An Attic Bathroom Addition

Last summer I was tasked by a client to add a master bathroom in their 1930s home in Wichita Kansas’ historic College Hill Neighborhood. Like many old houses, this home had plenty of bedrooms but lacked the number of bathrooms found in modern builds. Adding a bathroom to a one bathroom home will add value but part of that value is adding a bathroom in the right place. A place where it makes sense to the home’s function. For this home, we found the best place to add the second bathroom was in the unfinished attic.

The Floor Plan

It might help to show you the original layout of the space. The dotted lines are where the roof gable meets with the exterior wall on the first floor. The finished closet was a walk in where the only wall you could store clothing was only 6ft tall with an angled ceiling.

Above is the work needed to be done to build a usable conditioned space. OF COURSE we all wanted to turn the existing closet into the bathroom by expanding it out into the unfinished space and including the window in the bathroom. Perfect right?

First let me say this

95% of the time you can do ANYTHING you want in a remodel. You must know that all that you CAN do comes with a cost.

Yes we could have done all that I listed above but to turn the closet space and unfinished attic space (with the window) into a bathroom there would be extreme added costs. Here is why.

1. The plumbing stack would be too far away to use. We would need to install a new plumbing stack and pipes which means we would have to dig up the back yard and tap into sewage line. This would add about 4-6K to the project when you include the plumbing bill and all the repairs costs for what had to be torn into.
2. The HVAC unit was installed in a way where the access needed for maintenance faced the window. AND the type of HVAC installed by the previous home owner (per building code) cannot open into a bathroom. We would have to move the HVAC (really not possible) or get the right kind of unit adding 8-10K to the project. NOPE.

As you can imagine, the home owner priorities were not to spend a possibly 15K on things they would never see. This was the plan we came up with.

Why not extend the shower back into the closet? We would still have an HVAC access problem. The homeowners also didn’t want a large window in their shower.

Here is the view of the bathroom. Of course the door would not be that large but it allows you to see the angled ceiling in both the bathroom and the closet.

Here are the actual before pictures of the space. You can see where I have taped out the future walls. The window was not framed correctly as well. It is missing the header needed to carry the roof load.

This is the backside wall of the master bedroom where we would install the door to the new bathroom.

We opened the doorway and the space already felt bigger.

The Design Plan

The Reveal

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This little space packs a mighty punch visually. I suggested the tiled back wall to draw your eye to the back of the space. It helps make the room feel larger.

We also didn’t want this space to feel like a drywall box so we added some character with the board and batten wall treatment.

Why didn’t we add a skylight? Click here for why the skylight might be added later.

We thought about putting a medicine cabinet in for the mirror but we really didn’t have enough room for it behind the walls due to the HVAC vent. Stylish medicine cabinets are expensive, cheap ones just look builder grade. We decided to place a shelf over the sink instead.

We discussed storage needs and I even suggested custom drawers built into the shorter wall. The homeowners wanted more towel hanging space and when we talked storage needs I quickly realized some smart storage on shelving would work well for these clients.

How does it all work?

I don’t live in the space but here is how I styled the bathroom to work.

• Towel storage on the shelves and in the basket on the floor
• The bottom shelf holds a basket with lotions, eye care, and all sorts of girly bathroom needs.
• Not seen is a small lidded basket by the toilet that holds extra toilet paper.
• Vintage jewelry case stores tweezers, clippers and hair stuff.
• Small basket is more storage for more things
• The vintage leather satchel holds the husbands items
• There is a bench in the hidden part of shower where all their soaps and shampoo bottles hide.
• The new master closet has a make-up vanity area for getting ready. It is right next to the window so all of her make up and hair appliances are stored there.

I love a good subway tiled wall but I think I am loving the square tile subway wall a little more these days. I was elated when the homeowner was up for it.

The faucet finish is Delta Champagne bronze finish. The brass color is a little bit different than the sink faucet but they were separate enough in the space to be cohesive.

