Open Concept bathroom

[Tiny]

 
www.insider.com/open-concept-bathroom-no-walls-photos-viral-2019-11
6abc.com/society/phillys-open-concept-bathroom-has-the-internet-talking-/5692657/

EDITED the link and added a second one if the first still doesn't work...

Basically, the master bath is open to the master bedroom (so conceivably you could be sitting on the thrown AND still see the TV by the bed).    There are no walls or curtains around the shower area either.   It's suppose to be an open "cleaner" look.    I'm sure it's nice to look at - all open and artsy looking as long as it's never used. 

But, in everyday use -- aside from the obvious "privacy" issues.... 
How does one keep all that moisture from a hot steamy shower contained?   Who mops up the mess after someone takes a shower?     Is there some fancy design thing that helps keep unpleasant smells from the bed area?   How does one keep one's bedroom a nice cool temperature while still enjoying the 'warmth' of a shower or bath?   I would think it would get drafty (and once you are wet - chilly) with the open space and air movement as the air temps change.  (I'm also imagining mold growing at the top of the walls where they meet the ceiling (all that moisture has to go somewhere) or atleast a nice bit of "grime" forming - like in one's kitchen when one doest have a range hood (cooking creates a lot of steam).    How is this even vaguely functional?

Maybe it's because I live where it gets really cold for several months out of the year?   Maybe in some nice warm termperate place this would work better?   

[Chocolate Lover]

It won't open, but my stepson's mom lives in a crappy old trailer with the master bath open to the master bedroom. Ick. Just no. 

[jerseygirl]

We had bathroom updated and I was thinking a shower with no doors might be nice. We were in a hotel in Bali that had gorgeous shower open to bathroom. Shower doors always get icky no matter how well you clean
Contractor advised against it in our climate, in winter it would be chilly,
And I really don’t like to get cold
Why we live in NJ with cold winters is crazy but family is here

[busymom]

No.  Just no.  I'm not even in love with my "open kitchen", because people always tend to stop by before I've had the chance to load the dishwasher.  There's nothing like dirty dishes on the counter...  

[lund]

Unless somebody has a difficult case of medication- and therapy-resistant claustrophobia, this seems to be a stupid idea.

[Deleted]

Nov 13, 2019 18:26:53 GMT -5 busymom said:

No.  Just no.  I'm not even in love with my "open kitchen", because people always tend to stop by before I've had the chance to load the dishwasher.  There's nothing like dirty dishes on the counter...  

Sure there is! Dirty dishes in the sink. 

[haapai]

yr link leads to a 404 message. 

This irks me because I have no earthy idea what an open-concept bathroom might be.

Don't get me wrong, I've experienced plenty of bathrooms that could be improved by more light or ventilation.  I'm heartily sick of how concerns about privacy, security, and discretion have led to me spending time in dark, moldy, smelly, and algae-prone WCs that nobody wants to spend any time in and are therefore much more miserable and dangerous.  I've also had some absolutely lovely experiences with open-air showers that I wish could be replicated by folks who shower and relieve themselves indoors.

Can you please re-examine the link or at least explain to me what an open-concept bathroom is? 

[dannylion]

That appears to have been the bright idea of someone who has never actually lived indoors.  

[zibazinski]

DH and I actually went to a parade of homes that had a toilet in the middle of the bathroom. Just a black toilet in the middle of the bathroom. I’m afraid I got the giggles and we had to leave before I used it!!

[haapai]

Nov 13, 2019 19:12:16 GMT -5 dannylion said:

That appears to have been the bright idea of someone who has never actually lived indoors.  

Whoa there!  You're treading on dangerous ground!  I googled "open-concept bathroom" a few minutes ago and I am alarmed by where you appear to be going. 

I am pretty open to the idea of not having doors or curtains separating toilet and bathing facilities from the rest of the indoor space especially if you live alone.  Putting up walls or curtains eats up space and makes the remaining space significantly harder to clean, light, and ventilate.  Quite frankly, I'm not sure if our ideas regarding privacy and decorum are worth that cost. 

