a peek inside the fishbowl

We’ve been living in our renovated home for about a year now, and I have to say, one my favourite things about it is our big family bathroom. Regular readers may remember how much I agonized over it. Well, I’m happy to report that it’s worked out incredibly well for us.

I wanted a bathroom that the four of us could use at the same time… and it has totally worked out that way. If you look at our drawings you’ll see that the room is compartmentalized in order to separate the (a) main area from the (b) toilet/tub, and the (c) shower area… which is big enough to have a dry spot to hang towels and robes just inside the frosted door. (There are some photos of it here.)

As the only bathroom on the second floor, I knew it was going to be a high traffic area. One of the things I wanted very early on was a style of bathroom cabinet that had two sinks, two outlets, and a separate drawer for each member of the family.

Thankfully, our cabinet guy (Bob at BCR Woodworking) was able to accommodate my request:

The style of cabinetry is exactly the same as the one in our kitchen. The only difference is that the drawers have extra detail that the kitchen ones do not. This cabinet is about 63″ wide, just over 5′, so not that big really. It was actually a bit of a squeeze to get two sinks in there. (Undermount sinks are AWESOME, and they were very inexpensive. I just love them.)

The key here, for me, was having the four stacked drawers. Not only does it help keep the counter tidy (if I see something out on the counter I just sweep it into one of the drawers!) but it gives everyone a place for their stuff.

My drawer is the second one from the top, and it contains only the things that I use on a daily basis. This is what it looks like most of the time:

I should point out that all of our cabinetry uses smooth-glide/soft-close/self-close hinges and rails. You just give them a little push and they practically close themselves… without slamming shut too. And it may be a small thing, but I am quite happy with the shelf liner! It’s pretty AND it prevents things from sliding around in there too much.

Now that I’m looking in there, I realize that I could actually get away storing fewer items in my drawer. There are a few things that don’t need to be in there.

The rest of the bathroom-type things (cotton swabs, extra hair products, lotions, medicines, hair dryer etc.) are sorted in bins in the cabinets under the sinks. They’re shared anyway, so it works out pretty well.

Anyway, yes! I’ve been very pleased with our family bathroom. Now if only people could remember to replace the toilet paper rolls when they run out… !