Master Bath Plans + My Design Thought Process

Over the weekend, David and I were talking about future plans for the master bath in our Maryland house, so I thought I'd share a little about my thought process when designing the layout of a space.

Here it is now - not horrible, but outdated, and the configuration could use some help..

The master bedroom / bath is located on the second floor. There is only one bedroom on the second floor, so it is a private bath, but doesn't have a private entrance. Making it an en suite would be ideal.



Here's our main issues with the space.

Currently, the entrance door and closet bifold doors open into each other, so while it's not cramped it feels cramped. Originally, there was a door between the sink and tub / toilet, but it was removed by the previous owner and is just a cased opening -- but it still feels cramped. The tub is also on the smaller side..

Here's the existing floorplan. (I have the overall measurements, but I didn't have time to measure the whole space, the rest are approximated, but close)

and here's what I came up with .. 

It solves all of the issues and the flow feels much better.. I'm not sure about is the shower width, I'd like to make it as wide as possible, but we're restricted to 8' total width, so it may have to be a little narrower (the measurements are to code, but it may feel a little tight, so we'll have see)

Here's a 3D drawing of the proposed space #1 (not the exact finishes .. limited options in Sketch Up) .. we could fit two shower heads on the other wall .. we could also have three walls of glass verse two, but since the toilet is on the other side, it may be best to keep that solid .. lots of glass to clean, so I'll have to think about that too!

I love the idea of adding a little make up vanity on the end.

Towel bars would be added next to the new entrance..

I think in the long run, having a private entrance would be better and increase resale value, BUT moving walls and plumbing would be a lot more work probably a lot more money too (but cost would be cheaper since we'd be doing the labor ourselves ..)

So we're also considering less invasive options.

By switching the door swing and bifold doors, the flow is much better and it feels a lot more open. Enlarging the cased opening to the maximum width would also make it feel more open.. Removing the shelving next to the tub would allow for a longer shower (it could be slightly wider too in the existing foot print). and two smaller sinks could fit at the existing vanity.

Proposed 3 is the same as proposed 2, but the closet across from the vanity would be converted into a make up vanity and tall cabinet. It still has a good bit of storage in the bathroom, but the closets outside the door could supplement.

The main problem with proposed plan 2 + 3 is that they don't answer the problem of the lack of a private entrance .. Originally, I thought the new door placement has to be where the existing shower is due to the window / furniture placement in the bedroom, but If I remove the small closet outside of the bathroom, I should have just enough room.

Something like this, might be the answer to a private entrance, while not moving everything around!

*Update - since the new closet would hold extra linens / bath items, we'd only be accessing it about once a week. The every day items would be held in the vanity, so we weren't bothered by the proximity of the closet door to the sink. 

So, that's my thought process! I didn't go into how this would affect the ceiling - since it's a cathedral ceiling .. but I've been thinking about that too .. I have plans/dreams to utilize the space above .. so I'm considering that too, but that's another post!

3D drawn in Sketch Up // 2D drawn in Floorplanner

What do you think? Is the lack of a private entrance a deal breaker? or not too bad?

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Our House | Entry Plans

Thanks for letting me share our story yesterday! I always enjoy learning more about the person behind the blog - based on the survey results last week, you do too! (or at least a good chunk of you :)

Last week, you also told me that you wanted to hear more about our new house, so I'll be talking more about our plans in the next few weeks! Before house tour here and here

In other news, I just realized that we're moving in about a week .. yikes!!! We're planning to be in full project mode for 1.5 weeks in between jobs, before we head to TN, so hopefully we get lots done!

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Since we're currently away from our house, we're in full planning mode! While I was there the other week, I measured our entry and made a few plans ..

Here it is now:

Here's a few options that I came up with. Nothing's set in stone. Just a few ideas :)

coat hook // white cabinets (we'll most likely be building our own, but these are from Ikea) // pendant thrifted a few months ago // fabric 1 and 2 // tile 

coat hooks // pendant // fabric // roman shade // tile

I'd love to add a custom closet to accommodate coats, shoes, etc. Maybe bench seating too. I stay organized if everything has a place, so rather than having one big open closet, I'd love separate compartments.

Hooks are a must for me. I love having a place that I can quickly store my purse or coat. p.s. Did you see YHL announcement this morning!? One from their collection might be perfect!!

A few months ago I picked up this gorgeous pendant, I still have to confirm the scale to see if it's right for the space, but I love the shape (currently there is just one bad fluorescent light above the front door) I also have a chandelier, and drum shade, so I could do something like this though probably not .. I'll probably save that for a bedroom or office.

