Would you rather have one large family bathroom or a poky bathroom and a decent size ensuite?

[howdoyoudecide]

I have attached a very bad diagram. We had a 4 bed house but the master was far too small and the 4th bedroom quite narrow so we decided to change it into half walk in wardrobe and half ensuite. The walk in wardrobe is brilliant. dH put up a stud wall in the 4 then bedroom then knocked through to our bedroom. Leaving original door to 4 the bedroom for access to what would be the new en suite.

The family bathroom next to what would be the ensuite is tiny. We have two toddlers and it is a nightmare. I want to knock the wall down between the bathroom and future ensuite and make one big bathroom. Perhaps keeping the second door into it from our bedroom.

If we stay int he House long term the plan is to do a loft conversion and put an ensuite in that. We are lucky the roof space is massive.

What would you do? What would appeal to people more?

Just for context, pretty much all the other houses like ours the owners use the 4th bedroom for wardrobes as the master really couldn’t fit bed and wardrobes and still have room to move.

Here it is

One large family bathroom. Easier to clean and go. We have three ensuites in our house (4 of us) and we are now only using the main bathroom (for showers - loos and hand basins are used in the ensuites). I had enough of scrubbing baths and showers and we are all happy sharing the shower (at different times of course ) and i am less cross about having to clean so many.

Family bathroom . I hate ensuites.

I'd rather have two smaller ones than just one. We've started looking at houses with a thought to moving and I've been put off so many nice older houses by lack of bath or shower rooms.

Ensuite and bathroom. You need to avoid family members immediately needing a long shit as soon as you settle in to a relaxing bath. I hate only having one loo.

If you are definitely going to create an ensuite in the loft then I would go for the bigger bathroom.
A bigger bathroom is great when the kids are small so you can all be in there sorting out kids, 1 in the bath, 1 doing teeth etc
But our kids are all 6-10 now and I would love to have 2 bathrooms, kids are starting to want privacy and so are we but with the only loo on the house in the bathroom and 5 of is it would be great to have another option

Pokey and en-suite here. The thought of having only 1 toilet makes me shudder.

It depends on your family circumstances, really. With small kids you invariably end up with everyone in the bathroom at bath times so you need space; when everyone's older you might be lucky enough to have a one-at-a-time situation (I wouldn't know, it hasn't happened here yet!) so more facilities would be more important than space.

You need to do what suits your family, now, rather than what might suit a potential buyer in the future.

Definitely keep the en suite. The older they get the more you will value having two bathrooms.

Difficult from your diagram without proper dimensions but I'd stick with ensuite and smaller bathroom. You could change bathroom layout to maximise space perhaps or even change bathroom to just a nice big shower cubicle and have a nice bath in your ensuite instead and use the bath in en suite for the toddlers while they are still small and then when they get older they will use the shower anyway and you'd get your ensuite back to being yours.

My preference for a three-bedroom or larger house is always a decent-sized family bathroom (bath with shower over, basin, toilet), an ensuite shower room (with basin and toilet) to the master bedroom and a downstairs toilet.

If a larger bathroom would make your life easier then go for that. You've made your house into a 3 bed now, and one bathroom is generally fine for that number of bedrooms. If you get your loft conversion eventually you'll have four beds but you'll also then have an en suite as well.

If it helps at all our bathroom and ensuite are right next to each other and the bathroom is very small, we worried a lot when planning it that it would be too small but actually being careful with layout it doesn't feel too small and we have a lovely big bath with shower over plus loo and basin. The en suite is smaller and just has loo, basin and shower. We've saved space in the main bathroom by not having much in the way of storage in there and instead we have a large cabinet in the en suite so that medications etc are kept high up away from children.

Meant to say, can you get a cloakroom in downstairs somewhere?
Only having one loo can be a (first world) problem.

Do you have another toilet in the house because if not I’d definitely go for the ensuite.
A bigger bathroom is great when the kids are little but you’ll be glad of the extra bathroom when they’re older.
Personally (knowing what I know now) I’d go for the two rooms and design them as cleverly as possible.

when children are teenage then more than one bathroom is useful. More than one loo is always useful.

Sorry - should have said we have a downstairs toilet

Since you already have a downstairs loo and have potential future plans for a loft conversion with ensuite, I'd go for the one large family bathroom.

Your current situation (two toddlers) mean that one decent sized family bathroom suits your needs better than the two bathrooms right now ... and you already have plans in place for an extra bathroom if you stay long term so by the time the kids are old enough that bathroom use becomes an issue then you'll probably already have your loft conversion in place.

I grew up in a house with 2 siblings and just one bathroom until I was about 10 when my parents built an extension and had a downstairs shower room put in mostly to stop my brother trailing across my mum's beige carpets in muddy clothes after football/rugby to get upstairs to have a shower and we survived fine, you just had to make sure there wasn't a clash of people all wanting to shower at the same time.

On the basis you are planning a loft conversation with an ensuite I’d go with the larger family bathroom for now.

Otherwise I’d say a smaller bathroom and en-suite.

When the kids were small it didn’t make much difference, but having hit the teen years having two bathrooms is brilliant (and would be even if they were small bathrooms).

Hate en suites. Fed up with hearing my husbands ablutions morning and night while I’m in bed! Big bathroom for me , although an extra loo somewhere would be ideal

Two bathrooms.

What do you need space for in a bathroom anyway?

Depends what other space you have in your house. I don't have a utility room, so a larger bathroom is useful as the clothes horse can fit in there and we still have plenty of space.

Whatever you have you'll manage though - seriously, the house I grew up in had one tiny bathroom and at one point there were six adults living in the house. It was fine, we just all had to be considerate of each other.

The more toilets the better