There are multiple reasons homeowners consider adding a shower to an existing powder room. In a two-story home with bedrooms on the second floor, it allows guests staying in a downstairs den or foldout couch to enjoy a full bathroom of their own. It can potentially increase resale value, especially if there is a den or office that is considered a bedroom space, down the road as well.
In either case, there are considerations to be made to ensure the finished powder-room-turned-bathroom isn't so squishy or non-functional that it becomes a detriment rather than an enhancement.
Keep the Powder Room Spacious in Your Chicago Bathroom Remodeling Project
Here are some of the considerations you'll want to make before going through the time and expense of designing and planning a shower add-on to the powder room.
Why are you doing it? The why of the project is important because powder rooms, sans showers, can be a gem in their own right. Most powder rooms don't have a shower because they weren't spacious enough to accommodate one in the first place. So, unless there is a need - or a future need - to include a shower, resale value may not be the best impetus for such a large-scale project. Often, additions or changes like this don't net anywhere near the amount of money homeowners put into them.
On the other hand, if you live in a home with bedrooms on the second floor, and you are interested in aging in place, eventually converting a downstairs room into your bedroom, or if you're preparing for a potential future surgery or injury that would make traversing the stairs a challenge, a converted powder room is a wonderful idea. Aging parents or grandparents who visit frequently will also appreciate the additions. That is the smartest Chicago bathroom remodeling project of all - one designed specifically for the owners' lifestyle and needs.
Can you get creative? There are kinds of ways to make the powder room bigger - expanding into a nearby closet might be an option. Punching a small section of exterior wall out will work. Sometimes, homeowners move their laundry room (often the powder room neighbor for plumbing simplicity) upstairs, into an unused closet - a good option if a child or two has flown the coop and you don't really need that closet space anymore. In that case, the current laundry room can become the host of the new shower addition. Another bonus of this latter option is that a drainage system is already in place.
Think in terms of space. In most cases, unless you are able to expand the room significantly, you're talking about a tight space so you want bathroom finishes to accommodate that. A glass shower door or an open shower is the best way to keep it as open as possible.
Bring your floor plans and ideas to Kitchens & Baths Unlimited and let us help you determine the most space-conscious way to add a shower to your Chicago bathroom remodeling project.
