En-suite advice

[morningbell]

Hi All,

Wanted to gauge some opinions about what to do with an "en suite" in one of our bedrooms. I put in inverted commas as it's currently no more than a box (1.1x1m) with a toilet and sink.

We'd quite like to build out the walls and add a shower to it, however, i'm doubting whether it's a good idea or not. I attach a floorplan so you can see current layout of house (as you'll see, the master bath is downstairs with a shower room upstairs), and a hand drawn plan of the bedroom/en suite in question. Currently my 4 year old is in the bedroom, in a single bed with no additional furniture, but the ultimate intention would probably be to use it as a guest bedroom. This is because the layout of the room means any bed bigger than a standard double wouldn't result in enough standing room between bed and the built in wardrobes, and my husband is 6 feet 4 and would rather stay in a king bed.

Ultimately, i think it would be nice for the house to have the larger en suite with shower but i wouldn't want to do it if it made the room feel absolutely horrible. Ideally we'd also like to keep the plumbing where it is for the sink and toilet, but other suggestions would be welcomed!

Looking at the floorplan does anyone have any thoughts? If you did think it worthwhile to add the shower, what do you think would be the sweet spot between having an ensuite with a shower area large enough to not feel totally cramped without removing too much from the bedroom itself? On my hand drawn plan, you'll see a red dotted line which is the proposed new area - i've assumed we build out to narrow the corridor at the door, but unsure what a good length would be. I'm open to considering things like Omnitubs/Japanese soaking baths if that might be a better use of the space.

I'm looking at this more as an investment, rather than to benefit how we live (given we'd be unlikely to use the bedroom ourselves), so it's a bit hard to gauge whether adding a shower would have more of a positive impact, compared to the reduction of space in the bedroom.

Hopefully you lovely people have some ideas, i'm rubbish at visualising finished outcomes!

Well, this didn't get the responses i was hoping for! I think it was too much of a word sandwich - as i'm prone to do.

I've drawn up with 3 ideas for extending the en-suite, which i'd love some opinions on!

Key consideration is adding in a decent shower (think 900x900 is the minimum) without then making the bedroom feeling too hemmed in.

Option 1 - Extends the width of the existing by 28cm to make the toilet/sink area more spacious, but then the additional length added adheres to the original width to fit a square 900x900shower.

Option 2 - Extends both the length and width - enabling much more spacious shower (1200x900), but potentially at cost of making bedroom feel very cramped. Could possible reduce the length to fit a 1200x700 or 1200x800 shower?

Option 3 - No change to width, just extend length out to fit a 900x900 square shower.

What would you choose?

Well, I think that I would add the smallest extension to bathroom, and the smallest shower.

I am not 100% convinced that I would bother though. You are doing it for a guest room, not for your use, so it wouldn't be the first thing I would spend money on.

Which is your room? No chance of getting an ensuite in there?
I can;t really tell from sizes, but if possible this is what I would do.

I'd be inclined to combine the two upstairs bathrooms to make a lovely big family bathroom. Having the main bathroom downstairs isn't great.

Then I'd turn the downstairs bathroom into a laundry/utility room with a loo.

If you were going to do it, we have a 1000mm x 800mm shower where the 1000mm is the width and it feels spacious - if your room is already 1070mm, a 1000mm would fit in nicely. You wouldn't need to extend the ensuite as far into the bedroom if you went with 1000mm width, 800mm depth.

I think however, in terms of your original post and the layout of the house, its going to involve cost that you might not get back. Given the awkward layout of the bedroom, if its never going to be the master bedroom, or going to improve how you live (and the fact that you have a shower room immediately next door), I'm not sure its worth it.

I agree with @steppemum

*I'd be inclined to combine the two upstairs bathrooms to make a lovely big family bathroom. Having the main bathroom downstairs isn't great.

Then I'd turn the downstairs bathroom into a laundry/utility room with a loo.*

This would be a far better idea investment wise.

Could you turn it into a wet room? I had one like that in halls and it was fine.

Personally I hate bathrooms and ensuites that dont have a window in them - they get mouldy and stuffy . In all 3 options the en-suite is so tiny I really wouldn't bother.

I'd get rid of the bath downstairs as that is just random when you have kids - combine the existing bathroom and en-suite into a family bathroom.

Your kitchen Looks tiny - make the bath down stairs into a small WC and have a utility space off the kitchen instead

I think I'd just move the bedroom door back and have a toilet/sink that everyone can access from the landing.
You've already got a bath, and a shower, I'm not sure there's much to be gained by adding another shower in, if there is only the 2 of you and a 4 yr old.

@ivfbeenbusy

Personally I hate bathrooms and ensuites that dont have a window in them - they get mouldy and stuffy . In all 3 options the en-suite is so tiny I really wouldn't bother.

I'd get rid of the bath downstairs as that is just random when you have kids - combine the existing bathroom and en-suite into a family bathroom.

Your kitchen Looks tiny - make the bath down stairs into a small WC and have a utility space off the kitchen instead

Took the words right out of my mouth!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

@steppemum @Africa2go - I'd definitely consider knocking through to make a bigger bathroom upstairs, although the limiting factor to a really lovely space is the width at 1.4m, which we couldn't make wider. Keeping the existing footprint, that would make a bathroom at 3.3 x 1.4m, and we might be limited in how we could lay things out - i like a separate shower rather than a bath with a shower so that would put me off a bit if that were the only option.

My initial thought is i'd be a bit loathe to completely get rid of the bath/shower downstairs . With 2 small kids, as they get older it'd be nice to have 2 options available, even if 1 is downstairs (we don't find bathing the kids downstairs onerous at all to be honest, it's off the hall and private). But potentially the downstairs bathroom could become a shower and utility room it's 2.2x2.5m so we could make that work. Washing machine and dryer currently in a converted garage so not part of kitchen anyway..

@ivfbeenbusy - the kitchen isn't huge, but it feels more spacious than the floorplan makes it look - but that's a project for the future, losing the conservatory and having a proper extension in it's place.

I think I’d look to swap bath to upstairs and shower downstairs too. You could still likely keep a WC in that bedroom if you wanted to but I don’t think I’d bother shoehorning a shower in there as well when you’re never going to benefit from it personally. I don’t think it would make investment sense either whereas the kitchen obviously would when you eventually get to that point.

If you combine the two upstairs bathrooms, you have room for a corner bath in the old ensuite end (a Carron Rion measures just over 1m x 1m). That might give you enough space for the separate shower etc.

Sorry, that should be Rio.... (fat fingers...)

Thanks @fuglyhouse. Thinking of differently shapes baths, I'd previously looked at omnitubs/Japanese deep soaking baths which would fit the narrow space better and would probably allow a separate shower too in the event we combined the 2 bathrooms. Not sure how suitable they are for kids though.

I love omnitubs, but I agree that they're not great for small kids.

I'd be inclined to combine the two upstairs bathrooms to make a lovely big family bathroom. Having the main bathroom downstairs isn't great. Then I'd turn the downstairs bathroom into a laundry/utility room with a loo

Great minds and all that.