A couple of comments

1. Who's doing the laundry? If it's you and you like the current location, not concerned about resale, then put the laundry room where it makes most sense for the person doing it!

2. I also would be concerned about having the laundry so close to the bedroom in an open-format (no door to close?)

3. The proximity of the toilet to the vanity (under 24 inches) seems WAY too close - if you back up from the sink, you might fall in :)

1) Right now I'm doing it most of the time but generally we share the duty.

2) The laundry room would be walled off/separated - on the other side of the closet wall with its own door in the hallway. I don't like the idea of it being so close due to ventilation / allergy issues but it would at least be separate.

3) That's one of my big concerns. Hubby says the dimensions he put in for the toilet are "oversized" but I don't think so. It may in fact be undersized (roughly two feet wide). Quick Googling shows dimensions of 30 3/8" x 19 3/8" x 33 1/4".

Thanks for your input.

Do you have a one story or two story house? I know the idea of nearby laundry sounds convenient but I strongly don't recommend upstairs laundry, and some home insurers are frowning on the practice as well.

I'm no expert on layouts, but the NKBA has some minimum and recommended sizes for you to run through, if you haven't already. Link attached.

Here is a link that might be useful: NKBA standards for bathrooms

The house is (currently) a 1500 sqft one-story.

Thanks for the link. I'll have to work around with this with Hubby. Of course, considering he completely ignored the NKBA advice regarding peninsula overhangs (leaving us with a pretty much useless overhang of about 6 inches) I'm not sure how well he'll listen to this.

He's got a rather odd sense of size/spacing. I've not yet figured it out.

In regards to your toilet, to ensure you have enough space I was told that there needs to be 14-17 inches to the wall or counter on each side measuring from the center of the toilet, 17 being optimal.

In regards to your laundry idea, you haven't mentioned where the laundry is at present, but I'd be inclined not to move it. The original owners of our house moved the laundry from the typical 9x6 laundry room located by the kitchen (now our walkin pantry) to a small bedroom upstairs that they converted into a 2nd full bath. It's too complicated to explain, but I plan on cutting the room in half by adding a wall so there are 2 designated spots, the bathroom and a laundry area, but only because it's already been moved and the damage is done. If I had my druthers though, it would have remained where it was originally.

The laundry area is currently in the garage. I like it there (sealed off from the rest of the house, good ventilation, easy access to outside, I have room to hang all my delicates). Hubby wants it out of the garage so that he can have that space for his projects. He also claims that it would be "more comfortable" for him if there was a laundry room and that he'd be more inclined to do the laundry himself. I've proposed that we set him up with a separate workshop in a spot in are good-sized yard that would be perfect for it.

I'm not in love with the layout on that bath PB..I miht not even like the closet and room layout. Can I move some walls?

Now on to that laundry. I absolutely ADORE having laundry in our master suite as well as another on the first level. Our master laundry is in a closet that used to hold linnen. It was always a mess because it was sort of a deep closet. It's now just big enough for the stackables with a little room on the side for water access. I have both of my laundry's on an auto shut off so we don't worry about leaks as long as we change the alarm batteries once a year.

I'm not in love with it either. Feel free to move. The wall behind the bed (to the left of the door) is not movable. The far left wall, the far right wall and the top wall are also not movable.

Ideally, we'd keep the bathroom in the same general area as that's where it is now.

I have the Google sketchup file if you want it. Contact me via my page.

I'm going to try to get chief architecht to work. If not, I'll play in excel, since it's not too difficult given the excellent dimnsions. I have an unlimited budget to find odd sized things right? :oP

One of the many advantages to Hubby being very precise and meticulous is that you wind up getting plenty of details.

Now, as to that unlimited budget, yeah right. No crocodile tiles for me :P

Thanks! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

This is an off the wall just for fun master in that space. I moved the door over a bit which will only work if there's a hallway on the other side. I would put a contrasting trim between the upper storage and the lower hanging storage i.e. a dark strip w/ light cabs or something reflective like metal.

The floating headboard wall would hide the bulk of the storage wall from view from the yard.

I don't know your house or what is typical for your neighborhood but i am not crazy about your layout. The toilet location is unacceptable in my opinion. You should at least have the toilet at the end of the bathroom to allow some amount of privacy. Right now you would almost run into someone if they were on the toilet. Allow 36" for the toilet. You could squeeze it down a few inches but not much. Have you investigated whether you actually need a 6'x6' shower? I bet 4'x6' would be generous.

laxsupermom: That's pretty cool. I like the bath layout - it's actually very close to the layout we have without the silly laundry room. About the only difference is that Hubby is, for some odd reason, adamant that we only have one sink in the master bath. The door isn't movable, though.

funnycide: Currently we share a 5x3 shower. It's like playing Twister. I don't like the toilet location, either. Not only is it right by the door with no privacy, but we'd be hovering over it when standing at the vanity. Ugh.

