Powder Bath Considerations

Being fortunate enough to have a powder bath (or ½ bath) means guests need not appreciate your child’s rubber duckies in the tub. If your new home will have a powder bath, its location and design are top considerations. Having a powder bath might also be a cost issue requiring further trade-offs.

Powder Bath Location. Convenience suggests that main bathrooms should be located near the bedrooms, freeing the powder bath to serve other areas of the home. But for powder baths, privacy is as important as an accommodating location. You wouldn’t want to see the toilet when you walk through your front door, nor an “extra seat” from the kitchen/dining area. Location privacy is also important as a sound buffer. While simply keeping the bathroom door shut at all times seems like a reasonable alternative, in reality, that solution doesn’t work because you never know if that bathroom is in use or not. Finally, “how you want your home to live” can affect location. Do you want that bathroom near the entrance in from the garage? Near your home office for clients’ and colleagues’ use?

Powder Bath Design. For many, the focus rests upon selecting the perfect pedestal lavatory and faucet to compliment the design of the rest of their home. In terms of aesthetics, those pedestal lavatories can be stunning, but excellence in design means combining the aesthetics and practicality – specifically, storage.

At the risk of being indiscreet, when you’re sitting on the stool and you don’t have what you need (extra roll of toilet paper, hygiene products, etc.), then it’s not a good bathroom design. An over-the-toilet or in-wall storage cabinet are a couple ways to deliver the practical as well as the aesthetic in a powder bath that features a pedestal lavatory as opposed to a sink that sits atop a vanity base cabinet.

Thoughtful Design vs. Cost. Consider two Design Basics’ plans – the Osborne (#6282) and the Limington (#43037) – that are almost identical, with the only significant difference being the addition of the powder bath and drop zone in the Limington, adding about 42 square feet. Yet, using the standard $150 per square foot rule of thumb (source: HomeAdvisor.com), that works out to an additional $6,300. It seems like a lot of money for a 1,600 square foot home, but the convenience of powder bath would sure be appreciated by both occupants and guests alike!