[dannylion]

Nov 13, 2019 19:28:00 GMT -5 haapai said:

Nov 13, 2019 19:12:16 GMT -5 dannylion said:

That appears to have been the bright idea of someone who has never actually lived indoors.  

Whoa there!  You're treading on dangerous ground!  I googled "open-concept bathroom" a few minutes ago and I am alarmed by where you appear to be going. 

I am pretty open to the idea of not having doors or curtains separating toilet and bathing facilities from the rest of the indoor space especially if you live alone.  Putting up walls or curtains eats up space and makes the remaining space significantly harder to clean, light, and ventilate.  Quite frankly, I'm not sure if our ideas regarding privacy and decorum are worth that cost. 

Um, okay.  Thanks for sharing.  

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

And that would be the end of our sex life.

I'm cool with the first world problem of having walls and a door to my bathroom in order to preserve some mysteries in life.

[haapai]

I'm willing to share plenty more. 

I don't like the proximity of wood and tile spaces that I saw in the photographs.  I have my doubts regarding how well wood flooring might hold up to the moisture kicked out by the shower. 

But is that really what matters here?  When you make a crack about something being the bright idea of someone who has never actually lived indoors and the designer is a black woman, I've got the right to exclaim "Whoa there, where are you going?"

[busymom]

I'm impressed that our current master bathroom actually has a door you can close when someone is using the toilet.  That way, DH & I can be in the bathroom at the same time, and the person at the sink doesn't have to see the other on the toilet.     Best bathroom EVER!  (And yes, there is another door to close to shut off the bathroom from the master bedroom.  The shower even has a bench seat for whenever we get old.  This may not be a "perfect" house, but the design was well thought out.)

[Artemis Windsong]

My GrD had an apartment once with the open concept except it was in an older house.  She moved as soon as she could afford it.

[dannylion]

Nov 13, 2019 19:48:58 GMT -5 haapai said:

I'm willing to share plenty more. 

I don't like the proximity of wood and tile spaces that I saw in the photographs.  I have my doubts regarding how well wood flooring might hold up to the moisture kicked out by the shower. 

But is that really what matters here?  When you make a crack about something being the bright idea of someone who has never actually lived indoors and the designer is a black woman, I've got the right to exclaim "Whoa there, where are you going?"

OK, fair enough.  You win. I only looked at the pictures of the bathroom.  I should have done more reading, which would have revealed the identify of the designer.  I made my comment without having that information, so I clearly left myself open to whatever negative connotation and excuse for abuse someone who knows nothing about me chooses to throw at me.  By all means, label me a racist monster or anything else you can think of if your first instinct is to believe that was my intent.  I've already become comfortable with the idea that strangers consider me worthless because of the date of my birth.  

Again, thanks for sharing.  You've made your point.  Whatever it was.  

[teen persuasion]

Wait, what? Our wacky old remuddled farmhouse is trendy?

Ok, our open concept bathroom is only a half bath, in the hallway at the top of the stairs. Yes, IN the hallway.

You see, it was once upon a time a full bath, with walls and a door for privacy, for one of the apartments that had been carved out of the upstairs. To separate it from the owner's apartment downstairs, they covered over the stair opening with a floor, and put the bathtub on top of that section. From downstairs the stairs became a weird kind of storage closet with stepped shelves.

When we took back the various apartments to convert the place back into a single family house, we removed the tub, pulled out the framing blocking the stair opening (flipping it up on its side as a railing), and Ta-da, we could again reach the upper floor from a central staircase, without having to traverse the length of the house from north end to south end, to the other staircase, and back again (going thru a closet or two) when I needed something from the fridge (downstairs) brought to the kitchen (upstairs, on the other side of the wall from our open concept half-bath-in-the-hallway).

