How to Design an En-suite: A Jigsaw Puzzle!

Throughout the whole process of designing our home, we always consider the effect our decisions will have on the re-sale value. Reason being, we think we will outgrow this house within 5-7 years (hopefully if more babies come along). We therefore look at our renovation as an investment, not just as our home.

We’ve had our ‘investment’ hats on this week, as we had to re-design our en-suite. When the builder got upstairs and into our roof area, he discovered we had more floorspace up there than we thought. This meant we could move the walk-in-robe out of our bedroom and into its own small room next to the en-suite. To do this, we had to turn the en-suite 90 degrees and make it a little narrower than originally planned. In exchange, we get a really large master bedroom and a bigger wardrobe! Yes ladies. Yes.

: En-suite Layout: Double Vanity Sinks and a Double Shower.

Here is the layout of our bathroom. This layout has changed about 84 times in the past 2 weeks! It is like putting together a big jigsaw puzzle. Here are some of the things we need to take into consideration when designing it:

It has a sloping roof, therefore we need to make sure there is enough head-height in the shower.
The left wall sits directly above the laundry, so we need the vanity along that wall to hide the chute.
We want enough space to house a double vanity.
We want enough space to house a double shower.
We need the window to be higher than the vanity so it doesn’t cut out light.
We need a sliding door, as space is limited in the bathroom and a swinging door would cut into it.
We don’t want to look straight at the toilet when we walk through the door.
We want to place the towel rack next to the shower door
We want the toilet next to a wall, so we can mount a toilet roll next to it.
We want an in-the-wall cistern for the toilet.

: In the wall cistern – it looks slick and is much easier to clean.

As often happens, we can’t have everything. As of this morning, this is where things stand:

There isn’t enough space under the vanity for two sets of pipes AND a laundry chute. After much debate, we both agreed to loose the laundry chute. We thought that a chute is more of a novelty item, whereas a double vanity is a luxury and will help with re-sale.

: We are going to have a timber vanity top with two above-counter ceramic sinks… though not as long as this one!

Also, in order to have a sliding door, and keep the toilet in the location we want, we cannot have an in-the-wall cistern. There is not enough room in the wall cavity, as that’s where the sliding door will go. We could move the toilet onto the opposite wall, but that means we will look straight at it when we walk in the door. A bit distasteful I think. So we will have to use a regular toilet like the one below, which we decided isn’t a big sacrifice.

Ooo I like these subway tiles too.

This is what the en-suite is looking like right now.

You can see the sloping roof in this shot. The shower we go across that end of the bathroom, but will be wide enough to get enough height.

Here is the entrance to the en-suite, you can see the sliding door cavity. We will enter the en-suite from the walk-in-robe. Makes for quick dressing after a shower!