Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wonder why MN hates en-suites?

414 replies

Greenbluestar · 21/01/2022 08:25

Just curious 🤨

OP posts:
ShirleyPhallus · 21/01/2022 09:41

If you go for a poo in the middle of the night you are going to open the door straight on to the bedroom. Yuk.

WHO for the love of god goes for a poo in the middle of the night?!

AnotherCupOfTeaDear · 21/01/2022 09:42

@Darbs76

I know someone with 5 toilets for 4 people. 4 showers. Is it really necessary?
We have 4 toilets and 3 bathrooms for less people No queuing, I'm not going back to only one bathroom ever again. They're our one luxury
RampantIvy · 21/01/2022 09:42

I wonder how many people who hate them only know them from relatively small houses / new builds where the en suite is cramped without a window; whereas those who quite like them have bigger houses with more space, windows etc and it actually makes sense to have.

I love ours, but it’s just like a proper bathroom next to the bedroom with a door between them rather than being a cupboard with a loo in it

I think you are right @ShirleyPhallus. Our ensuite sounds like yours. It wasn't an afterthought shoehorned into the bedroom.

stingofthebutterfly · 21/01/2022 09:43

I don't like ensuites. The kids walk through my bedroom to use it when the main bathroom is occupied. Smells get wafted into the bedroom. My carpet ends up wet after someone has trailed water out after a shower, and I don't particularly want to hear someone on the toilet whilst I'm relaxing in bed.

Give me a separate bathroom any day.

etulosba · 21/01/2022 09:43

I was horrified when I stayed in a hotel in this country where the ensuite had a transparent wall. Fortunately I discovered there was a button to press that turned it opaque.

Unfortunately, they don’t all have buttons.

I can’t find it now, but somebody sent me a picture of a room they had where the loo was next to the bed. Not even a glass wall.

BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 21/01/2022 09:48

My guest room has an en-suite which is useful as it allows guests more privacy, I appreciate that as a guest in other people’s homes too. In my own home I prefer a (private) bathroom off a landing, if possible.

RampantIvy · 21/01/2022 09:48

If you go for a poo in the middle of the night you are going to open the door straight on to the bedroom. Yuk.

If I needed to do that in the middle of the night I wouldn't use the ensuite. I would use the house bathroom which is nearer to my side of the bed than the loo in the ensuite, or the downstairs loo.

It strikes me that it isn't so much the ensuite that is unsavoury it is inconsiderate users. I mean do all these haters really have partners who poo last thing at night?

Exhausteddog · 21/01/2022 09:48

The position of the toilet (and proximity from the bed) could potentially be exactly the same in a "normal" bathroom. The only difference being which wall or which room the door opens to....

BuffyFanForever · 21/01/2022 09:49

Couldn’t live without ours!

mrsm43s · 21/01/2022 09:49

@RandomLondoner

it's instinctively uncomfortable to shit where you sleep. In nature animals generally find a toileting place away from the sleeping area.

I post this in every thread on this subject, but I heard of a man with an unmodernised house with outside toilet who regards people who have toilets in the same building that they cook and eat as disgusting.

I suppose you are just a slightly less extreme version of him.

Do you feel uncomfortable every time you stay in a hotel room? (I think they all have en-suites nowadays.)

I don't love hotel ensuites, no, but its the lesser of two evils when compared to sharing a bathroom with strangers. I prefer it when the doorway to the ensuite is off a corridor from the room doorway before you hit the main room, rather than opening off of the main sleeping area, so it feels more like a separate, private bathroom.

At home, I'd prefer a bathroom away from the bedroom than directly off it.

BalladOfBarryAndFreda · 21/01/2022 09:49

The guest room en-suite is big (12ft x 9ft), has a window and isn’t near the bed, for all you worriers Wink

HerculesMulligann · 21/01/2022 09:50

Because shit stinks.

And so I’d rather not have a toilet than near to my bed.

mrsm43s · 21/01/2022 09:51

@Exhausteddog

The position of the toilet (and proximity from the bed) could potentially be exactly the same in a "normal" bathroom. The only difference being which wall or which room the door opens to....
I don't disagree with that. It's the opening directly onto the sleeping space that I don't like.
Pleaseuniverseplease · 21/01/2022 09:52

If it has a window then great. If it doesn't then I wouldn't want it and would rather it was a large cupboard.
Overall I'd prefer the space as part of the bedroom.

RampantIvy · 21/01/2022 09:53

@HerculesMulligann

Because shit stinks.

And so I’d rather not have a toilet than near to my bed.

So your partner has a shit just before bed every night? Really? Who does that?
Momicrone · 21/01/2022 09:55

It's not great for keeping the spark alive, sorry if it makes me 'pathetic' or uptight not wanting to hear dh shit

ItsRainingTacos · 21/01/2022 09:57

I don't like mine. I'd prefer not to have a door opening onto a toilet next to my bed 😷.

Another issue I have with en suites is that very often they are windowless so they take forever to air out after a shower, despite extractor fan. And the noise of the fan itself makes me want to scream in the middle of the night if DH has uses the ensuit. It goes on for ages.

LaurieFairyCake · 21/01/2022 09:57

I like them off my dressing room (which is the one for our sole use) but I wouldn't have one off my bedroom

So in most houses the largest bedroom has the best en suite - this means we have Bed 2 as our main bedroom and bed 1 as the dressing room - this totally works for me as I like my bedroom to be monastic and all my crap to be in a separate room

pilates · 21/01/2022 09:59

I love mine

monkeysox · 21/01/2022 10:01

Ours all have windows and plenty of space. Love them. Would prefer if the one for our bedroom has a bath in it but can't have everything. There's space just isn't laid out like that.
I agree with no window squeezed in single shower cubicle tiny en suites where space has.been taken from the bedroom are not practical

AnotherCupOfTeaDear · 21/01/2022 10:01

I'm getting dressing room envy now Grin You all must have fabulous homes

MangoLipstick · 21/01/2022 10:01

I think it’s another example of the weirdness that can come out of MN
I mean, you can dislike an en-suite but to HATE it, bit extremeGrin

MorrisZapp · 21/01/2022 10:03

@Allsorts1

We have a fantastic ensuite - I’ve never heard of ensuite dislike until mumsnet! I wonder if those people all also hate hotel rooms as they all have ensuites 😂
I love hotels but I don't like the whole steam/ smell/noise aspect when away with DP. Our most recent trip was to a small apartment and that worked better, as the rooms were separate.

I'd love to have more bathrooms in my house but only if they had a window, and didn't directly adjoin another room.

LemonTreeGrove · 21/01/2022 10:05

Reminded me of this Grin

To wonder why MN hates en-suites?
alwayscrashinginthesamecar1 · 21/01/2022 10:07

In my experience it very much depends on the ensuite. I used to live in a rental with a horrible one, just a tiny toilet and shower off the master bedroom. It had no window and the extractor fan was rubbish. We hardly used it, especially as there was another full bathroom next door.

However now I love my ensuite and wouldn't be without it! Its a full size bathroom with double shower and has a large outside window so lots of ventilation and natural light. Its beside a walk in wardrobe so I can shower and wander around in the nip while getting ready, without traumatising my teenager! What's not to like?