This is the fifth article on the Reset House, a series on better home design illustrated in just 120 square feet.

Reset House office and living

It’s no secret that the mobile office is here to stay. Working from a phone, tablet, or laptop from anywhere in the world is as common today as having an actual desk in a physical workspace. So the Reset House provides only a small space dedicated to work and focus. Certainly the porch would be more welcome on a fair weather day. But in the interest of providing at least a little touchdown space beyond the table, a shelf is defined.

Reset House office and bath

More important than the size of the worktop is the amount of potential storage area around it. As discussed in the previous article on storage, areas for keeping physical belongings surround the space, including a bulletin board and staging areas for bills, mail, stamps, memorabilia, and files.

Now we come to the largest sacrifice that had to be made in the home as a result of its tiny size: the single space bathroom. A water closet, sink, and shower are all located within the same room. From the beginning, the design focused on how shower water could splash around the space while keeping the necessary bathroom items dry. The solution was to use flush-mounted cabinets with upward opening stainless steel doors or slide-up mirrors. Even the toilet paper is kept dry with a measurable tip allowed to dispense from the bottom of the door.

Reset House bathroom

The floor is a high quality epoxy resin turned up the walls six inches to ensure a watertight fit. The walls are a colorful blue tile and the ceiling a waterproof epoxy. The sink is a side access porcelain model that clears behind the swing of the door, and under it, out of the way, is the shower drain.

Mirrors line the wall of the door, the back of the door, and above the sink. This creates the illusion of a larger space and also bounces the light from the waterproof fixture around the room. A standard shower head is wall mounted along with a hand sprayer, but a ceiling mounted rain shower would have also been an interesting option.

This toilet is a wall-hung model that uses a tank in the wall behind it to conserve space. Standard porcelain water closets are adapted to a wet room, but these are quickly disappearing in favor of more sophisticated technology. Especially from Japan, toilets now have more standard features than most Americans expect in a premium fixture!

Kohler has recently stepped in to the competition with a, literally, “lights out” approach to feature offerings. Think you might want your toilet to have a motion activated seat, self-cleaning wand bidet function with multiple spray patterns and pressures, integrated air dryer, deodorizing charcoal filtered exhaust, heated seat, foot warming air jets, multi-color lighting for each day of the week, and music? Check out the Kohler Numi. At a corpulent list price of $5,987 (can be found for at least $1,000 less), it has a touch screen remote control tablet with user preferences for six users. I think I forgot to mention—it has a setting for an economical, low water use flush.

We still have a few more articles to present the remaining ideas developed in the Reset House. I hope you can see how even a small space can be fully featured, comfortable, and even luxurious. The next article will present the kitchen design and appliances as well as some insights about selecting options based on the style of the chef.

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