Bathroom Design Ideas

If you choose not to tile your bathroom, but instead decide to paint the walls, and then make sure you choose a waterproof paint which is specially designed to cope with the steamy conditions which running baths or showers will create.

Decorating a bathroom is no harder than painting any other room of the house, but if your suite is fitted, be sure that you cover it up well prior to starting, so that it doesn’t get any splashes of paint on it. It’s very easy to think that you will be so careful that this isn’t really an issue, but paint does and will, drop off your brush and can very easily ruin a bath.

Prior to painting, make sure that your walls are flat and that any rough patches of plaster have been sanded down. Painting will show up any tiny imperfections on your walls and exaggerate them, so take extra care to prepare them so that they look like a blank sheet of paper and are completely smooth. You may also want to patch-up any other imperfections, which can be quicker than if you simply try to sand down the rest of the wall.

Painted bathrooms can look very good, but may be a little ‘cold’ in atmosphere, so you may want to think about introducing a little warmth, with splash-backs over the bath and wash hand basin. A splash-back is simply a couple of rows of tiles, which act as a way of preventing water soaking into the walls.

The bathroom may have remained relatively overlooked in considering environmental issues for some time, but those days are over and the bathroom is now subject to the same scrutiny as other rooms of the home.

In the future, all homes which are sold are likely to be affected by energy efficiency rules, which means that the house will be ‘energy rated’ as to its impact on the environment and whether or not it uses energy and possibly water efficiently.  Toilets already use less water to flush than they did thirty years ago.

However, this does not mean that your bathroom has to be transformed into some kind of sawdust toilet with a jug for bathing.  It is still possible to have luxury and save the planet.

All it takes is a little careful planning and consideration.  Can you maximise natural light coming into your bathroom?  This is great for energy efficiency and natural light really helps when applying make up! Is your hot water system controlled by a condensing boiler? Have you set a timer for water and central heating?

You can also make sure that the bathroom is double glazed, thereby cutting down on heat loss.  Or you can fit water saving devices to take water from the shower or bath and store it for use in the garden, if you want to be really water-efficient. For many people, a few basic energy saving principles are all that is necessary and still have the bathroom of your dreams!

The type of bathroom suite that you choose will really define your bathroom and say a lot about your taste and your lifestyle, so choose carefully!  Price is obviously something to be taken into account, but there are also other considerations.

Space is obviously an important issue, since there is no point in buying a walk in shower and massive whirlpool bath if they will not fit into the space you have available.

Style is also the other big factor.  You should think about the look that you want to create in your bathroom and how you can achieve this.  Do you want it to be an oasis of calm, or the epitome of urban chic?  If you are a bachelor with a busy lifestyle then think practical and no fuss.  If you are a busy mum with a young family, then you need to think about children’s bathing requirements, as well as time for you and your partner.  You may also need to have some ‘me time’ and the bathroom can be a great place to achieve this.

Bath suites can date quite easily (i.e. the ‘avocado’ suite, that style ‘nightmare’ of the 1980s) ad so with this in mind, a classic, well designed and practical style of bathroom suites can act as an investment, adding to the value of your home.  Thus making it easier to sell on and still looking good in a few years, rather than just looking out-dated.  So spend as much as you can afford and go for elegance, rather than just modern trends.

The choice of whether to have curtains or opt for blinds really depends on your personal tastes, as well as budget. It may be possible to buy curtains more cheaply than blinds, but they can be affected by the damp conditions in the bathroom. Blinds are usually more expensive, but they may last longer. They are also particularly at home in very contemporary or modern bathrooms, whereas older, more period bathrooms will suit a set of curtains.

Blinds also help you to adjust lighting levels in the bathroom, which is very important when you want to use it for personal grooming. Roller blinds are very useful if you want to be able to block light out, or your window is an awkward shape.

Curtains can look quite dramatic in a large and grand bathroom, where you might have a very dramatic flow of crisp white linen adorning the windows. This can really help offset some of the starkness that many modern bathroom designs suffer from.

Whichever you choose, you need to make sure that you clean the blinds, roller blinds or curtains on a regular basis, otherwise they may start to attract mould. If that does happen then take swift action and replace them as soon as possible, because when mould gets hold it can spread very quickly.

Also consider privacy issues when choosing the soft furnishings for your windows and make sure that you pick something that is thick enough so that you are not silhouetted against the curtains or blinds when stood in front of them, especially at night.

A careful choice of light-pull can look very stylish and help your bathroom co-ordinate perfectly. Light-pulls used to be available in only a very limited number of fairly horrendous styles, usually taking the form of a plastic plug at the end of a piece of string. However, they now come in all shapes, colours and sizes, including rectangular, oval, skittle or egg shaped and even spiral. Given that the range is now so extensive, it makes perfect sense to tie together the whole look of your bathroom by finishing it off with an eye-catching light-pull.

If you have an ultra modern bathroom, with bisque style radiators, angular wash hand basins, bath and very bold taps, then why not finish off the effect by having a really chunky light-pull? 

Light-pulls are also available in a variety of materials, including chrome or chrome effect, glass, ceramic or even wood. The ceramic and wooden light-pulls are more suited to traditional or even period bathrooms, whereas the chrome models are an excellent choice for contemporary and modern ones.

Try to pick out at least one item in the bathroom and then choose a light-pull that is designed in the same style. This will draw the eye from the pull to other items in the room, thus offering a look that is complete and shows a real artistic and co-ordinated flair. For obvious reasons, don’t fit chintzy light-pulls in modern bathrooms, or very modern ones in period bathrooms, or they will simply look incongruous.

Bidets have been on something of a rollercoaster in terms of being fashionable and then not so popular; currently they are most well-liked among people of 50+ years.  This continuing demand means bidets are still available and like all bathroom fittings have evolved and come of age.

Bidets are now available in a variety of shapes and designs with even freestanding bidets are available, allowing them to be fitted in the most modern and stylish of bathrooms.  The traditional, wall mounted bidets are also still plentiful on the market, so the choice is wide and, if you have space, they can add a touch of elegance to any bathroom.

Bidets can also look quite at home in any bathroom which has a continental feel to it, particularly if the bathroom has fittings from Germany, France or Italy.  Somehow, because bidets are more popular on the continent, they complete the look and transform a bathroom into a continental bathing suite.

Many people also like to have a bidet because of the added hygiene it can provide and so they do fulfil a practical role as well.

Bidets are mainly available in white due to the colour’s enduring popularity, but can also be found in other colours, usually neutral shades, to complement any colour scheme you wish to accentuate in your bathroom.  However, before you start importing graphite coloured bidets from the continent, you should bear in mind that any strong colour will dominate the room and this may somewhat affect the value of your home. So, if you are thinking of selling in the next couple of years, make sure you choose a neutral bidet, which is stylish, but inoffensive.