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Bower Power

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One Door Down

OUR 2nd HOUSE

We have a small issue in the kid’s bathroom.

Small issue literally. About eight inches small. That’s the distance between the two doors when they are open.

Oh let’s revisit that space shall we?!

The small bathroom is the shared toilet and shower between the room Will is in and the room Weston is going in very soon.  It’s a Jack and Jill type set up where each bedroom has their own sink and mirror but share the world’s crampiest bathroom. In the beginning of our house’s journey, this space was a sponge-painted and chipping mess. Fifty eight bucks later, it became a happy place for bathtime with a sheet-turned-shower-curtain, a couple coats of paint, a little more storage and a fun bit of sticker art.

The problem was at bath time.  I started bathing both boys in this smaller tub in the evening because it was faster and easier than in our big Jacuzzi tub in our master bathroom…and because both boys don’t fit in our kitchen sink 🙂  Plus, I could sit on the floor and bathe them and still be able to reach Weston if he decided to see if the bottom of the tub smelled like strawberries.  But with one of the doors open (I keep one open so that I can yell down at Jeremy who helps with tub-boy-extraction and to help with the cavernous screams from bursting my eardrums.  Apparently boys like to yell and splash and scream loudly even at 7 months of age when plastic sharks are battling over the letter P.)….so with one door open, the room becomes somewhat cramped…and the ability to have both boys within reach becomes difficult.

So I decided that it was time for one to go.  Namely this one…

Jeremy removed it for me in three milliseconds.  I was all like….This is freaking awesome (say that like Macklemore with a radio edit for full effect).

So what’s the plan stan?!

Well, I’d like to put in a door that is like one of those old barn doors with sliding hardware.  I loved how Emily in Country Living did hers with cheap hardware.  All I would have to do is remove that weirdly located bath towel rod and have the door slide closed on the outside.  It would be an awesome solution right?!

Yeah.  So that’s where we are at.  One door down.  Ten thousand feet of trim to go…

p.s.  This is Nana Camp week.  Yup.  The one and only.  And last week was VBS.  So I am feeling a bit like a taxi driver and so this weeks posts are gonna be smaller projects and little posts.  You’ll get over it 🙂

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Comments

  1. I wish I could say that chauffeuring gets easier but it doesn’t as the kids get older! Good luck! The best is only yet to come! Love your blog!

  2. Great sliding door idea! As an apartment-dweller, I long for the day that I’ll be working on projects like this one. Also, I love that you keep it real and show that you keep your kids your top priority!

  3. A sliding door would be fantastic, functional and they look great! I would have them in my entire tiny house if I could, instead most of my rooms are nekid in the door department.

  4. LOVE the idea of using the pipes for the doorway! what an inexpensive option! I’ve always loved the farm house doors but I’ve always thought that they are WAY too expensive!

    Also… thank you so much for sharing the Country Living Link! I’m now OBSESSED with their home and all of the great DIY/THRIFTY things in it!

    Julie

    P.s. – We were down in Atlanta last weekend taking my daughter to camp… She does Camp Winshape at Berry college (I went when I was younger). We did the Wold of Coke though and had a BLAST!

  5. I like where you’re going with this! Who came up with that crazy door design in the first place? Pocket doors would have made more sense – but I like the sliding door idea even more!

  6. How about making them both pocket doors? Then they are out of sight when open! Love the one I have in my small bathroom!

  7. What a difference having that door out of the way will make! And I have totally been wanting to put a barn door on sliders in our Master bath door. It’d be the coolest!!

    P.S. I’ve been meaning to ask, are you cloth diapering this time around with Weston too?

  11. Good call on the door removal and I love the idea of a sliding barn-like door – I never understand how builders aren’t able to envision themselves in a space. Jack & Jill bathrooms are great but only when it’s not a complete hassle.

  12. The barn door idea is a great solution! I though you would just switch them to swinging out but this will look much nicer 😉

  16. We installed a barn door in our bathroom this year and it makes a huge difference and people always comment on how much they love it!

  18. we put a barn type door between our kitchen space and living room. It was a narrow door way and there were times when we wanted to keep dogs or kids out of the living room. we got a vintage door from a recycle place and it’s awesome. we drilled a small hole at the top and use a dowel to lock it in place because 2 year olds will spend their entire life wanting to slam slide it back and forth

    trust me. I have lived it!

  19. I’ve seen pocket doors in bathrooms that are tight on space. That’d probably be really hard to install after the fact though. Also, I want a whale spigot…as an adult.

  20. A barn door would be awesome! Much better than a pocket door, which is what I would have thought to do.

  21. LOVE the sliding door idea. And I have to say when I first read,”it was time for one to go,” I thought you were talking about the boys. Yikes. =D

    -andi

  22. So excited for this post.. I’ve been wanting to do this in my pantry and have been scared by the price of the sliding kids.. Can’t wait to see what you come up with and thanks for the link to Emily’s… it’s perfect..

  23. I’ve been considering doing that to our hall bathroom! Mostly because you literally have to get into the tub to close the door – and you have to close the door to use the toilet! XD

    My other option is just making the door swing into the hallway, but I’d rather a barn door. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

  25. Out of curiosity, can we get a picture of the sink set-up in the boys’ rooms? You know, when you have some free time 😉 My instinct is that it will be great when they’re teenagers but in the meantime it probably means double the child-proofing so I’m wondering what you’re doing or what your plans are.

    Love the sliding door idea. Our first apartment had a pocket door closing off the toilet/bath from the sink/vanity and it was oddly one of my favorite features about that dated place.

