Bedroom/Ensuite/Dressing Room Inspiration

[canalsiderenovation]

Can anyone inspire me with our proposed layout for the dressing room, bedroom and ensuite? The bedroom itself can be quite compact as we only want a bed and bedside cabinets. As we both work odd hours we don't want to disturb one another with getting ready/hairdryer noise etc so we want the dressing room and ensuite closed off from the bedroom and space for wardrobes (possibly opposite the ensuite door). 

 

In the ensuite we would like a freestanding roll top bath, we will have another main bathroom and another bedroom with ensuite downstairs so a shower isn't a necessity for the ensuite but the current 2075 X 2055 doesn't seem big enough now having marked it out and looked at bath sizes! We were going to use a pocket door for the ensuite to save space.

 

The covered balcony is bigger than what we would like as it mirrors the extension downstairs but unless we put in supports which will divide the bedroom space up we are a bit stuck. It will have skylights into the balcony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JamieL]

There is certainly plenty of space for a bedroom, dressing and ensuite within the space you have allocated at the moment, but you are right to want to reduce the size of the balcony. Ignoring that for now, you've got endless possibilities, just depends on how you plan to use it. The ensuite is too small for a free standing bath, but both the dressing room and bedroom are generous so you can borrow from those spaces. Use one of the online room planning tools to have a play around (I found roomsketcher.com to be very simple to use, but there are loads). You can shift internal walls around very easily on those tools and they have little models of most furniture to see how the space looks furnished.

 

Incidentaly, I don't think your pocket door will work there, it is retracting into the sloping ceiling. Not a fan anyway (what happens if the mechanism sticks?)

 

As to the balcony, there must be a creative solution here. As you say it is too long, even with skylights in the balcony your view from the bedroom will be tunnel-like. I'm guessing you have vaulted ceilings, so just make the support a feature beam. You could make it out of oak, or clad a steel A-frame. It could be a lovely feature. If you can't reduce the size of the vertical supports each side move the side wall in so it lines up with the front of the pillar so it is not visible. Extra eaves storage space then too.

 

 

[joe90]

As an example, this is (part) of our en suite, what you can see is a little under 2mtrs wide and 2.2m long. Behind the camera is a walk in shower as the room is 4m long. P.S. I LOVE that bath, soo deep you can float in it, I just hope our building inspector hasn’t read the regs on bath size ?.

[ultramods]

Here is my master bedroom suite.

 

As you mentioned with you and your partner waking up at different times it's worth thinking about sound insulation at the design stage. Even if someone is getting ready in another room the noise of a hairdryer will still travel into the bedroom. I am looking at using 2 x 15mm sound reducing plasterboard on each side of the wall, plus 50mm insulation. 

 

There are various posts on the forum where people have mentioned even more effective sound insulation than I have mentioned above.

 

This house isn't going to be our forever house, so I have designed this space to be flexible. For example the master ensuite could become a family bathroom and the dressing room could become a bedroom.

 

[canalsiderenovation]

@joe90 I have bath envy. We love the high slipper design roll top baths, does the rear of your bath go higher? 

 

@JamieL good suggestion to move the side wall in so it lines up with the front of the pillar if we have an additional  support or in, I need to do some rejigging but I'm really struggling with visualising something. Our architects seem to want to put us off making the balcony smaller and we have been back and to a few times on this. This draft has gone in for pre planning and it's now overdue and still not heard anything, but we need to sort out this balcony issue to give us the space we want.

[JamieL]

I'm not actually sure the architect is the person to talk to about the balcony. You want to talk to a structural engineer as it is basically a structral issue. No doubt your architect has one, but they may not have talked to them yet if you're only at pre-planning. Keep pushing. Or post on this forum specifically for solutions to that problem to take back your architect.

 

@JSHarris often seems to recommend building a physical scale model to help with visualisation. Not sure you need to go that far for this one. One method is to print out the outline half a dozen times without the internal walls then hand draw various combinations of internal walls. Go all Blue Peter and cut out a scale outline of a bath, sink, bed etc. and move them round till you're happy.

