Need small bathroom decorating advice, please!

[sydenhamhiller]

Would be really grateful for any advice on the following!

We have a small bathroom upstairs, and an even smaller shower-room downstairs. They are horrendous (upstairs one is the original 1959 bathroom, and downstairs a lovely 1980s avocado).

We also have a temperamental boiler, and we've been saving and saving since we moved in, and are finally poised to get new boiler, have it moved to a new position, get hot water/ correct pressure for both bathrooms... and put in 2 new bathrooms.The boiler/ water pressure related stuff is costing so much we don't have much money for the bathrooms- will just go for basic white suites.

DH and I not super confident/ creative with interior design, and builder we're keen to go with suddenly has slot in 3 weeks' time. Also have 3 week old DD so slightly sleep-deprived and would love some feedback/ advice on the following:

1. We quite like plain white metro tiles www.webtiles.co.uk/tiles/walltiles/metro200100/mattwhite/
   

But (a) opinions on matt vs gloss?

(b) Lots of comments about using metro tiles until part way up a wall...Our bathrooms are quite small - and have showers, so really need at least one whole wall tiled, if not 2 of the walls in each room. Should we be going for larger tiles? :( (I do love my white metro tiles...)

1. Bathroom storage. At moment, the downstairs loo has an amazingly ugly vanity unit under the hand basin - brilliant for storing cleaning products and toilet brush, as there is pretty much no other floor/ wall space. I know the advice for small bathrooms is to have wall-hung loos/ sinks if possible, but would really like some storage - opinions?
   

Thanks - am off to bed, to dream of taps and shower cubicles and hoping DD2 does not keep me up from 1-3.30 am and 5.30 again...

[lalalonglegs]

I think the tiles will look quite harsh - I would go for a colour rather than white. I like the small brick ones but tend to use them in kitchens as they take a lot of time to cover a large surface - I like large tiles laid in that brick pattern in bathrooms.

In my opinion, it's best to tile all the way up to the ceiling in a small room. I'd get a sink with a vanity unit as storage is important. I don't like wall hung loos as I always worry something's going to go wrong with the cistern and it will be a faff to access it. You can get short projection loo if you want to save a few cms.

[PigletJohn]

I like white metro, but in a bathroom I think a larger tile looks better.

Be aware that a large expanse of white tiles is reminiscent of a public lavatory.

Gloss will show watermarks and every splash.

[TheSoloPelvicFloorGoldMedalist]

I have a small bathroom/toilet too and 10+ years ago, I had a completely new bathroom installed. I turned the bathroom plumbing round and moved things around and that enabled me to have a full sized bath, basin and toilet and a tall, slim bathroom cabinet. I chose white tiles that had a grey vein through them and an occasional flower (lily) and border tiles to match. I find that the gloss tiles make for reflection and the whole space looks bigger. I also had floor tiles put down and the only thing I'd possibly change would be the size of the floor tile to a smaller one; bigger tiles make the space seem smaller. I also had the glass screen taken down and a curtain pole and curtain put up. This was only because the screen just wasn't wide enough, but it actually does make the bathroom look even more spacious.
Stick to light colours and tile completely if you can.

[PigletJohn]

I like white metro, but in a bathroom I think a larger tile looks better.

Be aware that a large expanse of white tiles is reminiscent of a public lavatory.

Gloss will show watermarks and every splash.

[PigletJohn]

Bloody phone

[Brugmansia]

My last place had a tiny bathroom that had been badly laid out with nasty tiles.

The change in layout made the biggest difference. When we did that we used a wall hung loo, which made a huge difference. We boxed in the cistern and a bit of wooden worktop on top as a small shelf that could be taken off for access. The sink needed to be in the corner. We used one of those round bowl ones that sits on to top of a unit. We worked out that pushed right into the corner it actually took up loads less space than a normal sink, but actually looked large. We Billy our own simple unit underneath that connected to the boxed in cistern and had the same wood on top. I hope I have explained this ok, but the whole effect meant that it looked very uncluttered.

We decorated in black, white and chrome. We had metro tiles and they looked great, in white gloss. They were all round the bath then a round the sink and asking the too of the cistern shelf. The rest of the room was just painted white. The floor was high gloss large black tiles. They did show the dirt badly but looked good. Because they were so big we only had to use about 4 so there only a few grout lines and I felt this made the space look bigger. It didn't look like a public lavatory with the white, partly because of the small amount of wood on the worktops.

One of the best buys was a slightly pricey glass and chrome concertina shower screen. we also stuck a huge round frameless mirror on the untiled wall which helped make it feel spacious.

[Mandy21]

We had gloss white metro tiles as a kitchen splashback and they did look nice although as others have said, showed splashmarks.

I'd also be a bit wary of having white tiles with white grout around a shower - thats what we have at the moment (just cheap square tiles as a make shift job when previous tiles fell off the wall!) - I don;t know whether we have hard or soft water or whatever, but all the grout tends to go a slightly cream / peachy colour over time and it looks quite nasty. Are you thinking of going for a coloured grout (I'd go for a very pale grey if I did it again).

We did decorate our very small downstairs loo - agree that in a very small space, its better to tile the whole wall. We have tiled the whole of the wall behind the toilet (when I say the whole wall, its about 2.5m x 1.2m) and the wall behind the sink. We used these tiles - large tiles but give the impression of smaller ones. Have white fittings and very pale cream walls. Looks 10 times bigger than it was before.

www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/catrangetiles/wall-tiles/dartmoor-tiles-slate-and-dolomite/slate-pressed-mosaic/16701/