we can't answer your questions without more information....is this for renovating old downstairs or new upstairs rooms? is the upstairs a whole new storey or rooms in the roof, above the new extension or above the original house, what's the size of the available space, how many bedrooms and bathrooms do you need for residents and how may extra do you need for guests...there's many ways to avoid the issues you describe but the design should be incorporated into a whole house plan not a few rooms at a time and then tacked together.. the rooms are much bigger than necessary, have a wasteful arrangement for the plumbing and will be complicated to add into an existing house

thanks again @oklouise you have hihglighted things I hadn't considered re wasteful plumbing

I asking more about the concept rather than the practicalities. We have 2 bedrooms which will all have walk-in robes/ensuites, 1 existing bedroom downstairs on the ground floor and the second one upstairs on a newly built level.

The architect suggested accessing the en suite via the robe as thats what most people ask for, but I prefer accessing it directly as a I don't like the idea of having to walk through an extra room to access the toilet

using your guest room plan with estimated measurement the floor area would be about 91 sq m.

thanks again - sorry i wasn't being clear

i don't actually have 2 adjacent bedrooms with en suites/walk in robes, the original picture was just to demonstrate the 2 variations I was condiering for en suite access i.e the left image shows direct en suite access and the right image shows indirect en suite access via the walk-in robe. I prefer the left option but I'm told that most people prefer the right option and I was wondering what others thought was the best option (irrespective of plumbing considerations)

my apologies for misundertanding your question but this is another example of needing to see the whole floor plan and then work through details...i prefer separate doors to each space but extra privacy can be created with grmcc95's idea of the small hall between bedrooms, wiw and ens but always depends on available space

With two doorways in your WIR you do lose hanging space, so seperate entries is more efficient. I always try and avoid direct sightlines between bed and toilet pan, so be careful with your ensuite arrangement.

Best of luck with your planning,

Regards

Dr Retro

of Dr Retro House Calls

I would hate having to walk through WIR to go to the bathroom. Don't want to see any mess on my way... ;-)

If robe is big enough to take shelves on 3 sides then go with 2 separate entry's to ens & wir. Wasting storage otherwise. As Dr said avoid sight lines to toilet!

If robe can only have shelves on 2 sides then have entry to ens through wir. We have ours this way and it works well. Have done it on quite a few other alts & adds as well. No issue with moisture in robe after 12 years of use. We don't use extraction fan all the time either. Our house stays fairly temperate and we don't have super hot showers so we don't have a steam problem. Could be different if house is cold and have hot showers!

Worthwhile using solid core doors too rather than the el'cheapo hollow core if possible.