The long term plan is remodel the main downstairs kitchen (the upstairs one was supposed to be temporary, but it's too convenient), then remodel the upstairs kitchen into two bathrooms, one accessible from the hallway for the family, the other bathroom accessible from the master bedroom (currently the upstairs dining room, adjacent to said kitchen), and the fixtures get removed from the hallway! Then the main bath downstairs can be gutted and reworked. The current master bedroom should be the parlor/main living space - I want to remove the partition walls some former owner put up to create a hallway around the parlor. It screwed up the symmetry of the room's windows and doors.

[Tiny]

Nov 13, 2019 18:14:51 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

We had bathroom updated and I was thinking a shower with no doors might be nice. We were in a hotel in Bali that had gorgeous shower open to bathroom. Shower doors always get icky no matter how well you clean
Contractor advised against it in our climate, in winter it would be chilly,
And I really don’t like to get cold
Why we live in NJ with cold winters is crazy but family is here

How was the water from the shower spray contained?   How big of a "basin" would you need to catch all the spray?   That's what concerns me - I don't want to have to mop up the bathroom floor and wipe off the vanity after every shower. 

[zibazinski]

One of the homes I lived in had no shower door. It was lovely. But you went back into it so no spray anywhere but the tiled area. Very easy to clean. Miss that shower. Now I have one with a glass door that’s rarely used, thankfully, and a master with a shower curtain that I just wash the liner when it gets gros.

[raeoflyte]

It's a studio apartment so I don't think it would be that bad if you lived alone and didn't have people over. No concern that unwanted family would expect to crash with you.

[Lizard Queen]

I saw one that was sort of open on HGTV recently--designed by a white woman. It was beautiful--like a work of art, but completely impractical. I believe design should be functional, first and foremost. This would have water splashing all over the freaking place--no thank you! And I think a tub smack in the middle of a room is absolutely asinine. Who needs even more crap to clean, and nowhere to put your stuff while you're taking a bath? Same with the shower--nowhere to put your stuff. Just dumb.

[Miss Tequila]

Nov 13, 2019 20:42:10 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Nov 13, 2019 19:48:58 GMT -5 haapai said:

I'm willing to share plenty more. 

I don't like the proximity of wood and tile spaces that I saw in the photographs.  I have my doubts regarding how well wood flooring might hold up to the moisture kicked out by the shower. 

But is that really what matters here?  When you make a crack about something being the bright idea of someone who has never actually lived indoors and the designer is a black woman, I've got the right to exclaim "Whoa there, where are you going?"

OK, fair enough.  You win. I only looked at the pictures of the bathroom.  I should have done more reading, which would have revealed the identify of the designer.  I made my comment without having that information, so I clearly left myself open to whatever negative connotation and excuse for abuse someone who knows nothing about me chooses to throw at me.  By all means, label me a racist monster or anything else you can think of if your first instinct is to believe that was my intent.  I've already become comfortable with the idea that strangers consider me worthless because of the date of my birth.  

Again, thanks for sharing.  You've made your point.  Whatever it was.  

It's sad that a comment would be ok if you knew the identity of the author and she was white?  Everything is racist in today's world.  I read haapi's comment to you and I just assumed he was offended because he liked it...not because the author was black.  Ludicrous to me. 

[myrrh]

Why don't we just not talk about the designer (whatever race they may be) and talk about the design? 
I agree that no doors to the toilet or shower is a terrible design. I would go even further and say I want walls and doors to enclose the entire bathroom so that it's possible for one person to get ready for the day or night without completely disturbing the sleep schedule of another person in the bedroom. My master bathroom is open to the bedroom and I have never liked it. The toilet is in its own tiny room with a door and the shower has a door though! Guess I should count my blessings. 

[Deleted]

One word: ew.

[hoops902]

Nov 14, 2019 7:55:57 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

It's a studio apartment so I don't think it would be that bad if you lived alone and didn't have people over. No concern that unwanted family would expect to crash with you.

Is it a studio apartment?  Or a master suite being rented out in a multi-bedroom house?  I read it as being the latter...which means people could still come over and hang out in the house without being in your private bedroom/bathroom.

[steph08]

I sort of like it. I wish they had put another wall on the shower though - all that water has to be splashing out onto the wood floor. 

