Help me remodel my master bath

Parent Cafe
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I’ve moved 10 times in 15 years, so I’ve never had to deal with a remodel until this home, which we’ve lived in for 20 years. We redid everything else slowly over time and never needed to deal with gutting a space. When we replaced our windows, I joked that I was used to just moving when the windows got dirty.

Due to a crappy ventilation fan, we’re now getting some mold on our ceiling and walls. Everything is builder-grade and 30 years old, so nothing is worth keeping. We’ll take it down to the studs and start over. It’s too small to ever be my dream bath, so I’m just looking for form over function. The room is 8x9. When you walk in, there is a linen closet follwed by a double vanity along the left wall and a tub/shower followed by a toilet on the right wall. I plan to replace that with a walk-in shower, but it will not be very wide (just as wide as our current bathtub, as that goes almost to the door frame). The shower mechanics are in a wall between the shower and the toilet. So, basically, there doesn’t seem to be any way to change the layout.

I don’t even know where to begin.

Looking for your suggestions on materials that are the easiest to clean and require the least maintenance. We will need a new walk-in shower, flooring, walls, ceiling, toilet, vanity, and sinks.

Any suggestions on toilets with built-in bidets? We now have an after-market bidet add on and I have been converted.

Shower heads? Our current shower head is nothing more than a nozzle, but it was great water pressure. It’s something I can’t live without. I complain every time we leave home about the water pressure. I’d like something that has a handheld unit to be able to clean the shower.

Also, did you work with your GC to pick out all of the fixtures or did you do that ahead of time? Where does one even begin to look? What is the general order of what I should do before I call a contractor?

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We started with the contractor first. Our contractor helped direct us to his preferred bath outfitter and designer, and we were able to use his contractor discount. The bath showroom ended up being high quality but reasonable cost points. The contractor also directed us to Floor and Decor for the tile and had a person for the countertops.

Personally I spent time on Houzz looking at photos for inspiration and then took the bathrooms I liked stylistically to the bath showroom. You can search by “small bathrooms” or customize whatever search you want. Just be prepared that you’ll go down the rabbit hole and can spend hours!

Thumper introduced me to Gemini AI which can also take your existing bathroom photo and allow you to do all kinds of customization based on what you like so you can visualize the actual space.

We love our Grohe shower heads. The bath showroom can direct you to what to get to maximize water pressure and your plumber/installer can help with that too!

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Following. We need to do the same but job. I had two smaller companies come in and I’m overwhelmed. I know what I want in this bathroom but have no clue about layout and how to make it work. I felt like they sort of expected me to already know or wanted me to just go along with their first ideals.

They also worked with local suppliers and would want us to choose products from those places. Also overwhelming!

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I have an 11 inch (not rainfall) shower head, and also one that you can pull away from wall. I love having both. Think about shower door styles in addition to everything else.

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There are all kinds of free design quizzes on the internet if you really don’t know where to start. Also, you can hire a bath designer.

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No idea on where to find these quizzes. Any recommendations?

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Search “what’s my bathroom design style quiz” and you will get a bunch of hits.

I still like going though houzz and taking note of what appeals to you. You can take the inspiration pics with you to the showrooms.

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We have friends with the add-on bidet. They like it and figured it was made more sense than having one big expensive unit that could fail. But I’d be interested in hearing other feedback.

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If you live in a place that can get cold, consider getting a towel warmer. I love mine. My husband wasn’t a big fan, but if he got his steam shower, then I was going to get my towel warmer. We are still married and he does enjoy it when it gets cold outside.

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You just plug it in right??

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Ours is hardwired, but you can get plug in ones.

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Circling back now that I’m on my computer this morning to say that I totally get it, and also felt very overwhelmed! There are so many darn decisions to make, so many beautiful tiles, fixtures, color combinations, etc…

I’ve done bathrooms from scratch a number of times over the years. We built our last house from the ground up so had four bathrooms to design (a primary, a guest bath, our D’s bath, and a basement bath) and we added two bathrooms to our current house (primary and basement) which didn’t exist and remodeled two more (powder room and D’s bath).

Where to start:

Budget! (It’s college confidential after all :wink:). Material costs can vary from .$49/sq ft to $70/sq ft and up just for tile! If you walk into a showroom, grab a sales person, tell them your budget, and they’ll direct you to the right area. That will help narrow it down!

Overall style preference. This is where sites like Houzz can help you figure out what you like and inspires you. Take the inspiration pictures with you to the showroom.
I typically take my cues from the style of house I’m in. For example, we live in a 120+ year old Tudor. We choose cabinets that matched the shaker built ins in the living room/dining room, marble that coordinated with what was in the existing hall bath, and fixtures that mimicked what was period appropriate. I bypassed all the pretty modern stuff at the showroom even though it’s gorgeous and spoke to me too ; ). Similarly if I were in a mid century modern or contemporary, I’d skip all the traditional stuff.

Color palette - to me this is the easiest. Start with what colors you typically like for your clothes, your home decor, etc…

Your contractor will help you with layout (much dependent on existing pipes/drains) but if you are gutting a room, know that you can be more flexible. For example, we borrowed a few inches from behind our sinks to make for a bigger closet. No one can tell that it isn’t a standard hallway width, we can fit be each other fine, and we got the room we wanted where we needed it.

