Renovations, The Buffalo BurrowDesign Challenges in the Master Bath January 21, 2020 This is a sponsored post by Lowe’s Home Improvement. All opinions are 100% my own. After we finished our house plans, our master bath felt like one big design challenge. I avoided thinking about it because I had no idea how to overcome the issues I saw in the space. My goal for the room was like the rest of the house: add old-house character that was unique and a bit unexpected. I’m so grateful to be partnering with Lowe’s on several of these main rooms at the Burrow to make that a reality. I feel so blessed that they caught our vision, believe in what we’re doing here, and are supporting us in the journey! In all of our renovations so far, I always thought how exciting it would be to one day build from scratch. Then, you could do absolutely anything you wanted! After working around so many obstacles in renovated spaces that couldn’t be changed, I thought it’d be so fun to design one from the ground up. And don’t get me wrong, it has been fun with more freedom. But it isn’t free of design challenges or obstacles. Unless you have an unlimited budget so the floor plan can be anything you want, there are going to be compromises somewhere. You may remember in my post about designing our floor plan that our goal was to keep the footprint as small as possible. The HOA required the main floor to be 1,200 sq. feet so we tried to stick as close to that as we possible, while still getting the spaces we most wanted. We came in with a footprint of just under 1,300 sq. ft. We also chose to save budget by building a rectangle with no foundation “jut-outs.” Once you have the rectangle footprint, it becomes a jigsaw puzzle to lay out the rooms inside. We started by fitting in the main spaces we knew we wanted: the living area, the foyer, the dining room, and kitchen. Then, we worked outwards from and fit in the other spaces. As a reminder, here’s our first floor plan. You can see the master bath there on the right corner of the house. The master bath and master closets truly got the space that was left after the rest of the floor plan was designed. We fit in all of the other spaces and left the corner for the bath. I wouldn’t change it because I knew I got the other spaces just right and like I said above, something in the floor plan is going to get the leftover space and possibly feel like a compromise unless you have unlimited budget to build bigger. Aside from budget reasons, we also wanted to keep the house as small as possible…our goal all along has been “just enough.” So where did the design challenge come in on this space? Well, we had one corner. Granted, it was a decent size corner at 12 x 12′. BUT, we were trying to fit the master bath and two closets in. Remember, his and hers closets is kind of a deal breaker for Chris. He has to have it. And I’m not going to lie…I like it myself! That being said, we aren’t going for twice the closet space. We’re going with two small walk-ins vs. one large one. But trying to fit those, a separate toilet room that’s a deal breaker for me, a standing shower, and a double vanity into a 12 x 12′ square felt IMPOSSIBLE. But we made it! Let’s take a closer look at the layout we finally came up with for the space: I was shocked when we got this layout together because it all actually fit and at the sizes we hoped for! Chris’ closet is 4 x 4′, which is huge for him. Half of it will likely sit empty. My closet is 6 x 5′, which is one of the biggest closets I’ve ever had. We have a 6-foot wide double vanity, a good size standing shower, and that separate toilet room! SUCCESS, right? Yes, everything fits and we’re pleased with the size of each area. But when I started to design this space, the big design challenges started cropping up. To fit all of this in means that this bathroom has four doors in it. FOUR DOORS, Y’ALL. That’s a lot of doors in a not huge space. You guys know that focal points are a big deal to me. That is hard to create when you have all of the doors and the hallway space. Here’s the view from the doorway in our bedroom: Yes, your view is of the window and the doorways on each side. This initially felt really hard to overcome because I love for the focal point of a bathroom to be the beautiful vanity. That feels like the main event. But I also love for the focal point to be seen from the entry of a room. This felt like a big design challenge. This is a view of the left side of the room. That shower is right inside the door and you can see here how little wall space and breathing room there will be. I’ll say it again: design challenge. One of the first things I chose for the house was darker doors. We’ve done doors painted a color vs. white in the last two houses and it’s been one of our favorite things. I love how it adds dimension to my mostly white walls and makes the doors a statement. I loved that vision for this entire house except for this room. Doors that are dark and stand out felt like a bit of an issue in a small space that had so many of them. This room took a lot of brainstorming to figure out how to add character and blend the doors so that they weren’t the only focal point. I knew if I did all white walls and four dark doors in such a small space it would feel like too much. And it wouldn’t allow the other design elements to shine. Currently, the room is sheet rocked and waterproofed. And it’s ready for tile! Here’s another view of the shower right to the left of the bedroom door. It’s hard to tell in pictures, but it’s a good size and takes up the whole corner here. I want the shower and the vanity area to be main focal points. Here’s a shot of that area currently right inside the right of the door. While it’s not the main view from the door, you do see it quickly! I just had to figure out how to not let the doors steal focus. We’ve picked these mission-style doors, which have a lot of character! ReliaBilt Craftsman Primted 3-Panel Doors But my goal was to have them add to the space and not take away from the other focal points in the room. I started brainstorming ways to turn the huge design challenges in this space into something that felt purposeful. It took awhile, but I absolutely love what we came up with. It’s unique and going to be the most character-filled bathroom we’ve ever had even with those four doors! Check back tomorrow to see the design plan for this master bath! And a huge thanks to Lowe’s for catching our vision in this space and helping us turn it into a beautiful reality.
