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Actually, another look at the photo, and I would combine both closets into one closet and move the single door so that it is more centered, as well as reshaping the shower
I have been in some homes that are measured out over 5000 sq.ft. but feel "cramped" becuase many of the areas that typically get used everyday are oddly shaped and I have been in homes of half that measured square footage that are very comfortable becuase of better layout. Also agree that once you get accustomed to a particularly size & function even a shift of a few inches can make a tremendous difference in how day-to-day use improves. I would even go so far a to say that how much natural light or how "exposed" one feels in your bath due to window placement can make big differences in how usable the space is.
The other side of the coin is that often when a homeowner calls up some generic remodeling company and tells the representatives "my bathroom is not big enough" and they proceed to start 'stealing' space from closets or adjacent bedrooms the end result may be more square feet dedicated to the bathroom but a space that still is not any more comfortable / functional AND the creation of additional issues for storage or bedroom spaces. Not good either.
The solution is to not just rely on the opinions of those of here in cyberspace nor to hire some "I have a truck and tool-belt so I am remodeler" type buffoon, but instead to interview professionals that have the training and experience to actually address the unique challenges of even 'minor' renovation projects. For folks that do spend time meeting with different qualified firms they often end up SAVING money by changing the focus of a project from a costly and ill planned "gut makeover" to a more focused change that improves just the problem areas that the client narrows in on. For all the time that TV shows spend with cameras tracking the 'demolition' phase of make-overs they rarely emphasis the back & forth that is necessary to get the best solution on paper before all the works starts. Back when HGTV worked with designers like Michael Payne there was a bit more insight into how real design process usually work, Michael Payne explains how couples can share creative control in design projects
folks could learn a lot from listening to how that can play out --
I would say that at its best the forums here sometimes work like that -- a poster comes looking for "How do I rip this all out and start over" and then folks share pictures and ideas of how they did not have to rip everything out or how they just changed a few little things and the consensus is the end result is better than a more extreme solution...
So true, Chet. I hear you about cyberspace...but I can say this topic has been very helpful! It's always a bonus when you get some good advice out of these forums, eh? I never thought about lighting either. I bet if I had more natural light it would give the same effect. Outside of the window are two large loripetalums that shield the window but the downside is they block out a good amount of light.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NOLA2SGF
Michael Payne was my absolute favorite HGTV personality and designer. The rooms he created were so nice.
Another, unrelated thing I wanted to mention is that those of us who are not designers sometimes aren't as sure of what we want, as we think we are:
In my case, for years I THOUGHT I wanted a 48"x72" shower instead of my cramped 22"x30" shower (with dangerous inward swinging door). I was ready to pay through the nose to get one. However, fitting one into my home was a problem so although I had contractors out to look at it, I never put in the new shower.
I recently sold that house and moved into another home, which has a 42"x42" shower, and much to my surprised it has plenty of room! I just didn't know that a shower this size would work for me.
You're on to something there. I think I know what I want but I do make sure that I take things under consideration. Maybe that's a sign of the older, mellower me vs. the impetuous me of years ago..lol.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke
Are the two doors at the end of the room both doors into the closets? If so, I would remove the wall between the closets and close up the door closest to teh shower. You'd have one very big closet instead of two medium size closets, and you could update that shower into a better shape.
The big problem that I see with that bathroom is that it looks very economy grade. It doesn't look small or cramped, it just looks lacking in style.
Quote:
Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke
Actually, another look at the photo, and I would combine both closets into one closet and move the single door so that it is more centered, as well as reshaping the shower
Yes, the two doors lead to the closets. To be honest, what you are proposing is kind of what I had in mind but I would still shorten the closet and that extra space for a bigger shower or maybe even a recessed shower. Our next door neighbor's shower is recessed and I had never seen that before. It looked pretty cool. But that was how the bathroom was planned from the beginning, whereas I would be "going against plan" with this bathroom by doing that.
I do get what you're saying about the "before" listing photos. The house is actually a locally built custom house but it was built in the late 80s and some rooms are VERY late 80s style. I don't know what it is about the 80s - early 90s era - they're time capsules but not cool enough to be retro. Think lots of oak, small basic white tiles, brass fixtures. The builder actually did use good materials for cabinetry (solid wood) and marble but everything looks so dated. The previous owners (who built the house) spent gobs of money on certain things (outside kitchen, kitchen cabinets, built ins, pool, etc.) but didn't spend on others. It also didn't help that they didn't have a design flair at all :/ We purchased the home with the intent to renovate it over the years since it is such a good house, well loved. Sometimes you overlook cosmetic things (and bathrooms) when overall you couldn't have found a better house...
