Everything You Need to Know About Designing Your Perfect Bathroom
Planning a bathroom - everything you need to know about designing your perfect bathroom.
Not so long ago you only needed to think about having a dream kitchen to sell your house for a premium. However, things have moved on and people's expectations are higher, people now want beautiful bathrooms, bedrooms and kitchens.
Bathrooms can be a daunting project to take on, especially because of the fear we feel about the damage that can be caused by leaks, as well as nasty smells coming from drains and waste pipes. But planning everything can make the job so much easier.
Because buyers expectations are so high, you need to make your bathroom look perfect. Here is our step-by-step guide to planning a bathroom, if it still feels like too big a job for you to undertake, then pop into our showroom in Battlesbridge, or book a design survey so we can design and install a bathroom for you.
Whatever your reason for wanting a new bathroom, the installation is a serious undertaking and very tricky. It requires multiple fittings and a high level of technical skills to work in such a small space. This is why planning everything will prevent costly mistakes and avoid changes after the project gets underway.
1. Assess your bathroom Work through your key priorities. Does your family require a bath, separate shower, double basins as well as storage, or can you do with out a bath?
Assess the type of space you want to achieve. Do you want a relaxing or energising space. This affects the type of fixtures, fittings and colour scheme you choose. This all comes down to imagining how you want to use your bathroom, and not about how you are using it. How you currently use your bathroom could be restricted because of it's layout, lack of storage or the entire vibe of the space. Think about how you've used hotel bathrooms or spas, or family and friends bathrooms.
2. Plan your bathroom layout Don't change a bathroom layout just because you fancy a change. If the layout works, there should be no reason to change it. Moving waste and water pipes can be expensive, when this money could be spent on other little luxuries.
Replacing fittings, flooring and tiles or repainting walls is a quick way to refresh a room. If the layout isn't quite right, think about the ways you might be able to make small but effective changes.
If you have decided on a layout change, then draw your plan on graph paper, remembering to include positions of doors, pipes and windows. You're measurements will need to be to the nearest millimetre.
Bathrooms can last a long time, consider how your family may grow, or if you are only doing this to increase the value of your home for resale. Baths are still preferred by many so a room with only a shower may not be as appealing to some.
3. Get Inspired The best place to get inspiration from is the internet. Pop into Google and do a search by style, colour or just 'bathroom inspiration'. There will be thousands of ideas to choose from. You can also buy an interior design magazine and cut out the bathrooms, or parts of the bathrooms you like, and stick them on to a mood board. Boutique hotels often have bathrooms that people dream of owning, so feel free to have a look around their websites as well. And of course we have plenty of photos of bathrooms you can have a look at.
If you have any friends or family who have undergone a similar project, ask them about their experience and what problems they came up against.
4. Be realistic about your space The average UK bathroom is tiny. You probably won't be able to fit in two sinks, a walk-in shower as well as a roll top bath.
Whatever you do, do not cram in fittings because it will make a small space feel even smaller. If you want a bath and a shower, you could look into a wet-room style shower or Japanese-style square tubs.
5. Don't forget ventilation An open window alone is not enough to ventilate a bathroom as it is not left open long enough to draw the damp air out of the room. Vents in walls, roofs and windows help with ventilation, check you have them or whether they need to be fitted.
6. Factor in storage A small shelf or mirrored cabinet above the sink doesn't really cut it when it comes to storage. You really need enough storage units for towels, all your toiletries, and bathroom cleaning products. Niche storage in the walls will also give you somewhere to keep your bottles within the shower unit.
7. Lighting
Low lighting is perfect for bathrooms as it doesn't disturbed the rest of the household who are sleeping in bedrooms opposite the bathroom. Motion sensors can be a great idea as it means you don't have to fumble about in the night to find the light switch.
8. Tiling There are so many choices available now for bathroom floors and walls, from ceramic tiles, marble, laminates, to cheaper options like vinyl. People always seem to be attracted to ceramic tiles as they make a bathroom look luxurious compared to vinyl, however if you are someone who likes to change things every few years then vinyl may be a better option for you. Vinyl comes in tiles, made to measure, or from a large roll (just like carpet) that will fit seamlessly into your floor space. Tiles take time to lay, whereas vinyl will be laid within an hour and immediately ready to step on.
Think about your room proportions before you choose your tiles. In 2020 the trend has moved towards a patchwork of decorative geometrics or hexagonal designs. To achieve maximum impact a floor-to-wall seamless feature, or a feature wall is popular. Decorative designs can be too busy for a small space, whereas they can add interest to a larger bathroom.
9. Finalise a budget Having set a budget right at the beginning helps you to prioritise where you need to splash the cash and where you need to save. You could splash out on beautiful tiles, and go cheaper with everything else. Tiles can last a lifetime when cared for, so in five to ten years you could upgrade any other part of your bathroom, while only having to redo grouting with your current tiles.
10. Do you need help Some bathroom companies offer a full solution, from planning, installation and decorating. It isn't the cheapest option, but the job will be finished sooner and hopefully look better than anything you can do yourself.
Alternatively you can design and source the products you want, but hire a plumber, electrician and builder to do the trickier jobs for you.
Get quotes from at least three fitters, make sure you are specific about every element of the project, so there are no nasty surprises later that will incur extra costs.
11. Picking your trades people Look to your friends and family for recommendations, it's always the best place to start. The second place to find trades people is online, check out their customer reviews, which can often be found in Google Reviews or on a website called Trustpilot, do this before you contact any of them. Once you meet the trades people ask for references and previous customer contact details. If everything checks out the last thing you need to consider is whether you like the person as they are going to be in your home for a week or two. The cheapest price doesn't always result in the best service. Often if you can't choose between the trades people you have interviewed, go for the quote in the middle.
If you are undertaking any building work (wall removal, adding windows, adding new joists) check with your local council to see whether you need Building Regulations approval.
Choosing to buy your suite and fittings through your builder might allow you to take advantage of their trade discount. Trades people usually have significant discounts, as well as fast delivery and product support. But your builder will add a small percentage onto the price of the suite and fittings to cover his time and to make a small profit when doing this for you.
Factor in delivery times, it might take three to four weeks for most items to arrive, luxury brands can take up to eight weeks.
If you don't have anywhere to store everything once it arrives, arrange for it to be delivered the day before, or on the first day the builders or fitters are expected on site. It's a bit of a balancing act to make sure you can still live comfortably, but to also not have builders standing around with nothing to fit.
Also check the returns period before you place your order so you know how long you have to report anything that is not right. Check everything as soon as it arrives, take your time over doing this, rushing means you will miss tiny details that you may not be happy with once they are fitted.
12. Surviving a bathroom refit Your bathroom could be out of action for a week, if you don't have a WC or second bathroom you may want to get to know your neighbours so you can pop into their home to use their toilet, otherwise you'll be left to travel to your nearest friends house to use their facilities.
If you have a gym membership, you can always make good use of their showers.
For anyone else, you may have to put up with a strip wash using the kitchen sink.
To minimise mess, cover stairs and hallway floors with dust sheets to protect them while things are being carried in and out of the house. When tiles or plasterboards need to be cut ask the trades people to do it outside, helping to reduce the amount of dust in your home. You can also seal off doors to any bedrooms using masking tape and plastic dust sheets.