Creating an Ensuite Shower Room

I have seen a number of older style houses for sale recently that lack an en-suite bathroom or shower room and yet have very generous sized bedrooms. In the same square footage in a more modern house there would probably be at least 2 additional en-suite bathrooms. As I’m planning to move house and considering putting an offer in on one of the houses I have been particularly concerned to work out how I can fit an en-suite in and the best way to do it.

Fortunately the connecting wall between the master bedroom and the bedroom next to it has a row of built in wardrobes in each room. Although this is useful storage  both rooms have plenty of other storage (or the space to create it). Now that’s something you don’t often get in a new-build house. The same connecting wall also runs to the outside of the house between 2 windows where there is space to create a new window – not essential for an en-suite but definitely preferred if possible.

So removing the wardrobes and taking a few extra centimetres from the floor space of the master bedroom will give a room wide enough to accommodate a 1400mm double sized shower enclosure at one end (away from the window), 2 basins (or possibly a single extra-wide, organically shaped one) with the loo at the opposite end under the new window.

The new door into the room could be located centrally and opposite the basin(s) giving plenty of room for access to the shower and the loo. One of my pet hates is cramped bathrooms but I’m confident this one would not be cramped – maybe more compact than I would like but still perfectly adequate. It would also be possible to create a wet room and I love the idea of a shower area level with the floor but I’m not sure my budget would stretch to it. That’s something I will need to check out but I have seen some beautiful pictures of wet rooms with large porcelains tiles across most of the floor and walls and complementary mosaics for the shower area, which are better for getting the slope down to the drain right than trying to cut larger tiles.

But before I start choosing my sanitary ware, taps and floor tiles I need to put an offer in and see if I can actually secure the house.