Design
Some Wacky And Fun Guest Cottage Bathroom Ideas And Where We Are Headed
Over the holidays, anything “non-urgent” got moved to the back burner (or just put in the freezer, out of sight/mind). So, outside of partnership deadlines and timely end of year admin, I let myself indulge in my family and totally forgot that I had this adorably run-down house that needed my attention. But I’m back and so excited to keep this project moving (but don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything since this post). Today I want to walk you through a few bathroom ideas I’m VERY excited by, that are more fantasy than practical. It’s a big room, 12×16, so it’s going to be perhaps an oddly large bathroom with vaulted ceilings…and a urinal. Just having the basics (toilet, sink, shower) felt dinky and weird. So I’ve got some fun guest cottage bathroom ideas, and I wanted to share them…
Hoping to keep the paneling on one wall and find reclaimed wood to go around the rest of the room. I need 600 square feet (3 walls and ceiling). I have the vision of it clear in my head, but it’s hard to explain. It’s going to be rustic (but cohesive), with a side of “summer camp” due to the amount of wood, but with a cohesive color palette and fun tile and fabric. More to come on the materials.
Ok, so since the room is big and has high ceilings, I want to divide it up and do a “room within the room”. And since I’ve promised Brian a urinal, I want to put that and the toilet in its own room. There are, I’m sure, many ways that I can do this, but I have two main ideas that I love almost equally.
Toilet Room Idea #1: The “Outhouse”
Ok, so picture this – a small, roofed room inside the paneled bathroom. It would be almost free-standing (grounded against the back wall) with double doors going into it. It could be shaped like an outhouse (but stretched out wide, for double doors and to fit the urinal). I can 100% picture it, and I have zero doubts about this, as odd as the idea sounds. It could be paneled and painted so it fits in the same world but pops off the wood walls (which we hope to match and keep).
I was heavily inspired by this bathroom, below, with the tiled toilet room and shower.
What a totally delightful (and ballsy) design. This designer put two tiled rooms (with glass blocks, no less!) inside what seems to be more of an old-world bathroom.
One room is for the toilet and one for the shower. Now, while a tiled version of my “outhouse” would be incredible, I think the tile budget might be totally out of control if we did this. But I think it’s the best representation of this out-of-the-box, fantastical idea. Well done, Buchanan Studio! When we first saw it a few years ago, our “Watercooler” Slack channel was a-BUZZ. I know it’s controversial, but we all thought it was just a totally fascinating idea, executed so well.
Toilet Room Idea #2 – The “Through A Secret Armoire”
I mean, I’ve always wanted to do this (who hasn’t). You walk in, and it’s just an unsuspectingly large armoire (flat roof, not pitched), and then you open it, and it has a toilet and urinal. What a delight! The only caveat with this is that in order for the toilet to fit with the right clearances, it needs to be pretty deep, which, from the side, would give itself away (no armoire is that deep). Most of the ones that I’ve found online steal space from the adjoining room, which we don’t want to do here. So while this idea is a 12 on the fun scale, I fear that the execution of it is more challenging. Not only do I need to either find a massive, beautiful armoire, OR make one, but I need to build it out to be at least 4′ deep, and I think it would stick so far out that it would look dumb.
Our First Renders…
My team is having so much fun using Spoak, so we created some elevations here to show you. Now it’s rough, but it hopefully demonstrates what I’m talking about enough to visualize it and either agree with me or not. Depending on the size of the fixtures we go with (toilet, urinal, sink), we might not be able to bump the structure out from the side wall like this, but I like how it looks with some breathing room if the spacing works out. The sink would likely be vintage (and possibly wall hung), and the water heater location is still TBD (and would have to be small), but we wanted to account for it (it’d likely be hidden within a faux cabinet).
When I was in the space, I mocked up the depth of the outhouse to be a lot more, but now I’m realizing it could be a lot less deep (toilets are about 30″ and front clearance needs to be 15″). But you have to account for framing, so I think we are at least at 60″ from the wall. There are a lot of things to troubleshoot (and build), and this whole idea might not work. But picture this – you are over in our yard at a big outdoor party, and you are told the bathroom is through “that door over there”. Then, when you walk in, you see this quirky room that says “restroom” or “toilet room” on impossibly cute stained glass doors. Then you open them and inside is your own private toilet and urinal (might need to figure out a privacy situation for the stained glass doors, lol…). Maybe it’s a tiled wall inside (or the OG paneling). Maybe a little sconce, too. How cute does that sound???