I do get what you're saying about the "before" listing photos. The house is actually a locally built custom house but it was built in the late 80s and some rooms are VERY late 80s style. I don't know what it is about the 80s - early 90s era - they're time capsules but not cool enough to be retro. Think lots of oak, small basic white tiles, brass fixtures. The builder actually did use good materials for cabinetry (solid wood) and marble but everything looks so dated. The previous owners (who built the house) spent gobs of money on certain things (outside kitchen, kitchen cabinets, built ins, pool, etc.) but didn't spend on others. It also didn't help that they didn't have a design flair at all :/ We purchased the home with the intent to renovate it over the years since it is such a good house, well loved. Sometimes you overlook cosmetic things (and bathrooms) when overall you couldn't have found a better house...
I always wish people would show picture of their OLD houses and how fantastically "cool" they were when they throw shade about other houses or previous eras.
The tile choices were just a reflection of the owners' taste. And the region. Although I remember my mother renovating her kitchen after a fire and we were excited about the "new" choices of 18 inch tiles.
Oak? Gurl you're in Texas, right? Here's a review of 1980s style in decorating in that time.
1980s trend was about in part - shabby chic, chintz and new designer availability like Ralph Lauren and Laura Ashley - preppy, country and even nautical. Open layouts started cropping up. "Country" (American AND French) and "Colonial" even "farmhouse" became a "thing". Even in the Hamptons or Connecticut.
But classic furniture and design really never went OUT of "style". And that can include BRASS chandeliers.
Brass is because of the higher end choices not tacky ones. Like Baldwin Hardware and people were fortunate to be able to afford it. Yes it might "date" a home but there are WORSE things.
I bought my first house in 1986 new construction and there were none of the "not cool enough" time capsule features you mentioned. We just didn't have the OPTIONS of the newer materials or ZILLIONS of different stone/granite tiles. So around my roman tub in the master bath I had plain beige 8"tile so shoot me. Should I have spent 5x that much to pay a custom tile person to put what? RETRO subway tile because someone might think it's cool even though the house was modern design?
Of course it was in Washington Crossing, PA, Bucks County - an iconic location where George Washington crossed the Delaware so the Township was almost completely decorated in Colonial, Queen Anne type, "Oriental" Rugs, lots of DUCKS and BRASS. Essentially the same quality you see back decades in the very expensive places like Grosse Pointe or Palm Beach.
I'd like to suggest that you don't see as much QUALITY materials like BRASS now because people are buying CHEAP stuff like the "distressed" and "burnished" brass that comes from other countries and is essentially not half the quality of what was considered "quality" materials.
LIke the crap you see in TJ Maxx and Marshalls and Pier One. Or even Pottery Barn a generic boring look.
As a dog walker I work in new homes all the time and they throw up a hunk of granite and call it "decorator" LOL. They all look THE SAME.
Like Pottery Barn. Trendy.
Reminds me when I moved to FL. I had a virtually unused $5000 sofa I offered to a coworker's daughter who had NOTHING. I mean NOTHING. The sofa belonged to my mother who bought it before she died. The girl came with her mom to see it and remarked "I don't like plaid or green and yellow".
My answer was :"So what, pretend you do - nobody will ever know." LOL
Last edited by runswithscissors; 04-23-2016 at 08:56 AM..
I always wish people would show picture of their OLD houses and how fantastically "cool" they were when they throw shade about other houses or previous eras.
The tile choices were just a reflection of the owners' taste. And the region. Although I remember my mother renovating her kitchen after a fire and we were excited about the "new" choices of 18 inch tiles.
Oak? Gurl you're in Texas, right? Here's a review of 1980s style in decorating in that time.
1980s trend was about in part - shabby chic, chintz and new designer availability like Ralph Lauren and Laura Ashley - preppy, country and even nautical. Open layouts started cropping up. "Country" (American AND French) and "Colonial" even "farmhouse" became a "thing". Even in the Hamptons or Connecticut.
But classic furniture and design really never went OUT of "style". And that can include BRASS chandeliers.
Brass is because of the higher end choices not tacky ones. Like Baldwin Hardware and people were fortunate to be able to afford it. Yes it might "date" a home but there are WORSE things.