  26. I love the sliding doors but I wouldn’t do the pipe method. Nothing I’ve tried has fixed the awful noise of metal rubbing on metal. I’m sure there is some fix but I don’t know if it is worth it. My two cents

  27. Perfect timing as always!! I want to do this in our master bedroom where there are 4 doors opening into each other. Can’t wait to see what you do 🙂

  28. Weird that they had both doors opening in, isn’t it? Anyway, I love the barn door idea. While they’re little, you could even go doorless for a while, too.

    I feel ya with the beige trim. I have it everywhere in my 50s rancher. Uggh. I started painting it and realized after a couple of doors that I was painting latex over oil…scrape, scrape, scrape…stupid mistake.

  29. My kids have a jack and jill bathroom like yours and I’m o.ver.it. (Not opinionated either) Between their bedrooms/baths and the walk-in closets in their part of the bath, we have eight doors. And I’m almost done painting all that trim. Almost…

  30. Does Will have a new hair cut? It looks fancy pants/big boyish. I love all of your posts. I don’t care if they are sponsored, short or long. I love your house, style and looking at pictures of you & your kids. I’ve got my own eye candy at home so ones with your hubby don’t do it for me, lol. Sometimes I wish I could bake you muffins and come over for coffee to chat while our boys played. I know, so weird. Off to clean while my little one zzzzzs.

  31. Can’t believe Weston isn’t a newborn anymore! So adorable the way he is standing there peering into the tub at his big brother!

  32. A sliding barn door is an awesome solution. Not only it is aesthetically pleasing and practical, but it prevents someone getting whacked in the head if the door swung open. Can’t wait to see the details on this project. Are you planning to do it with both doors?

  33. I like the idea of a barn door, but I’m curious: why don’t you just hang the door to open the other way (into each boy’s room rather than into the bathrom)? I am thinking of doing that for my tiny master bath, so I’d love any insight.

  34. Haven’t commented before but wanted to speak up at this point to say I so enjoy your blog and especially your light, funny, oh-so-realistic tone. Masterpiece phrases is this post, which have me grinning: (1) “still be able to reach Weston if he decided to see if the bottom of the tub smelled like strawberries,” (2) “Apparently boys like to yell and splash and scream loudly even at 7 months of age when plastic sharks are battling over the letter P” and (3) “You’ll get over it.” Love those!

  36. I have a barn door for the bedroom of my apartment, and it’s great for tight spaces, but one thing to consider is the sound issue. I can hear absolutely everything through the door because barn doors don’t have as tight of a seal as regular doors. Something to consider, especially because bathrooms sometimes have noises you don’t want the rest of the house to hear… if you catch my drift. 🙂

  37. So nice to hear you were involved in VBS. Some of my best memories, both as a child and as an adult, were related to Vacation Bible School.

  39. Ah, VBS! Our church is doing the half-day version and I am the music lady this year (I think it may be my third year doing music). I am totally thwacked by the time my youngest goes down for a nap at 2:00. In fact, I just woke up from my own nap. Now I need to figure out dinner before he wakes up…

    Enjoy Nana Camp – it sounds like a blast!

  41. Thinking about it on both. Gotta figure out the one on the other side because there is a light switch there.
    xo – kb

  45. Yes I saw Mandi’s post on how to do it after the Country Living article came out. It was definitely a good reminder.
    xo – kb

  47. He got one a while back…it was short on the sides and longer on top…but now I think he needs another one. Poor kid has fast growing hair 🙂
    And I’d take those muffins in a heartbeat 🙂
    xo – kb

  48. I thought about it but it still means that we would have valuable floor space eaten up. Since this area is REALLY not well planned out, I like to pretend this is my version of moving walls when in fact, it is just saving just a little bit of space.
    xo – kb

  50. I would love to do that but unfortunately that would cost a TON and require rewiring one entire wall…so yeah…not in our near future.
    xo – kb

  54. I like barn doors, though we don’t have any. I don’t understand how you open the door from the inside of the room, if that makes sense. Meaning one side of the door, wouldn’t have a handle on it, but I don’t think a handle can be on the other side, can it?

  56. Haha – we have the same whale spigot in our kids bathroom. But my 14-month-old just wants to take it on and off over and over, so I think that might defeat the purpose. Oh well – it keeps him busy!

  58. I really want to go to Nana Camp. Really. You should do a grown up total strangers version. That wouldn’t be creepy. nope.

  60. ok, i have to chime in on this diaper discussion…lol…how are the luvs diapers? my boy almost AlwAYS has leaks, with pampers! i think it’s b/c his ‘boy stuff’ shoots up. i didn’t have that problem with my daughter. and it will be a dry diaper with a leak all around him above his waist. any suggestions?

  62. We only use LUVS…mostly because I can usually find coupons…but here’s what the diapering situation is for our boys: we always make sure to make sure his “lil buddy” is pointing down when we put on the new diaper. Then we always make sure the edges along the legs have the ‘fringe’ on the outside and isn’t accidentally tucked in. The diaper should be tight enough to comfortably slip two fingers under the waistband when they are laying down. Then lastly, make sure the diaper is large enough to hold the ‘liquids’…even if the waistband is tight, it’s better to go up a size if you have leaks overnight.
    Hope this helps!
    xo – kb

  63. THanks!! lately i have been trying to point his ‘buddy’ downward….it’s my first boy experience.

  64. We have the exact same bathroom and footprint. Our builder mounted the door on the opposite side of the frame so the door opens to the wall side not the tub side. That might be an easier solution if you wanted to keep the door? Ultimately I wanted to do the sliding door but on the opposite door since ours opens to the toilet and blocks that area. Sally

  66. I was wondering more about the “lockability” factor over the sound. Same sort of issue I guess. ESP. with two boys. Hmmm. teenage boys may want to be able to lock the door! LOL! 😉

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