If you listened to this week’s podcast you heard John and I explain that our bathroom planning has moved out of the very long phase of indecision and dreaming (which took more than six years while we renovated most of our house as well as the entire beach house and a duplex) and into the stage where we finally know what we want and are actively space-planning.
For example, after years of going back and forth about a tub/shower combo versus separate tub and shower, we’re now 100% committed to having both separately. We have that setup at the beach house and it’s our favorite bathroom ever. On the podcast I even said this feels like the start of the renovation — we’re going to gut this room this fall or winter, like it’s finally upon us.
John, being less impulsive, reminded me he didn’t expect us to start demo in the next few days or weeks. Cut to one day after the podcast: our bathroom as of yesterday afternoon was already coming apart. We were excited — and learned the hard way not to leave toothbrushes on the counter during demo.
We can spend years planning. We even lived with faux brick vinyl sheet flooring in our kitchen for three years before finally saving up and deciding exactly what we wanted. When it was demo time, I couldn’t get my hands on the crowbar fast enough. Once I’m ready, I’m truly ready.
What began a week ago as “let’s research tile and sketch layouts” quickly escalated. Our plumber happened to be in the neighborhood yesterday and stopped by, which was perfect timing to discuss whether moving the tub, toilet, or other fixtures would be feasible and how costly it might be. We try to learn those constraints before committing to a layout that could become prohibitively expensive.
Standing in the space and mapping out options in real time made everything click. As our plumber pulled away, we were already prying at a few walls with crowbars and hammers to get a better feel for the layout. Fortunately, none of the walls we pulled down were load-bearing, so it’s a relatively straightforward demo.
You can sketch plans on Floorplanner, paper, or even make bootleg mood boards on social media, but nothing replaces standing in the actual space, taping out dimensions on the floor, and “walking” through the new plan to see how it feels. We’ve even used cardboard boxes in past projects to mock up appliances and see if a layout feels cramped — that helped us avoid a bad placement for a fridge at the beach house.
That physical step is crucial. It prevents the frustration of ordering a large vanity or moving plumbing only to find the layout feels wrong. If you can picture a room before you make irreversible changes, you’ll save money and time.
To give context, here’s what this bathroom has looked like for the last six years: dark blue shower walls, inconsistent floor tile (the old 40-year-old hex tile is cute but only covers part of the floor), and two seashell-shaped sinks separated by a baffling wall. The sinks basically lived in different rooms because a partition divided them. We filmed a quick before tour so you can see how the space felt:
If you’re viewing in a reader you may need to click through to see the video. You can also watch it on YouTube.
The video shows the layout far better than photos because so many walls block sightlines and make it hard to capture the space in a single shot. There’s a doorway from the bedroom into a small middle section we call “the vestibule,” which hosts a single large sink vanity (seashell sink #1) and leads to the shower, tub, toilet, and another sink, as well as a narrow doorway to the closet.
From the closet doorway looking toward the tub/toilet area, you can see how dark and closed-in the space felt before. The single small window sat beside the tub, and the many partitions made the room feel cramped. We’re thrilled to open it up for more light and a more spacious feel.
There’s also a linen closet in the vestibule, but we already have a larger one just outside the bedroom, so we’re happy to remove the duplicate and reclaim square footage for a more open plan and more natural light.
This photo shows the second seashell sink tucked away beyond another wall. Separate vanities were once a coveted design choice, but we prefer one large open bathroom filled with light. We considered a water closet but that would require more walls, so we’re opting for an open layout with a freestanding tub and a separate shower — it feels luxurious to us.
Yes, a water closet might appeal to some buyers, but right now we’re designing a bathroom we love. We’ll trade a separate water closet for a freestanding tub and a separate shower because that suits how we live and what we enjoy.
There were four doors clustered in a tiny radius when we moved in — two of them immediately came off because they constantly hit each other and blocked flow. As of this post, we’ve taken walls down to the studs and the space already feels so much better and brighter.
Now that you have the layout context, here’s what the room looks like after the initial demo. We also plan to widen the closet doorway, which is currently just 22 inches wide.
Here’s a before shot from the opposite direction:
And what it looks like now:
Even from the bedroom it’s wonderful to be able to see that window now that the interior wall is gone.
For comparison, here was the view before:
Also, goodbye to the seashell sink! We left the other vanity intact for now so the bathroom remains functional while we wait for the new vanity, toilet, tub, and sink to arrive. Once we remove the second seashell sink, the house will have two left in total — we bought the house with five originally, which is wild to think about.
If you want to see other rooms we’ve renovated over the years, here are a few favorites: a full bathroom reno we completed for under $2,000; our big kitchen renovation; a $51 bathroom makeover that still makes me smile; our bonus room renovation; and the project where we painted our brick house white, which remains one of our favorite transformations.