My go to place for glass doors in Wichita Kansas is Central Mirror and Glass. The have frameless, semi-frameless and frameless options. We splurged on the frameless for function. A frameless shower is attached by clips so it can open out of the shower and into the shower. It made the door in the small space functional.

The Details

This project was not a bathroom remodel. We were adding a bathroom where there was none and to do this we had to tap into the existing plumbing. Plumbing pipes must slope down from the drain and attach to the waste stack. Modern day plumbing can’t be drilled through old home ceiling joists for structural reasons. Therefore, to get the plumbing to the existing stacks we had to demo the guest bedroom ceiling, run the pipes under the joists and reframe a new…lower ceiling.

The good new is this old house had 9.5ft ceilings. We had to lower the ceiling in the guest bedroom one foot. Ceiling heights in new builds are 8ft. The guest bedroom still is a nice 8ft tall. The rest of the ceilings in the house remained 10 ft and you don’t even notice it in the bedroom because the windows are so tall.

The Sink

The homeowners loved the idea of a wall mounted sink. We didn’t have room for a large sink so space underneath made more sense than a small vanity with not much storage underneath. We loved this Kohler sink but the price was a little too high. After hours of searching I found this gem on Etsy.

The above sink is half the price of the inspiration product. Why? It’s made of fiberglass. The Kohler version is much heavier and its made for two specific Kohler faucets that do not come in brass. We just wanted one faucet.

IMPORTANT: If you love this sink and want to buy it you must know, the sink is a utility sink…NOT a bathroom sink. This is no big deal for function but you need to know this for plumbing parts.

The Faucet

If you buy the “already” made version of this sink with two holes. The above faucet and this faucet are the only ones that will work because of the spout length.

The TOTAL depth of the faucet can be no more than 8.5 inches so it will not extend too far over the drain and the water will not splash out. The total depth doesn’t include the parts of the faucet that are inserted into the holes. It is the distance from where the faucet sets on the backsplash of the sink.

The good news is you can order custom holes for no extra cost (that option was not available when we ordered it). There is not extra charge for custom holes! If you do this, then something like the above faucet will work.

IMPORTANT TIP: All wall mounted sinks require backing so when you install the wall mounted sink you are guaranteed to hit a stud. This requires having the sink and faucet on hand at installation so your plumber can install the backing needed to install the sink and know the exact location for the rough plumbing.

Lets talk p-trap. If you want a pretty gold p trap you are going to have to think through a few things. Here are the things you need to order for this sink. Please learn from my mistakes because I ordered all of these for a bathroom sized sink. This is a utility sink so you have to order the right items. Good thing everything was returnable and good thing my plumber caught it the day

The Exposed Plumbing

I ordered all of the following in rough brass. The drain was polished brass but it all looks cohesive.

• You need a bar strainer utility drain. We used this one.
• You need a 1 1/2 inch x 12 flanged tail piece. We got ours here.
• You need a 1 1/2 inch ptrap. We purchased this one.
• You need a 1 1/2 inch Escutcheon. We used this one.

Most p traps come with an escutcheon. The linked ptrap above comes with one but it wasn’t deep enough for our plumbing needs. We bought the deepest escutcheon we could find but it was STILL not deep enough.

Since the wall was white we bought this white escutcheon and made it work.

Much better… right?

Why not a skylight?

A skylight would be a perfect way to add natural light and it is actually in the plan but it was out of the initial budget. The homeowners wanted to use the money for that somewhere else more pressing to the function of their new home. So, I suggested that they add it later. It is an easy weekend project for a contractor down the road.

The homeowners added some serious value to their home. We added a thoughtfully placed bathroom in an unfinished space, we expanded a tiny master closet into a large walk in closet and created a master suite. What I didn’t mention above is they used the allotted money for the skylight to add a closet to a room that didn’t have one. In four weeks this home turned into a 3 bedroom 1-bath home into a 4 bedroom 2 bath home with a master suite. I am extremely confident they will see every bit of the money they invested back when they one day sell the home.

Are you look to remodel a space in your home? Midwest Eclectic is a design and remodel company ready to help you from start to finish make your space fully you. Contact me here. I would love to work with you.