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karen15_gw

Door or no door??? Suggestions please

Karen15
10 years ago

I've posted in other sections of the forum before but have found the most feedback in this section so I decided to post my question here :)

Framing is just about finished. In our master bathroom entrance way from bedroom the glass shower is on the left and our vanity is on the right directly across. So in my opinion there's no room for an inswing door. Does anyone have a door that swings out into their bedroom? The door will stay open the majority of the time. My husband actually said do we need a door. I said yes for moisture reasons. The toilet is next to the shower behind a wall.

Left side-glass shower and then toilet
Right side-vanity and then linen closet

1. Have the door swing out into bedroom ( had a hard time finding pics of this look)
2. No door at all
3.sliding barn door (are these expensive?)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Comments (14)

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    10 years ago

    We have a similar set up, shower on left with pot beyond, vanity and sinks on the right. Our door swings in to the right, but behind the door is a linen closet and we pushed the sinks further down the wall so the sinks are unobstructed. I really want a bathroom door as it helps keep the bath warm when showering, esp for when you step out of the shower.

  • mrspete
    10 years ago

    Yes, my bathroom door swings out into my bedroom. It is neither good nor bad. I never think about it.

    When this house was built in the late 60s/early 70s, the master bath was tiny: 3' sink /vanity, toilet, walk-in shower. Having the door open into the bathroom would've been essentially impossible. We added a bump-out, which doubled the size of the bath, moved /enlarged the sink area, and added a linen closet and a tub. We did not alter the door.

  • Karen15
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    In early planning stages I was considering switching the vanity and linen but opted not to because I didn't want the vanity directly in front of toilet but rather wanted it in front of glass shower.im leaning towards swinging the door out into the bedroom. I'd have to check and make sure it won't hit anything or be in front of a window.

  • Karen15
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Basically it looks like the door will swing near a window in the bedroom. If I don't sit anything in front of the window ever...it can swing out that way.

  • ILoveRed
    10 years ago

    How wide is the opening and is there any wall space where the doors would open onto?

    The reason I ask...

    I had a similar situation in this house. An in swing door would hit a vanity no matter what.

    I made the opening wider, put in a double door, essentially making each door smaller and neither door hit a vanity.

    Double doors are more expensive but it worked it well.

  • chibimimi
    10 years ago

    IMO, the no-door option is no option, even aside from moisture. Bathrooms are noisy places! If someone uses the bathroom in the middle of the night, or if one of you is an early rise-and-shiner, the noise will wake the other person.

    For this reason, the barn door might also be questionable, because the ones I'm familiar with all close more noisily than a swing door.

  • Karen15
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Hmmm Im trying to see if a pocket door can be framed in since it's not drywalled yet. I feel like its the only option.

  • mommytoty
    10 years ago

    I've gout double pocket doors going from the master to the master bath. We are still in foundation stage, so can't comment on how I like them in real life, but having regular doors would have taken up too much space and I definitely like having the privacy and ablility to minimize noise and light into the bedroom.

  • emmachas_gw Shaffer
    10 years ago

    We have double doors opening into the bedroom. Since they are each a fraction less than 18", I don't feel there is an obstruction.
    Since reading the horror stories on this forum about the elderly or children being trapped behind doors that open into a bathroom or toilet area, we plan our new house to be the same way.

  • cardinal94
    10 years ago

    We learned from some research that outward swinging doors are recommended for aging-in-place because if someone collapses in a bathroom, it can be against the door - which can't be opened inwardly trying to get to the person. You might not be old enough to be thinking that way, but it brought up something that seemed really practical to us for general safety.

    I personally do not like pocket doors on bathrooms. There are times when one of us is sleeping earlier or later and the other is in the bathroom. Pocket doors have to be completely closed to block the light. A hinged door can be left slightly ajar while turning light on/off. Maybe I'm being too picky, but these are the kinds of things we've been thinking about in designing our house.

  • autumn.4
    10 years ago

    karen-our layout sounds similar and I have thought about making it an outswing too. With our inswing it would block the toilet though and not the shower.

    I also have thought about a pocket but think it would be much noiser in the middle of the night than a swing door so I have avoided it so far.

    We start framing soon (so I am told) so I have a couple weeks to keep thinking before I have to decide.

  • bebetokids
    10 years ago

    We have a pocket door with a very similar layout between bedroom and bath. It has worked very well for us. No issues.

  • robo (z6a)
    10 years ago

    Our ensuite door swings out into our bedroom (actually into the entrance to the bedroom, so into a passageway). I love it because it means the door is always only slightly ajar or closed! It looks neat and tidy.

    We too had too tiny a space to swing in. I considered barn doors but I am a cheapskate and the closet and bathroom doors were too close together to both have on tracks (they would have bumped in to each other). The pocket door is another great solution although locking them is just a little harder and I think some less perfectionist builders have a tendncy to make them less 'sound tight' than other doors (more space at top and bottom) to make sure they travel freely.

    The previous owners had the aforementioned double doors but I didn't like them. Our opening was only 30 inches and navigating 2 15 inch doors was a pain, plus the doors narrowed the opening to almost 26 inches the way they were hung so I felt a bit Hulk like shouldering my way through.

    There are some us shops on etsy that sell beautiful barn door hardware for $200 or less.

    Apparently I don't have an after photo, but here's a floor plan (room is about 4'8" x 7') that kind of undersells how tight it is.

    and here's the before with closet on left and bathroom door on right (realtor photo, not my stuff)

    Another thing about the double doors -- with one large, single door, if I'm busting my way into the bedroom, say with a laundry basket, it's easy to shove the door out of the way as it is hinged on the right and the natural movement is to close the door. With the double doors, the right door was easy to push out of the way but the left door stuck out into my path and was easy to bang into. As well, the left door had to be closed before the right door to close properly so there were a lot of operations involved in getting the door out of my way rather than a simple push.

    Even though this isn't the remodeling forum, here's the bathroom plan before remodeling, just because I couldn't believe the floor plan the previous owners deliberately came up with for this tiny bathroom.

    This post was edited by robotropolis on Wed, Oct 23, 13 at 11:49

  • Karen15
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Are those the same price as a regular door or does it cost more ( the double ones) .