I love the idea of a roman shade over the one small window. Maybe a simple trim or maybe a pattern.

The existing tile is in good shape, but it's pretty basic. I think the entry of your home should make a statement. I LOVE the veining in the gray tile - plus I think it would hide dirt well. I'm also considering a Cararra marble look alike, but I'm thinking the white would be a pain to keep clean.

I'm currently considering fabrics for the roman shade and bench .. David's not thrilled with the stripe, but I love how bright and bold it is (but maybe too feminine ..)

I CAN'T wait to get started on big projects!! David's parents safely delivered our massive new (to us) table saw on Friday. So we should be good to go!

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Also, thanks SO much for voting in BHG Makeover Madness!! Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the final round, but that's ok :) It was such an honor to participate!!

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Wood in our house | to paint or not to paint part 2

Thanks for all your feedback on my to paint or not to paint post the other week!! I didn't expect so many comments, it was nice to see what you all think :)

We've been thinking about it a little more about the painting situation and I wanted to let you know where we're at. Since the entire house is post and beam I decided to play around with the main room (living and dining lower and my office upstairs) today.

Here's the room as is.

and here's a few (roughly) photoshopped drawings. I decided to remove the fixtures and include a few glass globe pendants instead (2 shown, but we'd probably have 3 ..) (also, David and I both dislike ceiling fans .. prior to removing and reconfiguring the lights, we'll see how it goes this summer ..)

1. white walls, wall beams, and banister, ceiling as is.

2. white walls, beams, and banister, ceiling stained darker and more neutral.

3. Beams stained darker and more neutral, walls, banister and ceiling planks white

4. Walls, beams, and banister white, ceilings stained darker and more neutral.

5. white wash the beams, banister and walls white

6.  Walls light gray, beams and banister white (probably not, while I love a light gray, white goes with everything .. I definitely don't want to be painting this again in a few years)

7. white walls, beams, and banister

Like I said in my last post, I know that painting the wood won't be for everyone, but in the end we have to do what makes us smile :) Right now, I'm leaning towards leaving the ceiling as is (at least for now). I think the wall beams have to be white, I hate how it chops up the wall now. We still have a good bit of time since we'll be in Ohio for another month or two.

If you have an opinion, I'd love to hear it!

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If you haven't voted in Apartment Therapy's Homies Awards head on over! There are TONS of great blogs, so you can vote for as many as you'd like (I'm nominated in project + DIY category and home design + inspiration)!! If you have voted for me, thanks so much! Your support is definitely motivation for me to keep posting and sharing :) Thank you!

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Laundry Room Plans

A late post today since I was in desperate need of doing laundry this morning.. almost all out of the necessities.

We paid to move our washer and dryer to CA when we moved there (probably cost around $200) .. our rental had a closet with a stacked washer/dryer, so they sat in the garage. We decided to sell them before we moved to Ohio instead of paying to ship them again (would have been another $200 down the drain, and what if they didn't work after moving them twice?) .. So now we're without a washer / dryer (luckily this place has a gas hookup instead of electric, so the dryer wouldn't have worked anyways). It didn't make sense to buy a gas dryer while were here since it's only a few months. So, we're waiting to buy a washer / electric dryer for our new place ..

Back to this morning. I tried to get to the laundromat early (before all the crazies got there) .. but got delayed gathering, sorting, and loading all the laundry into the car. Guess I got there too late, a women came up to me and said that she put one of her towels in my dryer with the rest of my clothes .. I was umm .. a little annoyed, confused.. Needless to say, this got me planning the laundry room for our new house in Maryland :)

Here it is when we moved in:

It's in the basement - no windows, old stained VCT, and bad fluorescent lighting. The other side of the basement has a walkout with french doors - so the goal is to bring some of the natural light into the laundry room.

Here's what I came up with today (drawn in Sketch Up). First, swap the existing door with a large barn door to help brighten things up.

*The plan below is drawn wider than the room - I was using the original blue prints which are incorrect. The laundry room and bathroom currently don't line up with the existing bedroom / spare room, so we may move the wall, but if not, the plans will be adjusted. Existing floorplan will be redrawn when I'm in MD to measure :)

On the left, we're thinking about swapping the existing utility sink with built in cabinetry, then built in shelving for storage around a stacked washer and dryer, to the right, floor to ceiling cabinets and then a counter and a rod above for hanging.

and a few more shots ..