[joe90]

1 hour ago, canalsiderenovation said:

Our architects seem to want to put us off making the balcony smaller

 

Remember @canalsiderenovationIt’s your house, not the architects! , he is not going to live there. I am not a fan of architects generally as some seem to think it’s their way or no way. Yes our bath has a higher back end and is sooo comfortable to have a soak in. I am lucky that I can see things in 3D in my mind, but my wife struggles to visualise things. Perhaps a scale model is a Good idea, or mock up the room with large cardbord boxes to actually see what space you have. If it were mine i would want a larger en suite at the expense of a little balcony space (but i am not going to live there ?, you are). An architects technician will work our structural integrity to achieve what YOU want.

[PeterW]

The only issue I have with that balcony is that you can only access it from the bedroom. You’re unlikely to then use it for entertainment, so it’s somewhere for you to have a coffee etc in the morning. That would mean that needs a couple of chairs and a table perhaps, which doesn’t need a balcony that size ... 

 

I would steal 2m from the balcony, move the entry door back so you come into a lobby/dressing area and then into the bedroom. That means anyone getting up at an odd time goes into the bathroom / dressing area only once and then out into the hallway and not via the bedroom. 

 

I’d also square that bathroom off - you can always have a sliding door into it, or create a “wet end” and a “dry end” to the bathroom.

[canalsiderenovation]

I've tried to rejig things, I did try roomsketcher but I found it easier to draw my ideas from this, I'm not very technical and I envy those drawings I've seen some of you do. The only way I found it easier to interpret was to measure rooms now, e.g. our current bedroom to help visualise what space we have and space we need with cut out newspaper for wardrobes, toilets, baths etc.

 

Allocating around 1700mm width to the balcony seems more than sufficient allows us to extend the other space. We roughly think we will need around 3600mm width for the bedroom (likely less), 2900mm for the dressing and 2500mm for the ensuite. I also liked the suggestion of entering into the dressing room and then into the bedroom as not to disturb one another but the door location may not be quite right. 

 

Like @joe90 we will have around 4m length but the ceilings will be vaulted. Hopefully still space for a nice roll top bath. 

 

[joe90]

That seems a better layout IMO ( I don’t do tech, I am a pencil and paper man as well). I had to measure out our room plans in our temp house for my wife to see the space, I am lucky that I can 3D visualise from a set of plans but not SWMBO. I like the idea of exiting via the dressing room so if one of you rises early you won’t disturb the other. ( I am the other in our house ?).

[canalsiderenovation]

43 minutes ago, joe90 said:

That seems a better layout IMO ( I don’t do tech, I am a pencil and paper man as well). I had to measure out our room plans in our temp house for my wife to see the space, I am lucky that I can 3D visualise from a set of plans but not SWMBO. I like the idea of exiting via the dressing room so if one of you rises early you won’t disturb the other. ( I am the other in our house ?).

 

I work away one night a week and get up same day as the wife to get to the station to commute to London. The rest of the time I work from home and when she gets up at 5am and is rattling around it drives me insane, I'm partly deaf and most of the time I struggle to hear anything without my hearing aids but at 5am my hearing seems to be amazing ? I casually emerge at 830 and log on in my PJs.  When it gets to the weekend I wake up at a godly early hour when she wants a lie in!

 

Edited December 7, 2018 by canalsiderenovation

[Ferdinand]

Give thought to your bed, too, and whether your arrival will bounce your other half in the air slightly.

 

Consider one of those Scandinavian style ones that is actually 2 separate mattresses and where the support can move independently at waist and knees.

 

My parents bought one back in the mid-1980s, and it is still delivering value as mum now has to sleep nearly sitting up due to a hiatus hernia. The medics were talking about flocks of pillows, and all she actually does is pull a release, take off the pressure, and the bed sits up.

 

F

Edited December 7, 2018 by Ferdinand

[canalsiderenovation]

We have an old fashioned cast iron sprung bed frame, I'd never give that up!