But if it's in a master bedroom in a larger house with other bathrooms, no biggie.

However, I would not rent an apartment/room in a house where that was the only bathroom. Not ideal for having guests over...

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Nov 13, 2019 23:49:12 GMT -5 Tiny said:

Nov 13, 2019 18:14:51 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

We had bathroom updated and I was thinking a shower with no doors might be nice. We were in a hotel in Bali that had gorgeous shower open to bathroom. Shower doors always get icky no matter how well you clean
Contractor advised against it in our climate, in winter it would be chilly,
And I really don’t like to get cold
Why we live in NJ with cold winters is crazy but family is here

How was the water from the shower spray contained?   How big of a "basin" would you need to catch all the spray?   That's what concerns me - I don't want to have to mop up the bathroom floor and wipe off the vanity after every shower. 

We had something like this in the Maldives.  I really do not remember the shower soaking the rest of the bathroom, the spray was pretty well contained.  The shower was also open to the outside, which was pretty cool.  Look up and you see trees, not ceiling.  It was great for washing clothes, because the sun dried them so fast.  I loved that place.

[jerseygirl]

Shower in Bali was huge!! Rest of floor was tile so no worries about water on floor
Also was open to sky - just beautiful

[Tiny]

I've got cats and live alone.  I pretty much gave up trying to use the bathroom alone (close the door) years ago.   I have a shower curtain to contain the shower spray (it doesn't always keep the cats out of the tub while I'm using it).  I am use to lack of privacy in the bathroom.      Thankfully when I have guests the cats aren't as keen to join bathroom goers - so the door can be closed.     

Speaking of "open floor plans"  -  I've seen some remodeled homes in my neighborhood where the floor plan has been altered to be "open floor plans"   where an appropriately enclosed 1/2 bath is added - usually with a door that opens directly into the open floor plan dining room/living room.    I kind of cringe every time I see something like this.    Yeah, during a party or just with family /friends  I totally want to have every one see me step into/exit the bathroom - especially if they are all sitting down to dinner.   Yeah, no.       Not really  sure why they bothered wasting space and openness by  putting walls around the bathroom in the dining room/living room.   

There's some bad design there... in the name of "giving the appearance of more space" or "modern".     

And don't get me started on  siding Victorian houses with black/midnight blue/dark gray siding.   Or painting everything in your home a shade of gray.     There are more and more "Warts" showing up in my neighborhood.      One black sided house was dramatic.  A whole row of them is depressing (and this is from a Goth Girl who would happily wear black year round.) 

[imawino]

Nov 13, 2019 19:48:58 GMT -5 haapai said:

I'm willing to share plenty more. 

I don't like the proximity of wood and tile spaces that I saw in the photographs.  I have my doubts regarding how well wood flooring might hold up to the moisture kicked out by the shower. 

But is that really what matters here?  When you make a crack about something being the bright idea of someone who has never actually lived indoors and the designer is a black woman, I've got the right to exclaim "Whoa there, where are you going?"

Assuming that someone looked at a photo of a bathroom and knew that the designer is a black woman is an extraordinary leap.   Sure, you have the "right to exclaim" all you want (is that in the constitution??).  But you've also been a poster here for a long time, do you believe that dannylion has a history of making racist posts?  I'm not on a whole lot so I could have missed them, but I've never seen one.  

So, if a poster has no history of making racist posts AND it takes an enormous leap from logic to contort someone's statement to make it fit something racist in your head, odds are that your assumptions are wrong and your right to exclaim has been sadly misused. 


As for the bathroom itself, it's meh.  The finishes are nice enough, but winters in Philly are cold and I would personally prefer to not to step out of my shower into a more airy space.  I also don't want to watch my sweetie take a poo.  Or even floss actually.  And he doesn't want to listen to my blowdryer run if he's lying in bed sleeping or watching tv.  


ETA:  I read the article and I'm not even sure where happai's assertion that the designer is a black woman comes from? The link I opened does not have a photo.   Is it an assumption based on her name?  If so, please allow me to exclaim "WHOA!".   lol