A Jack-and-Jill bathroom is a shared bathroom situated between two bedrooms on opposite sides. It typically has two sinks, one toilet, one shower, and one bathtub for all occupants to use.
It may be practical or not for you, depending on your needs and lifestyle. At best, this type of bathroom can give your house more appeal, indoor flow, comfort, and convenience.
However, building it will involve a lot of time and effort. It may require you to take down walls, remodel rooms, add new lighting, and install new plumbing lines.
If you’re still up to the task, read on to know about the pros and cons of the Jack-and-Jill bathroom and if you need it for your home.
Should I do a Jack-and-Jill bathroom?
As we said earlier, doing a Jack-and-Jill bathroom can be right for you based on your lifestyle and needs. How big is your family, do you prefer privacy, and how much are you willing to spend?
These are just some of the questions you have to ask yourself.
At any rate, before you get it built, you have to first consider the pros and cons of a Jack-and-Jill bathroom. This will help you determine whether you truly need it or not.
So let’s now take look at them and give a brief explanation for each one:
Pros of Jack-and-Jill Bathrooms
- It can maximize your space
Although most homes are designed wonderfully by talented architects, a lot of modern homes still have unused space.
You don’t want to have unused space at your house because you paid for the full size of the house in your mortgage. Most homeowners want to optimize the use of the entire house area.
One out of many excellent ways to make the most out of your space is to get a Jack-and-Jill bathroom installed.
In doing so, you can enjoy, appreciate, and maximize the use of the said space. You will have a large bathroom for two bedrooms instead of two small ones.
It allows you to walk toward the other room conveniently and hang out with the room occupant. This gives the house an overall spacious, cozy, and airy feeling.
- It benefits large families
Like a connected deluxe hotel suite, a Jack-and-Jill bathroom can benefit large families and guests because of the larger space it affords.
Coordinating with family members and performing household duties will be a cinch given the quick access to the opposite rooms.
When brushing their teeth and washing their faces, two people can use the bathroom at the same time. However, that’s not the case when one wakes up in the morning and needs to use the toilet.
- It gives you privacy
Even though the Jack-and-Jill bathroom is accessible by people from both sides, the doors can still be closed and locked, thereby offering you privacy when using it.
With that said, the family will have to take turns in using the bathroom, but as long as one doesn’t use it for an extremely long time, it’ll be fine.
What’s more, you can customize the bathroom to have a separate door for the toilet or shower area. That way, everyone can use the bathroom and still get privacy.
Cons of Jack-and-Jill Bathrooms
- There’s only one bathroom in the area
This is the main problem with a Jack-and-Jill bathroom: only one bathroom is available for multiple people to use.
That may keep the occupants from going about their day efficiently. Someone can be using the bathroom at the precise moment that they need to.
But like we said, installing two sinks instead of one and another door behind the bathtub, shower, or toilet can solve the accessibility problem with this kind of bathroom.
- It may not be as efficient as you hoped for
Sure, a Jack-and-Jill bathroom is nice and unique and feels dreamy like a hotel, at first, but it may not keep up with your growing family’s demands over time.
Let’s say a friend is coming over to the city to stay for a month or you have a new kid, the bathroom will have to be available if they need to use it and especially when they really need to use it.
As a result, it will interfere with the person’s daily routine and be inconvenient. These are things a homeowner has to carefully consider if they plan to stay for many years in the house.
- It can be a cause for an argument or conflict
Having a Jack-and-Jill bathroom may also lead to families arguing and fighting over who can first use the bathroom. Of course, if possible, we want to avoid this altogether.
The layout of the bathroom can also influence the household’s perception of it.
One of them can accept having a standard Jack-and-Jill bathroom with two main doors but no secondary doors to separate sections of the bathroom. However, others may not completely accept this layout due to privacy concerns.
Plus, with this special type of bathroom, people have to learn to share, compromise, and coordinate with each other. More importantly, the family will have to learn to be patient if they can’t use the bathroom in the meantime or go to a smaller bathroom on a different floor.
- It can be more expensive to install
Suppose you have decided to add a Jack-and-Jill bathroom years after your house was constructed.
Although some people do this, it might be more of a hassle in terms of the work needed to be done, the expensive building costs, and also the time you use up in finding the right contractor.
So, if you have a few small or medium-sized bathrooms in the house for the family to use, that may already be good enough.
And we suggest just using your hard-earned savings on other areas of home improvement or your other important needs.
Are Jack-and-Jill bathrooms worth it?
If you have a fairly large house and family and want a spacious and convenient bathroom, then adding a Jack-and-Jill bathroom could be a fantastic idea!
But remember, while you may think that a Jack-and-Jill bathroom would be the feature element or highlight of your house, it’s just one of the many parts of a complete custom house.
Thus, you mustn’t just consider whether adding this bathroom is good or not but also the rooms it will connect to, the interior style of the house, the cost of maintaining it, and so forth, as it will affect the entire floor layout and aesthetics of your house.
And most importantly, take into account your family’s needs, size, and how they will change over time before deciding to build a classy Jack-and-Jill bathroom.
More Builder Lists
Here are more useful lists of contractors that can build your dream Jack-and-Jill bathroom:
