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There was an article in the Wall Street Journal last week about hotel rooms and bathroom doors, titled “Hotels Are Getting Rid of Proper Bathroom Doors and Guests Are Revolting“. It was highly critical of the cost saving trends in hotel design stripping away bathtubs, closets, and even bathroom doors. The author, Katie Deighton, opens the article with one hilarious and poignant line:

…Now, hotels are stripping away the one thing separating us from the animals: the bathroom door.

Does this remind you of the home building business?

Hotels, especially in urban areas like New York or London, are looking for ways to not only keep costs down but also be as space efficient as possible. As a frequent visitor to New York, I struggle with the size of their guest rooms. To avoid small rooms from feeling claustrophobic, one hotel put glass walls between the bathroom and the sleeping area. A tiny shower appears less small when it has three sides of glass. It was very chic – until you added people attempting to shower and use the potty.

Bathtubs

In the name of affordability, many homebuilders have abandoned including both bathtub and shower in the primary bath – opting instead for a really nice yet space-efficient shower. I personally agree with this arrangement, as my last three homes had only a shower.

The home we lived in in the nineties had a seldom used bathtub. Eliminating the bathtub not only reduced cost by eliminating an expensive plumbing fixture but it also saved a lot of square footage.

Closets

Unlike the hotel industry, designers and home builders are always looking for ways to offer the biggest closets possible. One way to achieve larger closets in the primary suite is by opening the closets directly off the primary bath. Essentially, it’s bath first, then closet.

Back in the nineties, we did closets first, then bathroom with a hallway between the closets. In our cost constrained world we now build in, we can no longer afford to “waste” the space devoted to the hallway. Putting the closet after the bath eliminates the circulation space in favor of closets.

Initially, buyers objected to the closet right off the bath for fear the closet would become filled with steam from the bath. Back in the eighties, this may have been the case because it was not a common practice to add HVAC vents to closets. Indeed, you didn’t even need an exhaust fan in the bathroom if you had an operable window by the toilet. The new standard is to not only include HAVC vents in closets but also to require exhaust fans for both the toilet room and the bathroom (for the shower) as well.

This arrangement means there is possible air pressure in the closet and when the fan is on, there is negative pressure in the bath keeping the closet steam free.

I recently saw a builder who had decided the door between the walk-in closet wasn’t needed. While it is not needed to keep out the steam, a door does create a much needed visual barrier. While a closet open to the bath may look cool in the model, they can get pretty cluttered when shoes, purses, and clothes are added.

Bathroom Doors

This brings us to the bathroom doors. I have seen houses where the door between the bath and the bedroom is optional (mercifully, they include a door for the toilet room). This might look fabulous in the model – but just like the hotel room, how does it function? If there are two people using the primary bath, the door between the bedroom and bath keeps out light and sound. I’m an early riser and shower in the morning, often while my husband is sleeping. He likes to take his shower at night, often while I’m sleeping. Having a door to block both light and sound is especially for our sleep and sanity. Bottom line, we need two doors in the bathroom – one for the toilet room and one separating the bath and bedroom.

Real doors! While a trendy barn door was all the rage a few years ago, adding one between the bedroom and the bath is an expensive and largely useless option. It doesn’t block sound and only partially blocks light.

I am in favor of eliminating one door in the bathroom. Consider moving the linens to the walk-in closet instead of a dedicated linen closet in the bathroom. This not only eliminates the linen closet door and trim, but also the drywall surrounding the closet.

Affordability is at the top of everyone’s mind these days. But we can’t sacrifice human dignity in our quest for value engineering. What can else can we eliminate in the name of affordability? I’d love to hear your thoughts.