Harold's Renovation Blog: #88: Whatever Happened To Privacy In The Bathroom?

Doorless bathrooms? Toilets behind glass walls? Showers and tubs just sitting in the corner of the bedroom? These “open concept” bathroom trends seem to be showing up more often, and they’re alarming to some and exciting to others. So this week we attempt to understand what sparked this growing trend, and we explain where we land on the bathroom privacy spectrum. Also, Sherry concocts a new date night idea for DIY enthusiasts and I recap how a few months off of social media has affected me (for better and for worse). Plus, how our very own half-bathroom installation went terribly, terribly wrong.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio, and Spotify – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player.

What’s New

Here’s a sneak peek of the house Sherry mentioned staging in this episode (the one where we all got together with more of an evening approach). After we recorded this episode it went up for sale and sold within 12 hours!

Sherry also talked about her other staging projects at the start of Episode #41 and Episode #53. You can click those links to see more photos like the before & afters below too.

You can also hear the original discussion of my attempts to detox from my phone (and how I first discovered the Moment app) in Episode #75. I finally purchased the Premium version (for $3.99) so I gained access to the 14-day boot camp, which gave me some new ideas beyond the free “Bored & Brilliant” course that I did back in December.

That’s Embarrassing

The photo above shows the console sink that we had a rough time installing. Signature Hardware doesn’t sell this exact model anymore, but you can find some similar ones on this page.
Below (left) is how the bathroom first looked when we bought it, and the picture on the right shows how we did a quick paint-and-accessories update before embarking on our full-fledged renovation a few years later.

Again, we don’t have great documentation of this remodel because it was while we weren’t blogging. But here I am coyly in the midst of demo. Clearly I wouldn’t have been jovially pausing to make this ridiculous face if I knew what was ahead of us…

And here’s the room with everything gone (except for my shoes, apparently). Fun fact: we didn’t replace any plumbing, we just spray painted the black PVC pipes with silver spray paint to make them look better since they’re now exposed.

Here I am hooking everything up after we solved the traumatic leg-related fiasco. Do I look relieved?

As I so subtly mentioned in the episode, there’s more about this room’s makeover in our second book, Lovable Livable Home.

Listener Question

Above is the Dream Hotel bathroom in South Beach that we mentioned staying in during our book tour stop in Miami. Ah, toilet memories.
I also had to laugh when I dug up this photo from way back in 2012 of the other hotel we mentioned from our Toronto book tour stop (still not sure of its name). We remembered the glass shower had blinds, but I’d forgotten that they were on the outside of the shower – so the person in the shower wasn’t in control of whether they stayed closed! HA!

If you want to do some further reading about “open concept bathrooms,” here’s what we dug up (all with great pictures & more examples):
- “The Fall Of The Bathroom Wall” from Slate in 2013
- “Bathrooms Without Doors. How Did This Become A Thing?” from The Daily Telegraph in 2015
- “Design Workshop: The Open Concept Bathroom” from Houzz in 2015
- “A Disturbing Bathroom Renovation Trend to Avoid” from Laurel Interiors blog in 2016
Oh, and the poll! We couldn’t forget to get your input on this hot topic too:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

We’re Digging

Here’s a link to that fascinating (and terrifying!) article about a nightmare roommate, that is very reminiscent of the Dirty John podcast we dug back in Episode #69.
There’s also a video that’s about halfway down the page that’s a good watch too (especially if you’re not in a reading mood).
“Little tabletop clocks” is easier to type than it is to say, so here’s a peek at the little pink clock that we got for our kitchen:

And, as promised, here are a few that Sherry dug up without a second hand (except for #1 and #5, which are specifically listed as “no-tick.”): 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to Universal Furniture for sponsoring this episode. You can enter to win $5,000 in new bedroom furniture at UniversalFurniture.com/YHL now through March 26th. Remember, the last winner of their previous dining room giveaway was a YHL-HAP podcast listener, so it could be you this time!