Big bathroom/small study or vice versa?!

[NuffingChora]

We're in the process of finalising layout for a fairly sizeable renovation project. The end result will have four double bedrooms upstairs - two large, two slightly smaller. We then have two upstairs rooms left over:

• a small 1.8x1.9m room on the half landing which is currently going to become bathroom (second shower room downstairs of similar dimensions)
• a larger 3.1x1.9m room, currently a single bedroom, which we had intended to be a study, but could also be used as a dressing room or nursery as it's right next to the master bedroom.

With a bit of plumbing jiggery-pokery we could switch these round fairly easily.

House is Edwardian and in a suburban part of a big city, conservation area with excellent schools and access to amazing countryside. Big kitchen diner, decent sized living room and masses of potential to do even more - extensions etc. We've realised it's not geographically where we want to be long term, so we're trying to optimize it to have wide appeal when it comes to resale in a few years.

So, if you were in the market for this sort of house, would you rather have:
A. two small bathrooms and a big study, or
B. one big and one small bathroom, and a small study?!

For a house with four good sized bedrooms and the only other bathroom a shower room downstairs (which lots of people don't like btw, but handy for washing sporty kids after football practice and muddy dogs) I'd make the larger room a family bathroom with separate shower and bath. There are no ensuites I take it?

I would definitely go for a big bathroom.

Big bathroom (see my similar post!)

Interesting that you are going for a shower room downstairs not en suite too! Is this a new thing?!

Big bathroom

Big study/nursery and small bathroom. As long as you can swing a cat I can't see the point of lots of excess space in a bathroom.

Option B

Big bathroom, definitely.

Big bathroom
Very few families will need five full time bedrooms for four doubles plus a box room is fine.

The style and layout of the house is typical for the area, and would be fairly standard to have one upstairs and one downstairs bathroom. Plumbing would be such that it would be easy to add in a second bathroom upstairs in the small room if we went for option B and future owners wished to, instead of having a study. It's the one concession to our needs that we're making in this plan, as DH needs one. Having lived with an en-suite and knowing what DH'S farts smell like I'm more than happy to forgo one!

Arewehomeyet Oh! Very similar! Interesting to have more viewpoints, thanks.

Any more opinions? Thanks!

If you have the spare rooms, I would also go for a bigger bathroom. It sounds like the house is big enough, and probably should have a bathroom that 'fits' if that makes sense. A study doesn't really need to be that big, as long as it fits a desk.

A good-sized bathroom will be attractive to families with young children, and that sounds like the market that would be interested in your type of home.

With a trend towards home/flexible working, a dedicated study which is a good size might be an attractive option for a lot of buyers.

I would certainly choose this over a bigger bathroom.

Bigger bathroom
Just makes life miserable than a small bathroom with two people trying to use it.
I think bigger bathroom will be a more sellable option in the future.

I'm glad you joined me out on my limb, Halibut, I thought I was the only person on Team Small Bathroom! V good point about the flexible working space. Both the adults in our household work mostly from home - we recently moved and have created one dedicated study, and one study/guest room. It is fantastic to have work space that is separate, though I realize that not everyone would need this and many home-workers might be okay with a small just-a-desk study - we both need a lot of books!

Big Study here too

I'd make both into bathrooms with the bigger one having a bit carved off it for storage ( towels, sheets, loo roll, toiletries)
Preferably not in the bathroom itself , a stud wall+door maybe , to keep it all away from the steam.

Or could one be an ensuite or a Jack&Jill?

Would the larger room be big enough to accommodate a bath, separate walk-in shower (not a tiny box) and some good built-in storage for towels/bedding etc? If so I'd go for that with a smaller study.

Bigger bathroom and include washing machine/tumble drier within it would be my preference.

Bigger bathroom for definite. Mine is 2.9 x 2.2m and I don't consider it huge to be honest. We do have a separate bath and shower but it doesn't feel excessively sized. We also have four double bedrooms (two are 12 x 14ft and two are 10 x 11ft), one is a study and one a dressing room. Unless there is a huge amount of living space downstairs I don't think you'd need five bedrooms (having big study as nursery possibility etc).

Terrible floor plan image of the layout of mine. Like I say it really doesn't feel that big! No built in storage but bath is free standing.

Big bathroom definitely! I'd also be tempted to make the second room an ensuite (presuming the downstairs is large enough to include a desk and some office shelves somewhere). Downstairs shower room sounds a bit odd - who would go downstairs to shower?

So you haven't got an ensuite ? Could you split the bigger room into two so have a family shower room and an ensuite to one of the bedrooms ? Difficult without an overall floor plan to help further.

You don't need three bathrooms in a house with four bedrooms.