Moved the door back over, which would line up with the mirror on the other side of the room. I got rid of "his" vanity and moved the shower opening to the end which could make this a doorless shower. The blank wall would be a good place for towel bars and robe hooks.

laxsupermom: That is really cool and gives me a very nice, roomy bathroom. I kinda have my heart set on a separate closet but if we can't come up with anything else I might just go towards something like this.

Bumping so igloo can find it again easier, because she's the bath queen. (Someday she will come home and find me in her shower caressing the croc tiles.)

LOL - yeah - her bathroom is gorgeous. Hopefully she's still listening.

Oh i-chic...

Here's the latest working plan:

Shrunk the shower/bath and moved some walls. Green box to the right is the shower, green "L" would be the vanity. Empty box just to the left of that would be toilet. Slightly better but it's still not convincing me to give up my space.

That's looking better. I would lose the L shape vanity. I'm not sure what that would gain you. Then you will have a decent sized vanity and most likely room for a double bowl. Not having 2 sinks doesn't make sense. If you don't get ready at the same time why have double shower heads?

L shape = more counter space.

We brush our teeth in the shower. About the only thing we use the sink for is washing our hands and spitting out mouthwash. One sink is a non-negotiable thing on Hubby's side.

This is the version I've come up with. Sorry it's not so polished - couldn't quite get the app to do what I wanted:

Hubby is not a fan of this idea as he says the privacy partition would be in the way, even though the toilet placement is identical to what he originally proposed.

The wall between the shower and closet area would be extended to create more storage areas.

I still don't have one of my major goals - a decently sized uninterrupted portion of vanity space that I can use for makeup/hair/etc. There's no decent spot for the sink that doesn't totally kill that.

This is with the L going the other way. You could have drawers next to the makeup chair and either a blind cab for the sink(not real convenient, but an option) or place a cab space in the corner facing into the toilet space(also hard to reach) to store Costco sized tp or ugly things like the toilet scrubber or plunger or just void that corner and use the counter with nothing in the corner.

laxsupermom: I think we're going to wind up with a version similar to what you have unless another idea comes our way or I win the no laundry room battle (I'm still not fond of the idea for many, many reasons).

I did have another thought: We could, potentially, have the washer and dryer in a "closet" space that opens up into the hallway. I *think* it would fit length-wise but am not 100% certain. If I do that I'll gain some space for the closet/bath area.

I'll have to measure and see if it will work and then see if I can convince Hubby to go with it.

Anyone else have any brilliant ideas? Please? Pretty please?

I was just curious if you had made any progress. I personally am drooling to get my laundry area out of garage and into my mb. I had it this way in my former home and loved it.

Alicia

Is there any way to frame out the laundry in the garage, rework the plumbing and make access from inside the house?

Framing out the area in the garage was my proposal, and to me it makes tons of sense. That's our main entrance so we could make it into a mud room / laundry room thing. The problem with that is that we would then never be able to park our minivan* in the garage (not that we do so now). We might not even be able to get the car into the garage. It's a very short garage.

No substantive progress on the bathroom remodel as we're still finishing up the kitchen. I'm still against the laundry room as I just don't thing it's a practical use of the space. It would be forcing it into the area so it would be so small as to be nearly unusable (basically space to squeeze in a washer and dryer and ana rean big enough to stand in to operate them) and it would mean taking room away from an area that we use a lot (bathroom and closet / dressing area). I just can't see sacrificing all that space to an area in which I spend a maximum of two hours a week. This is also a central area of the house and it would have a serious impact on my allergies (especially since Hubby insists on Downy for his clothes).

*Getting rid of the minivan is not an option as we are frequently called upon to transport Mom, Dad and disabled brother to gatherings, events, etc. We just don't fit in a regular car.

So how about reworking the entire space. You can even squeeze in a stack W/D if your DH is still insistant.

Here is one idea. I lengthened the toilet wall an extra foot. The floor tiles are 12x12 so you can get an idea of the dimensions. The entry is supposed to be French doors, but I don't have an option for that. The shower can have a slender window (obscure glass or whatever) for some natural light. This does sacrifice closet space, but this might give you another perspective from which to work out a perfect plan.