During the holidays, anything “non-essential” is moved to the back burner (or simply put in the freezer, out of sight/mind). So, other than partnership deadlines and the timely end of the year, I immersed myself in my family and completely forgot that I had a very shabby house that needed my attention. But I’m back and very excited to get this project going (but don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything since this post). Today I want to tell you about some bathroom ideas I’m really excited about, that are more fantasy than practical. It’s a big room, 12×16, so it would probably have a freakishly large bathroom with a vaulted ceiling… and a urinal. Just having the basics (toilet, sink, shower) felt weird and awkward. So I have some fun guest cottage bathroom ideas, and I want to share them…
Expect to find reclaimed wood to place paneling on one wall and throughout the rest of the room. I need 600 sq ft (3 walls and ceiling). The picture is clear in my mind, but it’s hard to explain. It’s going to be rustic (but cohesive) with a side of “summer camp” because of the amount of wood, but with a cohesive color palette and fun tiles and fabrics. More to come on materials.
Okay, so since the room is large and has high ceilings, I want to divide it and create a “room within a room”. And since I promised Brian a urinal, I want to put him and the toilet in his own room. I’m sure there are many ways I could do this, but I have two main ideas that I like almost equally.
Toilet Room Idea #1: “Outhouse”
OK, so imagine this – a small, ceilinged room inside a paneled bathroom. It will be almost free-standing (standing against the back wall) and will have double doors. It can be shaped like an outhouse (but can be widened for double doors and to fit a urinal). I can 100% imagine this, and I have no doubts about it, as crazy as the idea sounds. It can be paneled and painted, so it fits into the same world, but is separated by the wooden walls (which we’re expected to match and maintain).
I was very inspired by this bathroom with its tiled toilet cubicle and shower downstairs.
What an absolutely delightful (and ballsy) design. This designer has created two tiled rooms (with glass block, no less!) inside that feel like an old-world bathroom.
One room is for toilet and one for shower. Now, while a tiled version of my “outhouse” would be incredible, I think the tile budget might get completely out of control if we did that. But I think it’s the best representation of this out-of-the-box, fantastical idea. Very good, Buchanan Studio! When we first saw it a few years ago, our “watercooler” Slack channel was all the rage. I know it’s controversial, but we all thought it was a totally charming idea, executed so well.
Toilet Room Idea #2 – “Through a Secret Arsenal”
I mean, I’ve always wanted to do this (who hasn’t). You go in, and it’s just a big armory (flat roof, not pitched), and then you open it up, and there’s a toilet and a urinal in it. What a joy! The only caveat with this is that in order for the toilet to fit with the correct clearance, it needs to be deep enough that, from the side, it would give itself away (no room is that deep). Most of the ones I found online steal space from the adjacent room, which we don’t want to do here. So while this idea is a 12 on the entertaining scale, I’m afraid its implementation is more challenging. Not only do I need to either find a huge, beautiful armoire, or build one, but I need to make it at least 4′ deep, and I think it will stick out so far that it will look dumb.
Our first render…
My team is having a lot of fun using it SaySo we’ve created some highs here to show you. Now this is a tough one, but hopefully what I’m talking about represents it enough to be able to imagine and either agree with me or not. Depending on the size of the fixtures we go with (toilets, urinals, sinks), we may not be able to bounce the structure off the side wall like this, but I like how it looks with some breathing room if the spacing works out. The sink will likely be vintage (and possibly hanging on the wall), and the location of the water heater is still TBD (and should be small), but we wanted to account for it (it will likely be hidden within a fake cabinet).
When I was in the space, I joked about the outhouse depth being too deep, but now I’m realizing it might be too shallow a depth (toilets are about 30″ and front clearance should be 15″). But you have to account for framing, so I figure we’re at least 60″ away from the wall. There are a lot of things to troubleshoot (and build), and the whole idea may not work. But imagine this – you’re at a big outdoor party on our patio, and you’re told the bathroom is by “that door over there.” Then, when you go inside, you see this strange room with impossibly beautiful stained glass doors that say “toilet” or “toilet room.” Then you open them and inside you have your own private toilet and urinal (may need to find out privacy status for stained glass doors, haha…). Maybe it’s a tiled wall inside (or OG paneling). Maybe even a few scones. How cute does this look???
And where does one bathe?
Okay, we’ve covered our toilet/urinal and sink, so where should the shower go? And what does it look like? Now this may not be a much-used shower (at least not for many years), so again we can be more creative with it. I had two thoughts going around…
“Floating” spherical shower pan
How funny is this?? I found this when I was researching how to shower without all the hot mop shower pan waterproofing stuff (I was trying to avoid renting one for this). What is the least amount of “work” to do in a shower without using a plastic insert (which I fully considered BTW and might be worth a blog post). So I found these pictures on Pinterest, showing open plumbing with shower curtains all around (no tile, no waterproofing walls) and what appears to be just a marble round shower pan on the floor (there are also versions with cast iron claws). Now, would this possibly pass US bathroom code or inspection? I have no idea, but I bet you don’t? But that didn’t stop me from spending at least 5 hours planning the bathroom with this in mind. Ultimately, I decided it would be smart to future-proof the bathroom by installing the tub, which would move this floating circular shower to the corner, in which case making it round made less and less sense (I found some corner quarter-round showers that were really fun, but started to look a little too complicated).
Corner Shower with Chest Height Pony Wall
Okay, then, I considered building a square or rectangular shower in the corner, but making it more in line with the chest-height pony wall for privacy (and because I like the idea of a high wall). And then on top of the wall, a super cute hanging curtain (almost like a café curtain, but that goes from the ceiling to the top of the pony wall), which gives me a chance to add a fun pattern/print and texture/softness. Fabric and tile are two of my favorite design elements, so I like to combine them as much as possible. I also like the idea of a column or some kind of decorative (and seemingly load-bearing) post or newel to add some architectural grounding (and to tie up the paneling).
Here’s a bird’s eye view, which isn’t necessarily accurate yet, but gives you a better idea of where everything is going to go. We can make the shower a rectangle, and we can make a floor-mounted faucet for the tub, etc. (and pretend the sink inside the outhouse is a urinal). But I think it’s extremely helpful to see where we’re headed.
This is where we left off. Since then, framed flooring has begun to be constructed so that we can put pipes in it for plumbing. But there’s still a lot to consider:
- floor – If all the walls and ceiling are wood paneled, a tile floor would certainly be nice, but at 12×16, that’s a larger floor, and tile is significantly more expensive to install than wood floors. And we’re planning to paint a pattern on the wood floor of the living room/kitchen, so I don’t want to do the same here, otherwise it will be a circus house. We may also need to do under-floor heating here, as we are not installing a Quilt mini split in this room. more to come.
- walls – So my goal is to find reclaimed wood that matches the tone of the wall that already has beautiful existing paneling on it (the wall where the outhouse will be). So far, I haven’t found it. It doesn’t need to be exact, and I don’t mind if the width or profile is a little different – it might look a little weird, but I want the tone of the wood to be the same.
- windows – I think we’re getting rid of the far wall because it looks towards the fence and is frozen. I think we’re going to put a skylight in here anyway. We’ll keep the big picture window.
- framing – We’ll have to build a frame to raise the floor, so I’ll have to troubleshoot raising the door and building some sort of staircase on the outside.
It’s pretty exciting, and now that I have my head completely on straight (man, the holiday break killed me this year), I’m super excited to keep moving forward. Just need to get the plumber to answer me 🙂
*by photos Keltin Green