This is just my first pass, so I'm sure that I'll make lots of changes .. but so far I'm loving it! Definitely a vast improvement over my current laundry situation!

Only a few more weeks of public laundry in Ohio, then hopefully we'll be in our Maryland home full time, so we can start the laundry room! You can follow my laundry room inspiration on Pinterest, if you'd like.

So, does public laundry creep you out too? After today, I'm definitely not a fan. For now, I'll be dreaming about our new laundry room!

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Wood in our house | to paint or not to paint

Updated 1.31.14 to add a few more options from the comments. 

Happy Wednesday! I've been thinking a lot about how we'll treat the wood in our new house (before tour here and here) .. I'm torn because I always thought if we got a house with wood, it would be the tacky wood wall paneling and we would instantly paint it all white .. The wood in our house is beautiful, but rustic, orangey and log cabiny, which isn't our style. 

SO this has left me thinking about what we should do.

Here's the room as is.

and a few options (roughly Photoshopped) The ceiling fan will be going .. but I left it in, so lets just look at paint.

1. Leave the ceiling as is, paint the wall beams white.

2. Make the ceiling a more neutral wood tone (less orange) paint the wall beams white. The labor involved scares me .. I'll have to do more research.

Also, I love the look of this, but it isn't realistic without applying new wood.

3. Paint the ceiling and wall beams white, leave the ceiling beams as is.

or neutralize the beams ..

4. Paint everything white.

5. Paint everything white and the walls a soft gray blue/green.

6. White beams, wood ceiling (added per barksandbaking comment, let me know if you'd like to see something and I'll add it, if I can :) 

7. Black ceiling beams and window trim, white wall beams and ceiling (added per danielle oakey's comment)

8. White ceiling, beams as is (added per lindsay z comment)

9. White wash the beams, paint the ceiling white

10.  Paint the beams white, white wash the ceiling

I know that painting the wood won't be for everyone, but in the end we have to follow our instincts and do what we love. Good thing we have plenty of time to think about it! If you have thoughts, I'd love to hear it! We'll be in Ohio till the end of March/April, then we're not sure where David's job will take us (hopefully to MD or closer!) It's hard not knowing, but we're making the best of it. In the meantime, we're busy making plans for our house and projects that will go our house!

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House Tour | Upstairs

If you missed yesterday's post, make sure to check out the lower level tour here.

Moving upstairs ..

The middle risers are open. We'd love to make them all open and switch them to a thick oak to match the hardwood floors. Plus the pine treads are pretty worn - not unfixable, but we think a thick oak could look awesome!

Looking down at the great room. See those squares, half way up the beams on the right? Those are covering outlets, still confused why there would be outlets up there ..

At the top of the steps, there is a open lofted area adjacent to the bedroom and the bathroom. We'll probably use this as a sitting room, maybe built in shelving against the wall on the right.

Turning the corner, the master bedroom is on the back wall. It has a beautiful vaulted ceiling and large windows. Plus it's a good size. I finally have room for a bench at the foot of the bed :)

Looking at the closet wall (David snuck in the pic :)

and the closet.

Moving back into the lofted room, you enter the master bath. It's almost identical to the bathroom downstairs, but it doesn't have a double sided closet and it has vaulted ceilings.

See the door on the right? I'll show you where it goes in a second.

The door to the right opens into a second loft area. Probably the strangest, but my favorite part of the house. This will be my office, and the only way to get there is through the bathroom ..

The size is perfect, I love the windows, and the fact that it's kinda hidden, but open.

The openness and originality is why we fell in love with this house. I never imagined getting a house with this much wood, but we do plan on painting at least some of it. I think for wood to work well, it needs to be broken up, there needs to be contrast .. so the matching banister, floors and beams running together makes it look heavy. By adding a lighter contrasting color in between, it will help emphasis how open the house really is.

There is a walk out basement, with one open room, a bedroom (really a storage room), full bath and laundry room, but I'll wait to share those pics till a little later. I wasn't able to get pictures before we moved our stuff in, so it's full of boxes.

We're itching to get started on projects, but I'm not sure how much we'll be able to get done until April when we're finished in Ohio. I may be spending part time here since David will start working long hours soon, but not sure yet. I'll keep you updated! In any event, we're in full project mode for things that will go into our house.

Hope you enjoyed our little tour!

p.s. notice that the pics are a little wider? We got a wide angle lens, so that should help capture the entire space :) Link here

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