Charisse Andrews says January 21, 2020 at 5:21 pm It’s finally coming together, how exciting! If I can make a suggestion….. I urge you to reconsider which way the door swings on the toilet room. It really needs to swing out into the hall. It won’t get in the way because one usually keeps it closed all the time. It is a pain to go into the toilet area and have to step to the side of the toilet to close the door. Same when you stand again to go out. Sooo much easier. On the closets if there is the space, pocket doors are a way to go. That way you get to utilize the wall space behind the door where it now opens into the closet wall. Just a suggestion. Reply
Amber says January 21, 2020 at 8:34 pm I was about to say the same thing 🙂 In my home, you walk through the master bath to get to the master closet and I wish the home was designed with pocket doors leading into the bath and from the bath leading into the master WIC. It is important to have the door swing in the right direction but it would be even better if I didn’t have any doors that swung but rather slid into a pocket. Reply
Lindsay says January 27, 2020 at 8:24 am Thank you, Amber! Sadly, there’s no room for pockets at all, but the spaces are all big enough we have plenty of door clearance 🙂 Reply
Charisse says January 27, 2020 at 8:58 am We utilized pocket doors in several places where we could and where made it sense, and I am still happy we did. Our doors are solid wood and heavy and in 18 years not one problem. Reply
Lindsay says January 28, 2020 at 3:39 pm Yes! I think they’re a great choice for certain spots! Wish we had the wall space to tuck them in in here! Reply
Lindsay says January 27, 2020 at 8:23 am Thank you for these perspectives, Charisse! So many of these things are hard to tell in the photos, but there’s definitely no pocket door room…nowhere in the walls for it to slide! But we figured out the closet layouts before we nailed down door situations and have a lot of clearance, thankfully! The closets are very spacious for us – much more space than stuff we have, so there’s lots of door room and still will have a good bit of hanging and shelf space. Yay! The toilet room also is really deep! It’s more space than we need, but it was there…so there’ s a lot of door room without having to step around the toilet 🙂 Reply
Becky in 'Bama says January 23, 2020 at 9:12 am A bit late judging from the plumbing… but I would definitely relinquish vanity space for closet space. If you are a stay at home mom – then most days you and hubby are not trying to get ready at the same time – so a single sink and a small piece of counter space for a knee hole with a drawer would be ideal. With that said, I believe you are going to be very happy with your new ‘from scratch’ home. Looking forward to the finished product. I do agree with Charisse – a door opening out or some other option is better than having to go into a small space and turn sideways or straddle the toilet to close the door behind you. Just saying. Reply
Lindsay says January 27, 2020 at 8:20 am Thanks for that perspective, Becky! I totally see that and think it’s really personal preference! We’re major need double sink people 🙂 Plus for us, these are the most spacious closets we’ve ever had! We don’t have near enough stuff to fill them up, haha! And the toilet room is actually really spacious! It’s pretty deep, so there’s a lot of door room without going near the toilet – it’s much bigger than we need! Just the way the space shook out. Reply