Half Bath & Closet in Parlor
I’m new posting here but I have been pouring over the archives benefiting from all the wisdom of the Brownstoner crowd. Somewhere I came across a post about someone resuing the huge closet doors that book end the arch in many rear parlors of Victorian brownstones as the doors for a powder room and closet…
I’m new posting here but I have been pouring over the archives benefiting from all the wisdom of the Brownstoner crowd. Somewhere I came across a post about someone resuing the huge closet doors that book end the arch in many rear parlors of Victorian brownstones as the doors for a powder room and closet in the parlor. But now I can’t find it again.
Anyway, I would love to hear from anyone who has done this or even anyone who has solved the problem of where to put either of these things. My current thought is to sneak in the half bath next to the stairs, blocking off the hallway, then tucking a closet on the other side of the bath by the entrance hall. But that means building a wall with enough ceiling height along the stairway, which seems like it will look weird. We need a wall anyway, since we will be occupying the downstairs two floors as an owners duplex and will use the top two floors for rental. But we hope sometime if we ever find a bag of money sitting around to occupy the place as a 3 over 1 and wonder if we’ll regret losing that interior hallway.
Has anyone managed to sneak the bath and closet into the parlor itself. To further complicate matters, we would like to preserve the pocket doors in between the front double parlor and the rear one. We do have decent width to work with 21 feet, I think, by about 45 or 48 even.
Thanks for any advice!
We just finished a renovation and put a powder room under the stairs and a closet directly opposite (creating a little bathroom/closet alcove that feels somewhat private from the LR) at the halfway point of the parlor floor. We also put a broom closet on the wall opposite the staircase to mark the transition from LR to DR. Caveat: we had no original detail to consider, and we eliminiated the interior hallway. So our place is open from wall to wall except as I describe above. The building is a 3-floor house for us and garden rental (with no interior access to the garden from the parlor — a layout we inherited when we bought the place, one that works quite well).
I don’t agree at all it beats walking up one flight of stairs to have a bathroom open directly onto a dining room. If a powder room is right there in the dining room your guests will feel obligated to use it whether they want to or not. Which they’ll hate if they’re modest or if they have to do more than #1. In which case you’re forcing them to announce in front of everybody around the table they’d rather use the upstairs bathroom. Awkward all around. If you must squeeze one in somewhere I think it’s much better to have a small powder room in the kitchen mainly for use by the owner of the house day to day. Guests should have privacy entering and exiting a bathroom meaning they go upstairs.
I have the layout you describe. The original back parlor (which is my dining/all purpose room) has the 2 wide shallow closets with the arched alcove between them. I used one wide shallow closet for the worlds smallest powder room. In the other wide shallow closet I put 2 short bars perpendicular to the door (instead of the usual parallel) for coats. It works for a few coats.
While I agree that it’s not so nice to have the powder room opening into the dining room, it beats walking up that long flight of stairs to the big bathroom or messing with the otherwise all original architecture – which were my other 2 choices. I considered the stair landing but it’s too small. When I have a crowd, there’s enough action generally that the powder room use is not in your face. Some people still walk upstairs – their call. For a crowd, someone walks the coats upstairs to the guest bedroom.
Mopar:
I have admired her house in Brooklyn Modern but it’s hard to determine the layout in the pics. If I can sneak out after kids go to sleep I’ll run down to Greenlight and check out Restoring a House in the City. Sounds like a good resource. And yes, of course it would be preferable to hire an architect and we have been talking to them. But we have a fairly limited budget, and as our reno isn’t too big and i really like thinking about tile selections and lighting design (great procrastination from my other life as a writer…) it’s hard not to think along the lines of architect fees = no deck, etc… But i know that many people here make a very convinving case that it’s money well spent and they probably save you some dough and aggravation in the long run. Thanks!
P.S. It’s not nice to have baths opening directly into parlors, dining rooms, and kitchens. You can make the opening in a hall or create an oblique entry. Architects are good at this too.
You can use your existing closets and arch and such where they are in place. Line them with subway tile and put in appliances. See the photos of the house belonging to Pilar Guzman in “Restoring a House in the City.”
Then buy new but more simple matching trim for the new doorways you will put in for the powder room, etc. Google historical and Victorian molding.
I agree it would be wise to hire an architect.
It is interesting that we have a small bathroom(named after my father-in law who wound up paying for it), on our parlor floor. While doing the kitchen renovation we discovered that there had been a commode there years ago. We also created a large storage space going up the stairs as well…
lets of different ways to do this legally. A good contractor or architect should be able to help….
P.S. Other than a little storage in the 1/2 bath, I gave up on the notion of having a closet on the Parlor Floor. Can you say antique coat rack in the foyer?
Why don’t you hire an architect? They really are helpful in deciding where things should go.