Good question. I extended a home upstairs and the stairs were a pain at night - particularly with young kids - because we could not afford to put a toilet or full bathroom upstairs. This meant so many trips up and down that we eventually thought that if we stayed in the house for many more years we would have to shell out for a bathroom. In the end, we left. I hope this helps!

Hi qlder, how funny that we had the same dilemma a few months ago... when I said to interior designer that butler's sink was too small (and it was miniature :/ ) she too suggested we swapped sinks by putting the double in the butler's pantry and the butler's sink in the kitchen... initially I thought great idea, but then I realised the whole point of designing an open plan kitchen was so I could be part of the action while in the kitchen, most of which time I spend at the sink... another point to consider is that if you have kids/teenagers, they're not going to bother going around to the butler's pantry and will just dump their dirty dishes at the nearest available sink, then you end up taking them to the bigger sink... I have seen display homes with double sinks in butler's pantry but then so was the dishwasher, and I note from your post that your dishwasher's in the kitchen so it would make more sense to me to have the double sink there as well... in the end we kept the double sink in the kitchen (personal pref & for reasons stated above) but as the butler's sink was way too small, we upgraded to a bigger 'laundry trough size' sink for washing pots and pans etc in the butler's pantry

We have the benefit of living with both scenarios. Single sink in the bathroom; two in the ensuite. The bathroom has been reno’d and a shaving cabinet was installed. The ensuite needs a reno and doesn’t have a shaving cabinet. If you have a mirrored shaving cabinet, it probably won’t matter if you have one or two sinks. Bench space won’t factor. All the clutter will be nicely hidden away in the cabinet. Provided there’s enough space between two sinks so they don’t look squashed in, flip a coin or let personal preference rule on the number of sinks. No shaving cabinet - I’d go one sink. When the ensuite gets done we’ll definitely install a cabinet. The bench top becomes so much neater, spacious, uncluttered and easy to clean.

double or even queen sized quilts are my choice for single beds as they stay on better and cover the sides of the mattress and look less skimpy...measure the height and width of the beds including mattress and other bedding and trial a double or queen sized sheet to see what length looks best at the sides...the other side of the quilt can be tucked under the mattress if you have the beds against the wall and also helps to stop quilt slipping off restless sleepers ...bigger quality quilts are a better long term investments that can be used on any sized beds