poll: add a powder room to the main floor of a house or have a bigger, better kitchen?
Just beginning renovation, and we’ve planned to build a powder room basically in the kitchen because there is no bathroom on the main floor. I have two young kids and can’t imagine constantly running up and down the stairs with them. But if we decide against it, we’ll have a much better kitchen. We’ll have…
Just beginning renovation, and we’ve planned to build a powder room basically in the kitchen because there is no bathroom on the main floor. I have two young kids and can’t imagine constantly running up and down the stairs with them. But if we decide against it, we’ll have a much better kitchen. We’ll have two bathrooms upstairs and one in the basement (once it’s finished–which isn’t happening right away) Any opinions?
A small powder room on the parlor floor certainly is convenient. But I would make usually make sure of the following:
• it doesn’t open onto the kitchen
• it doesn’t open onto dining
• it’s not a full bath (only as this seems too wasteful/odd to me)
This means, for townhouses, that the powder room should be somewhere off the entry hall — perhaps tucked under the stairs, if there’s room, or as the backside of a pantry, like in this job I did:
http://brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2007/07/parlor_kitchen.php (the powder room is in the center of the plan)
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Finally, two things:
1. A well-designed kitchen will trump a big kitchen every time.
2. The above rules can and should be broken if it really makes sense for the particulars of the space and client.
E.g., I am currently working on a job now where the kitchen is tiny and jammed into an extension, while a closet is being turned into a half-bath right between the kitchen and dining! Obviously in this case the bath will not be featured (or perhaps even mentioned) when guests are over, but is rather for the convenience of everyday life in the house.
In this case, the clients decided to break all the rules (to keep the morphology of the existing house intact) and are quite happy about the layout.
I vote for teeniest possible powder room. We use ours a LOT (2 children!), although I agree that the upstairs is more private for guests. You can put in a corner toilet and amazingly small but still functional sinks.
There are ways to extend your kitchen. For example, who says all the cabinets need to stay inside the kitchen? We have a nice cabinet made of the same natural maple the kitchen cabinets are that lives outside the kitchen “footprint.” It holds the less-used appliances, pans, serving stuff, etc. Depending on how you look at it, it is a kitchen cabinet or nice dining hutch.
So weird that having a large party has anything to do with this. This is about how you live your life ALL the time. Do you and your family want to climb up stairs whenever you have to go? I don’t understand why you can’t have a configuration with a door that doesn’t open right into the kitchen or main living area.
If you are fine always having to run upstairs, then you should definitely go without a powder room on the main floor. For me, I prefer the convenience for myself and family. The discussion as to preserving some dignified bathroom experience for guests isn’t part of my thinking.
SO weird to me people think there’s a problem sending guests to the 2nd floor to the bathroom. I hate a whole group of people sitting there watching me enter and exit a bathroom if I’m a guest. Also if you have a large party you end up with a line for the bathroom right there where the party is going on, which is weird. Visible bathroom lines are okay for apartments but undignified for houses.
Our 2nd floor bathroom is also right at the top of the stairs and nobody goes near any bedroom doors much less into any bedrooms to use it. We also have a garden level bathroom. Two options for people. We have had many many parties and nary a complaint about having to use some stairs to use the bathroom. Our friends are healthy folk. Hearty. They’re okay with stairs.
big kitchen!
add a 2nd bath on another floor.
bathrooms are overrated.
space space space is key.
main reason why i do not like brownstones is exactly this problem. too many small cramped rooms.
bought a 2 1/2 bath duplex condo. took out a bath to expand the living room, then upgraded the lower level bath by adding a full tub and shower.
love the above idea to open up the whole floor for open kitchen/dining plan.
We faced the same dilemma and went for the more spacious kitchen. The area we would have put a powder room is small and provides a little desk/computer/recipe book nook now. Guests have no problem making their way to the top of the stairs to use the facilities, and we also have a funky but functional basement half bath. The more I thought about having a bathroom right in my kitchen, well, ewwwww.
Add a powder room to the main floor.
There are so many new choices for a small kitchen.
18 inch dishwashers, 20 or 24 inch gas or electric ranges.
Tall narrow refrigerators which are designed efficiently, etc.
We don’t have a bathroom on the parlor level and I’ve never missed it. The bathroom is right at the top of the stairs so no one goes into any bedroom areas. We had little kids in the house too and it just isn’t a big deal to go up the stairs. I’d rather have the big counter space in the kitchen for messy art projects.
I’ve been in a lot of brownstones where the parlor floor powder room feels like it’s in the middle of the action – no privacy.
We are just finishing a renovation of the garden duplex of our brownstone and we have a tiny powder room on the garden level, where our kitchen and living areas will be. In order to fit it in, our archtect slightly changed the direction of our staircase, so that the landing was moved to make room. We also have 2 bathrooms upstairs. The garden level powder room is something I insisted on, as I can’t imagine our family and guests to go upstairs, where the bedrooms are, to go to the bathroom.