I bought my first house in 1986 new construction and there were none of the "not cool enough" time capsule features you mentioned. We just didn't have the OPTIONS of the newer materials or ZILLIONS of different stone/granite tiles. So around my roman tub in the master bath I had plain beige 8"tile so shoot me. Should I have spent 5x that much to pay a custom tile person to put what? RETRO subway tile because someone might think it's cool even though the house was modern design?
Of course it was in Washington Crossing, PA, Bucks County - an iconic location where George Washington crossed the Delaware so the Township was almost completely decorated in Colonial, Queen Anne type, "Oriental" Rugs, lots of DUCKS and BRASS. Essentially the same quality you see back decades in the very expensive places like Grosse Pointe or Palm Beach.
I'd like to suggest that you don't see as much QUALITY materials like BRASS now because people are buying CHEAP stuff like the "distressed" and "burnished" brass that comes from other countries and is essentially not half the quality of what was considered "quality" materials.
LIke the crap you see in TJ Maxx and Marshalls and Pier One. Or even Pottery Barn a generic boring look.
As a dog walker I work in new homes all the time and they throw up a hunk of granite and call it "decorator" LOL. They all look THE SAME.
Like Pottery Barn. Trendy.
Reminds me when I moved to FL. I had a virtually unused $5000 sofa I offered to a coworker's daughter who had NOTHING. I mean NOTHING. The sofa belonged to my mother who bought it before she died. The girl came with her mom to see it and remarked "I don't like plaid or green and yellow".
My answer was :"So what, pretend you do - nobody will ever know." LOL
Eh...ok? LOL.
Give me your address and you can keep all of the stuff when we're done. I don't care for the brass, the plain white tiles, or the overall blandness. there are things about the 80s and 90s that I can appreciate but those things look very dated and are not my style. And since we purchased the house as they say...
Love basically everything about our home except for the small master bathroom ( 9 x 15, with a lot of the floor space taken up by toilet closet, tub, shower and cabinets). For our final home before retirement, one of the things on my wish list was a bigger master bathroom with everything all spread out instead of kind of closed in. This house had so many other positives that I wasn't going to miss out on a great house due to something like a bathroom.
The thing with this house is that there is little room for modification that won't somehow alter the "flow" or the distinct design. It's a custom build, so there really isn't much empty space. Everything has a purpose/ties in together. The only thing I can conceivably do is remove one of the identical sized his/her closets that are side by side and maybe just make the remaining closet a little longer. Removing one of the closets would net me an additional 4 x 6 area. Not a lot, but maybe the shower could be recessed (taking over the old closet space) and make the bathroom overall more spacious.
However, what holds me back about implementing that idea is the fact that the master will now just have one 4 x 6 closet. Will that be an issue down the road re-sale wise? I renovate as I wish but when you're doing such a big thing like I'm describing I don't want to have something bite us in the butt down the road since closet space isn't such an easy add on.
Thanks,
We were undercloseted for 26 years, and I feel this had a negative effect on our resale. I'd rather have adequate closets than a big bath. In fact, I wish my current big bath was smaller, and the sq footage could somehow be added to another room!
Just leave the closets alone. Your house is great in every other way. No house is perfect.
Home decor and finishings absolutely do go out of style. Just because something was popular in the 1980s doesn't mean people have to like it now, and yes, that can include brass. It may fit in some houses, but for someone with different tastes, it's fine if it doesn't fit what they like.
Having gone through the process of building a new house in 2014, I can't imagine thinking that every future owner of my house has to be bound by my tastes. Hell, even I don't want to be bound by my 2014 choices if I decide in 2024 to switch things up.
I think the smaller closet would seem disproportionate to your house size, while the current size of the master bath seems appropriate to your house size. So there isn't really any gain from the change you proposed. Looking at your bathroom, it looks like changing materials and squaring off the shower could improve the function and appearance. I also don't like L shaped vanity area, but that is probably just me.
We design stage now and my big discussion with my partner and the designer is to make sure, the master is done correctly! I really wish that the closet space be very generous and to have lots of space for shoes, elegant clothing, winter jackets, etc...
We are 5 yrs plus dreaming to get out this 2-bed tiny house the last thing I do want is to build up a small room when we do have plenty space! It is not too easy to convince but I am still trying, anyway.
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I never thought about lighting either. I bet if I had more natural light it would give the same effect. Outside of the window are two large loripetalums that shield the window but the downside is they block out a good amount of light.
