so long as you have upstairs facilities too.Ensuites are a must IMO especially once your kids get older

'wouldnt make my bedroom small for the sake of it '

why? what do you do in your bedroomapart from sleep and get dressed?

We have something like this now in our main bedroom. There is a window next to it and the whole thing, including wardrobe area is bend sliding glass doors. So really just looks like a wall of mirror doors.
Takes up hardly any room and a whole extra shower. We have also installed sink with vanity and a saniflow loo (no poo allowed, our choice due to distance from down pipes!) which we actually never use but it's kinda there.

We have an ensuite bathroom. I like it

I get ready first in the morning and then Dh uses it, so I never have to listen to his ablutions etc

I admit that a spare toilet in addition to our one downstairs bathroom (shared between three adults and a teenager) would make life easier for us in our tiny house.

However, I am perplexed by this obsession with having a bathroom to yourself. Just how much time do people spend in the bathroom that you could justify giving over such a huge amount of floor space to a bathroom for each person?

Shower, shit and shave in our house - am I missing something?

I can see the point of en suites (don't have one, but could have done: we knocked it through to make a big bathroom).

What does get me, though, is all the tiny new 2-bed flats with not enough living space where there is a bathroom AND an en suite shower. I'd rather have a decently-sized kitchen: I spent a lot more time at the sink and stove than I do in the shower.

The people who say they don't want an en-suite because they don't want someone shitting in/near their room make me laugh. They remind me of the father of a poster on another forum I'm on, who still lives in a house with no inside bathroom. He finds the idea of shitting in the building you live in disgusting. Civilised people should have an outhouse.

Actually I find the idea of a bathroom that isn't an en-suite passe. While space constraints mean my London flat has one, in addition to one en-suite, my sister's house (in another country) has an en-suite in every one of three bedrooms. (Mind you her McMansion is bigger than a six-bedroom house would be in the UK. The floor area of her hallways is greater than the entire area of my flat.) The five-bedroom condo (in a third country) I was contemplating buying over the weekend has an en-suite in every bedroom except the fifth, the maid's room off the kitchen. (Not sure how the maid is meant to wash.) (Mind you, that flat was in a ten story building where every flat had its own private swimming pool on one of its balconies. I was going to post on that, my mind was so boggled.)

Another one with you, OP. We have four lovely large bedrooms - considered putting an en suite in master but grudged the chunk it would take out of the beautifully shaped room, especially since there is already a proper bathroom (containing loo) and a separate tiny washroom (loo and basin) upstairs. So instead I fitted out the upstairs bathroom as just that - freestanding bath, lots of space and so on, and turned a large room downstairs into a posh cloakroom for visitors, complete with all-singing-all-dancing shower.

I don't really like ensures (in homes or hotels). I find the proximity to loo smells/sounds a bit embarrassing, even just with me and my DP.

On a slightly different note, I'd LOVE a wet room.

Much rather have a big bedroom and share a decent bathroom. Dislike having toilet etc right off the bedroom.
Wet rooms are vile though - I'd just put in a shower cubicle downstairs.

I don't care about en-suites, especially if they compromise the bedroom space. If it was a loft conversion master bedroom suite it would be essential though. I don't like going up and down stairs to the toilet at night or having to do so when ill.

I do care about having a downstairs toilet, so having an en-suite and a family bathroom upstairs with no downstairs toilet would be out of the question for me, as would a ground floor bathroom with no toilet upstairs. I feel very strongly about this as I've seen too many elderly relatives forced to use commodes either at home or when visiting others because they have no easy access to a toilet.

We have a contraption like the one in QOD's picture plus a corner loo and corner basin in a triangular en suite in a house we now let out. Very clever use of space, but son described it as crapping in a wardrobe.

My own en suite is spacious, it was a bedroom and we knocked through from the main bedroom. For me the big advantage is being able to nip in and out without any clothes regardless of whoever is staying in the house.

Yanbu. They seem very old fashioned to me.

I agree with OP. We have one, it was in the house when we bought it. It's reasonably spacious, but when it was out of action due to building works, I didn't miss it at all, just used the family bathroom across the hall. I started wondering what would be a better use for the space...

I won't get rid of it, (we've got enough space) but it certainly isn't a 'must have'. And wouldn't be on my list of necessary things if I was looking to move house again.

I think a loo downstairs is really important if at all possible. I'd much rather than an en suite.
A second shower would be better uostairs but I get why you might put it in with the downstairs loo. Basically I see showering as something you do along with getting dressed so near the bedroom. Going to the loo should be near where you are spending most awake time so downstairs for me.

We all have en-suites and there isn't a pokey or grotty one amongst them. Mine measures 28 square metres and is built for two people at once with the loo being a separate but integral part of the bathroom. The others are are just normal bathroom attached to a bedroom but they all have windows, a shower cubicle and vanity area and on average they are about 14 square metres each.

It works for us and I think its all part of modern day living.

When we had a bedroom extension on the rear of our bungalow we toyed with having one. The architects advised it, as did the builder.
I just couldn't get past the idea of essentially pooing in my bedroom.
The door to our wetroom is just outside the bedroom door, which is close enough. It also means I have a full wall for wardrobes etc.
I happily poo in other peoples bedrooms like an ensuite when we stay away from home.

I don't understand why anyone would want a downstairs bathroom. We have one in our rented house and I fucking hate it - schlepping downstairs and through the kitchen for a wee after sex is the biggest turn-off ever.

We now have two sons away at university, and the third goes this autumn, and it was noticeable when we started looking at accomodation for ds1, that the vast majority of student accomodation now has en suite bathrooms for every room. As a student nurse, and later as a university student, I shared bathrooms with the other people on my corridor - an en suite was considered the height of luxury.

Admittedly, the en suites in their student accomodation tend to be pretty basic - there seems to be a prefab plastic pod that is just put in - with shower and loo and basin - it is definitely hose-clean architecture, with no frills!

I still think it is a bit of a luxury - though it is one I would not want to give up myself (the comfort of being able to nip to the bathroom in the nude, and the sheer delight of not having to share a bathroom with scuzzy teenage boys, and of not having to queue for a shower in the morning), but I don't want the dses to think they have a right to an en suite.

I do agree with the OP, though, that I wouldn't want an en suite if it was going to be a tiny, poky, damp cupboard or if it was going to make my bedroom layout less practical and flexible.

You made a general statement that r suites are pointless in your thread title. En suites are only pointless if you never use them, don't want one, don't need one and like you said, compromise bedroom space and are pokey.
Not all en suites are like you say. We have two. Very adequate size and gives us and MIL privacy whilst DCS use the main bathroom. Always said if we built our own house, all bedrooms would have their own en suites and a downstairs loo would do.

Asking about your wet room; wouldn't that be pokey and generally be used like an en suite - toilet and shower?? If so, then you are being a bit hypocritical.