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I’m doing a renovation on my place. It is a 4 bed house in a retirement/vacation community in the mountains. The current primary bedroom is on the main floor. My plan is to upgrade the horrible ensuite bathroom in that bedroom. The current layout has a 6ftx6ft walk-in closet at the back end of the bathroom, a horrible fiberglass shower/tub combo and a ridiculous almost 8 ft vanity, and of course the toilet. Next to the toilet is a structural wall that cannot be moved. Like this.
As this is a log cabin, moving walls is not easy. I would like to just not have a walk-in closet and use that space to create a wet room type set up. And then reconfigure the rest of the bathroom. I was thinking of using the space where the tub is now and just making that a nicely outfitted reach in closet with space for guests to store their luggage while there. I will make the ridiculous vanity a simple 4ft 1 sink with shelves on either end for towels, or for guests to park their toiletries. There will also be a dresser with drawers in the bedroom area.
My other option is to build out a wall unit closet in the actual bedroom, but that will eat up a lot of floor space. Depending on the final size of the bed I buy for that room, I have about 34" between foot of the bed and the closet unit. I would then just put another 4ft vanity in the spot where the shower is now.
In my experience, a STR closet should be minimal, just enough to hang a dress or coat, use that space for bathroom and bedroom, it will have more of an impact on the guest than closet space.
It sort of depends on what length of bookings you get. A host who does longer term bookings might need a larger clothes closet for guests, but if they usually only stay a few nights- week, I don’t think you need to provide more than a small clothes closet.
Another alternative would be to buy a small wardrobe, rather than build in a closet, which would give you more flexibility if you decided to rearrange furniture in the future.
I think walk in closets are a big waste of space unless there is really so much space that it doesn’t matter. A smaller closet that can also store linens like in the second floor plan seems nice. Double sinks don’t really seem necessary to me. I do like a water closet for the toilet so instead of a tub in the primary bathroom I’d consider making the wet room a shower and toilet room. That way someone can use the toilet or shower while another person does their hair, makeup, get dressed, etc.
Thanks all, yes, the walk in seems useless to me for the most part, but especially in a vacation home. The stays in my area are generally 3-7 nights depending on the time of year. People come here to hike, bike, visit wineries or just hang out, so probably not a big wardrobe concern.
I like the idea of just having a shower and toilet in the back space, but will have to see how much trouble/cost it is to move the toilet from where it is now.
I think that would be a useless waste of space. I can see where it would be convenient for a couple to have 2 sinks and vanity space in their own home, if they both need to get ready for work at the same time in the morning, but in a vacation rental it seems unnecessary. Especially since you also have the powder room with a sink.
And a suggestion for the wet room- build in a little bench in the corner of the shower. I did that in both my showers when I had my house built. It’s very useful to women shaving their legs, to have something to put their foot up on.
Why would anyone cheap out on hangars? It’s not like they’re expensive. I only host one guest at a time, the closet is small, but there are 10 hangars. (There were 12 but 2 of mine broke, so I knicked 2 from the guest room) As I’m in a beach town, where people usually wear tee shirts and light summer frocks, I have no idea whether any guest has made use of all 10, but at least they are there.
I use plastic hangars (and they match), but heavy duty ones, not flimsy, because wood doesn’t fare that well in my tropical climate. Also guests sometimes hang wet bathing suits and beach towels on them out on their balcony.
I suspect that maybe when you only find 3 hangars in a large closet, in a room that sleeps 2, past guests have taken some of the hangars with them, and if it’s a place where the host has cleaners and property managers, they just don’t check as to whether more need to be purchased. Which of course is no good excuse.
I think you may be wrong about wooden hangars only costing 10 cents apiece, though. That sounds awfully cheap. Just looked on Amazon- 20 wooden hangars for $29.99
We go out and buy nice matching hangers. About 30 per bedroom. Then we watch on turnovers as they slowly evolve into no matching hangers. At this point we have 4 more turnovers per house before we shut them down and sell them. I’m taking bets on how many of the original hangers we’ll have at the end.
I don’t think you need much closer space in an STR, certainly not a walk in. A separate tub and shower is a major upgrade, IMO, and separating the tub/ shower for the toilet or sink makes practical sense. I’m impressed you came up with such a great plan without having to relocate the toilet. Personally I like the set up some hotel have where there’s a sink outside of the bathroom, or in your case you could add a door to close off the toilet from the area with the closet, but that creates three little compartments. Maybe if the wall and door between the vanity and shower could be frosted glass? Then you could put a door between the toilet and the closet and have some separation between the shower and toilet without the space feeling as compartmentalized.
We’re currently remodeling our kid/guest bathroom and I WISH we had space to change the configuration like this! Oh well.
