Top tips for designing your perfect bathroom
Your bathroom is one of the most-used rooms in your home, from dealing with the morning rush to relaxing in the tub after a long day! Make your bathroom work around you by designing your own, and read on for our top tips to consider before you get started!
1. Plan, plan, plan!
Before you start shopping, you should plan. Did we say that already?
Take measurements
Start by taking accurate measurements of your space, so you know what you have to play with. Whether you’re starting from scratch or replacing a couple of bits, it’s well worth having detailed measurements to save headaches further down the line.
When you’re choosing your porcelain items like sinks and toilets, make sure you choose products that you like, and which work in your space. Large, rounded sinks are great if you have the room, but you may want to opt for narrower rectangular sinks in bathrooms which aren’t blessed with space. It would be lovely to have a separate bath, shower, jacuzzi and sauna, but let’s be realistic!
Make an action plan
Decide early on what you like and don’t like about your current bathroom set up. Is your sink too big, which means it hits the door when it opens? Are your tiles giving you a headache? Do you not have enough space to store everything? Make a list of these things and treat them as a priority when shopping for your new bathroom materials.
Porcelain placement
When it comes to replacing things like sinks, toilets, and baths, you can make your life a lot easier by keeping your new replacement items in the same place and working around your existing layout.
Moving things about can be done if you’re a keen DIYer who knows their way around a waterpipe, but advanced plumbing takes years of experience – unless you’re feeling confident, hire a plumber to help you. No one wants a flooded bathroom.
2. Choose your style
This is the fun bit! Whether you choose to mix and match from our fantastic range of baths, basins, and bathroom furniture, or go all-in on one our beautiful bathroom suites, this is your chance to have exactly what you want in your bathroom.
Start with your essentials: bath & shower, sink, and toilet, bearing in mind your measurements and your action plan that we covered earlier.
Wall & floor coverings
Next, it’s time to tackle the walls and floor – not literally. Shop from a great selection of mosaic tiles to upgrade your surroundings and keep areas around the bath and sink easy to clean.
If you want to speed up your bathroom glow-up and aren’t confident with a trowel, we stock some rather useful tile stickers – the easy way to protect your walls and add some style! They’re also much easier to remove if you fancy a change later down the line.
Upgrading your bathroom flooring can revamp the look, but make sure you grab some flooring which has some non-slip properties to avoid accidents!
Paint
Paint can completely transform a room. Your bathroom is a humid environment with all those hot showers and relaxing baths, so it’s important to choose a purpose-made bathroom paint which repels moisture and is easy to wipe clean. Lighter colours add brightness to a room and can make it feel bigger than it is, which makes these a great choice for smaller bathrooms.
Don’t forget you can grab tester pots of paint to find your perfect colour. You can learn all about colours and finishes in our indoor paint buying guide.
Wallpaper
Want to really make a statement and liven up your bathroom? Well, why not – there’s wallpaper for that! Shop the range of bathroom wallpaper which makes a fantastic feature wall to add some pizzazz to your bathroom.
Wallpaper is easier to hang than you might think… you can learn all about it in our blog on how to apply wallpaper!
3. Storage
Bathrooms can easily become cluttered with cleaning supplies, toiletries, towels… the list goes on. Keeping things stored away makes your bathroom easier to clean, safer, and tidier – but as bathrooms are often one of the smallest rooms in the home, storage becomes a little more challenging.
Instead, get clever with your storage! Vanity units are clever storage solutions which go under your basin and are fantastic choice which don’t take up much room. You can also make use of slim bathroom cabinets which can easily slot into a corner without taking up too much room.
We have loads of bathroom mirrors which double up as a cabinet, letting you store toiletries and medications behind the glass itself. If your floor space is at a premium, finding storage solutions which are wall mounted can really help keep your bathroom clean & tidy.
For more fantastic ideas on how to work with a small bathroom, check out our blog on how to make the most of your bathroom space!
4. Lighting
Try and make the most of natural light in your bathroom where possible. We’re not saying you should smash holes in your walls and add new windows; there are easier ways to brighten up your bathroom!
Shower curtains can look great, but they also have a habit of closing off part of your room and affecting the way the light bounces. Upgrading to a clear glass shower screen can make a world of difference.
Lighter shades of paint are much better at reflecting light, so look at shades of cream, light blues and greens, or any other bright colour to brighten up your space.
Mirrors are also very effective: we love a big bathroom mirror, as it makes the morning routine easier and heightens the natural light for a bright, airy space. You could even double-down on your lighting and grab a mirror with built-in LEDs!
Don’t get us wrong, we love a candlelit bath, but you shouldn’t have to rely on fire for your primary light source. When space is at a premium, keep your bathroom lighting simple with a set of spotlights. You can always add some discreet lighting with the help of LED strip lights underneath cabinets or mirrors for an extra boost.
5. Ventilation
We may need water to live, but moisture can wreak havoc in your bathroom if it isn’t allowed to escape.
Bathrooms deal with a lot of moisture during showers and baths, but it doesn’t stop when the taps are turned off; damp towels will carry on letting moisture into the air, so you should grab a heated towel rail or towel rail radiator to get them dried off as fast as possible. No one wants a musty-smelling towel, but everyone loves a warm and fluffy one!
During the colder months, it isn’t as easy as just keeping the window open, but you should crack one open when you can if you haven’t got a wall fan. Making use of small moisture absorbers can also help. There are plenty more ideas in our blog on how to avoid moisture in your home.
Visit our bathrooms hub for everything you need to transform your space!
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