If you live near a Floor and Decor, or other similar big tile showroom, I highly recommend a field trip. The front of the F&D stores have a bunch of full scale bathroom vignettes and they purposefully have different styles to walk through. It’s a good way to see what speaks to you!

And then don’t forget to budget for the “extras” - TP holders, towel racks, window treatments, bath mats/towels, etc…

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We’ve done a few over the years. Just a couple suggestions - if you are planning on tile, go to tile store (s) early on. So many different sizes and styles now, but not unlimited. Your choices may set the colors, tone, for other items like counters and floors.

If you are tall or sort of tall, the taller but still standard cabinets/counters may be a good idea. Taller toilets too.

Faucets/towel bars and such may be less expensive for the same thing if you can purchase them yourselves. Framed mirrors too.

I agree about looking online at Houzz and such for inspiration photos.

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Yes to taller toilets! Also known as comfort height.

Yes to Floor and Decor. Ask lots of questions.

We couldn’t figure out a floor plan for our bathroom and kept interviewing contractors until one recommended a layout that made sense.

Think about the direction of door swings, think about space for hooks and towel bars.

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Agree with the person who recommended taller cabinets - I think they may be called comfort height. I could easily decide what i didn’t like, but finding something I liked was harder. Something I told the people helping me was I wanted something pretty neutral that “nobody would hate.” We weren’t sure how long we’d be in our house, so figured more neutral was better.

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IMO, Houzz is not what it used to be. I’ll type something in their search bar because I want to see ideas but then I’ll get dozens of ads for things I’m not looking for and an occasional photo of something I wanted to see.

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We just finished a bathroom remodel. Room is 7 ft by 9 ft. Along one side wall we had a 2 ft wide closet, an 18” sink and vanity, and the toilet. On the opposite wall we had a 5 ft wide tub/shower.

We got rid of the closet, which allowed us to put in a 48 inch vanity in its place, toilet in same position. Since this is our main bathroom (downstairs master bedroom) and we have a tub/shower upstairs, we put in a walk in shower with all the grab bars, seat, etc., we’ll need as we age in place. New clear shower doors and new floor of 1 ft x 2 ft tiles.

For the shower fixtures we don’t have super great water pressure so we went with a small shower head that doubles as a hand wand. We know someone who HATES, HATES their rain showerhead and will be glad to tell anyone and everyone about it!

Getting rid of the closet, along with the clear shower doors has given the room the illusion of being much more spacious than it really is. While we were at it we added a great ventilation fan (40 years ago code only required a window for ventilation), and sconce lights on either side of the medicine cabinet/mirror. The overhead light now contains 2 bulbs vs 1—big difference in brightness.

Frankly what took the longest was deciding on what we wanted. There are an almost endless possibility of choices out there. The guy at a local kitchen and bath center was very helpful. For the shower head, for example, we told him what we wanted and he walked us over to a display and showed us a product that was perfect.

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Architect here. Our master bath is 6’-4” x 12’-0”, so similar size, but different layout. No linen closet (I store towels under the vanity). I love our walk in shower with just a handheld shower that can be adjusted to any height. The shower area is 3 ft wide by 6 ft and feels almost too long. I used plain white subway tiles on the walls and an inexpensive mosaic floor from Home Depot. I got a nice border of glass tiles, and chair rail tile installed at about 7 feet high. The recess for the shampoo and soap also is fancy tile. New shower heads may not give you your old water pressure as regulations have changed.

I wish I’d splurged on a toilet with a bidet. No easy way to install it now as there isn’t even a plug nearby. I also wish the toilet was behind a door. We ended up sticking with one sink since we rarely use the bathroom at the same time. I like the Toto toilets. I also wish that I’d remembered to install reinforcing where we might want to install future grab bars or a pull down bench.

It’s impossible to photograph, but you can sort of get an idea here:

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Around here a down to the studs remodel requires a building permit and an architect. Your architect can help you with materials or you can come to them with a pretty clear idea of what you want. They’ll know what clearances are required. (Space in front of a toilet, minimum height of tile in shower area, required space in front of a sink and the like.) If you need one ask around who is good and easy to work with.

For ideas I’d spend a couple of weekends browsing show room looking at tiles and fixtures and asking lots of questions.

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Our current bathroom storage included under double sink vanity that stores toilet paper, cleaning supplies, our scale- and then that vanity has a few drawers that has our individual beauty products and a drawer for my hair stuff

We then have a 2 foot wide, 7ft(?) tall storage cabinet (probably ikea) that has medicine, first aid, cold remedies, towels, hair dryer, extra toiletries, extra paper products etc

What do your “new” bathrooms do for storage? Are medicine cabinets still a thing? I don’t think I want one

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We have a linen closet in our bathroom plus under counter storage and then vertical towers. Something like this: Disar 102'' Double Bathroom Vanity With Tall Linen Cabinet Dovetail Solid Wood Drawer Base Only | Wayfair

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