And Where Does One Shower?
Ok, we’ve got our toilet/urinal and sink covered, so where should the shower go? And what does it look like? Now this might not be a heavily used shower (at least not for many years), so again we can be more creative with it. I had two ideas bouncing around…
The “Floating” Circular Shower Pan
How fun is this?? I found this as I was researching how to do a shower without having to do all the hot mop shower pan waterproofing stuff (I was trying to avoid hiring out for that). What’s the least amount of “work” to get a shower without using a plastic insert (which I totally considered BTW and might be worth a blog post). So I found these images on Pinterest, which show exposed plumbing with shower curtains all the way around (no tile, no waterproofing walls) and what seems to be just a marble round shower pan on the floor (there are also cast iron claw foot versions). Now, would this possibly pass US bathroom code or inspections? I have no idea, but I’d bet not? But that didn’t stop me from spending no less than 5 hours planning out the bathroom with this in mind. Ultimately, I decided that future-proofing the bathroom by putting in a tub would be smart, which would shift this floating circular shower into the corner, in which case having it be round made less and less sense (I did find some corner quarter-round showers that were really fun, but started to feel a little too complicated).
Corner Shower With Chest Height Pony Wall
Ok then, I pivoted to doing a square or rectangular shower in the corner, but making it look more analog with a chest-height pony wall for privacy (and because I like the idea of a higher wall). And then above the wall, a super cute hanging curtain (almost like a cafe curtain, but that goes from the ceiling to the top of the pony wall), which gives me an opportunity to add a fun pattern/print and texture/softness. Fabric and tile are two of my favorite design elements, so I want to add them in as much as possible. I also love the idea of a column or some sort of decorative (and seemingly load-bearing) post or newel to add some architectural grounding (and for the paneling to butt into).
Here’s the birdseye view, which is not necessarily accurate yet but gives you a better idea of where everything is going to go. We might make the shower a rectangle, and we might do a floor-mounted faucet for the tub, etc (and pretend the sink inside the outhouse is a urinal). But I think it’s super helpful to see where we are headed.
Here’s where we left off. Since then, the framed floor has been started so that we can attach pipes to it for plumbing. But a lot left to consider:
- Flooring – If all the walls and ceiling are wood paneling, then a tiled floor sure would be nice, but at 12×16, that’s a big floor, and tile is substantially more expensive to install than wood flooring. And we are planning on painting a pattern on the wood floor of the living/kitchen, so I don’t want to do the same in here, or it will be a circus house. We also might need to do under-floor heating in here, as we aren’t putting 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 has beautiful existing paneling on it already (the wall where the outhouse would be). So far, I haven’t found it. It doesn’t need to be exact, and I don’t even mind if the width or profile is slightly different – it can look a bit hodgepodge, but I want the tone of the wood to be similar.
- Windows – I think we are getting rid of the one on the far wall since it looks out to a fence and is frosted. I think we are going to put skylights in here anyway. We’ll keep the big picture window.
- Framing – We have to frame the floor to be higher, so I’ll need to troubleshoot raising the door and creating some sort of step-up on the outside.
It’s pretty exciting, and now that my head is fully back on straight (dude, that holiday break killed me this year), I’m extremely excited to keep moving. Just need to get the plumber to respond to me 🙂
*Photos by Kailtin Green
I may have misunderstood the use of this room, but isn’t it partly for people coming to an event and pool parties and things?
These ideas are cute and I really don’t want to rain on your parade, but have you thought about the number of users and accessibility? Is one toilet and one shower space enough? Can the shower be zero entry? I wouldn’t feel comfortable using a shower in a space like that that may have tons of people coming in and out for the toilet and sink with only a shower curtain.
Can the toilet space fit someone with mobility issues, or have hygiene bins or baby changing?
It’s really draining as a disabled person, or parent of a disabled person, to find someone to ask for special arrangements. Especially if it’s you or Brian as I’m sure you’re the focus for everyone and maybe hard to reach at larger events.
If you’re planning separate accessible facilities, can you make them cute?
Hope this comes across in the supportive spirit I intended.
If, as the previous poster mentioned, this bathroom is meant to accommodate your family frat parties, maybe go with that? Pit in lots of toilet and urinal stalls and shower stalls, but make it cute? And accessible, because that would be a great design challenge.