Even if you are looking to have a professional company (or not) come in and do your bathroom project with you, its well worth having a go at designing it yourself (if you have time), purely because its a good exercise and when a professional is there to help you refine it, it will be a lot easier having been through some of the motions. See it as a bit of fun.
Bathrooms are not simple, even though they look it. Knowing what products can work where is critical and you can waste a whole lot of time Looking at items in catalogues that are just not compatible with your job.
Follow these steps when designing your bathroom
and you will save some time and have more clarity on that is possible for you:
Step 1 - Think, Modern or Traditional?
Generally if you live in a modern house, it's a modern bathroom, but if your house is period then anything goes really, but keeping in with the style of the house is a good idea. Traditional looking rooms can work in modern houses, but it's not a good idea to have a bathroom that does not fit in with the rest of the house.
This is where the time and money is wasted if you are not careful. Just because items will fit into the room does not mean it is a good idea to fit them. Think about practically using the room and where you will stand and need to manoeuvre around, does it really work?
Pay attention to where your soil pipes are, mainly the toilet pipe. It’s not always easy or advisable to move the toilet. Generally sink and bath waste pipes are far more flexible in terms of where these items can be fitted. Radiators, showers and tap pipes can be fitted anywhere, moving these is never an issue.
Do you want separate toilet and sink, furniture etc? If you have internal pipes to hide, it may be furniture will be the best option to conceal this unsightly pipe work.
Have a layout in your mind that works, maybe do a practical layout and a dream layout, then discuss with a designer and maybe try and get to somewhere in the middle. Be realistic, if you have a very small bathroom, you might be stuck with what you currently have in terms of layout options.
What colour schemes are you sticking to? Grey is not a fad, it has been here for a long time already, just like beige and cream. They will be here for eternity still! There are no rules and my advice is to keep with the decor of the house so it flows room to room.
Step 4 - Wall & floor coverings
Do you need to tile all the walls? In a small room I would say yes personally, in a medium to large room, consider a half tile or partial tile just where tiling is needed, with the other walls plastered/painted.
On the floor I am a big fan of the luxury vinyl tiles (LVT), its warm so no need for expensive underfloor heating. It will flex with the floor so it won’t crack. It does not have grout that will discolour. It will last a long time!
Sometimes LVT does not work in with a design, if you want a Wet-room look etc. But where it can work, I would use it.
Step 5 - Pick your products
This is where everybody usually starts, going through brochures, but it's such a waste of time. As you can now see that if you have not been through the steps above, how do you know what is going to work?
Doing some of the work yourself is definitely worthwhile, you will know when you are coming unstuck and need some help. At that point get in touch with the experts and keep the momentum going in bringing your new bathroom to life.
Blog by Aaron Dronsfield