New bathroom what would/wouldn't you include?

[Shufflebumnessie]

DH & I are trying to come up with ideas for when we get the bathroom done. It's not huge 6' x 6' but we can fit in walk in shower, toilet and sink unit with drawers underneath. Plus mirrored cabinet above.
We would like under floor heating and a large heated towel rail.
If you've had a new bathroom fitted in the last few years is there anything you suggest we should consider, or anything to avoid?
We'll speak to a few companies to see what they suggest design wise but I'd like to go in with an idea of what works/doesn't work.
Thanks in advance.

Does anybody have a bath anymore?

I do, and even though I want to re-do my bathroom I plan on replacing and upgrading it. It seems not many flats have them anymore (or at least that’s what I found when I was viewing)

A ledge in the shower for when you shave your legs.

We are planning a new bathroom for next year. My main design brief is ease of cleaning. So...

toilet must have no bolts visible at the base to catch dust and hair in.

uPVC paneling on the walls (we have this in our current bathroom, much easier to clean and warmer than tiles to lean against).

Lino floor, we currently have reclaimed slate slabs which are cold, hard and impossible to clean properly.

Also want a seat or ledge in the shower cubicle for resting my foot on when shaving my legs.

And I want a Shower with rain head plus conventional shower hose.

We wish we had installed a socket for the electric toothbrush after it was too late.

Agree little alcove things in the shower for shampoo etc. Also wall hung toilet and sink so easy to clean the floor.

Really look at your shower enclosure for cleaning purposes. The one in our new house (not picked by us) is impossible to clean as there’s a bit you can’t get at with the doors open or shut. It’s a quadrant style one

@Serendipper yes!
Also
Mosaic tiles - don't do it. Too much bloody grout to clean
Look at access to stuff for repair. My toilet is positioned so you can only install a new toilet seat if you dislocate your wrist or bribe a small child to do it. And if you want to fix something under the sink you need to lie with your legs in the hall and neck at a 45 degree angle

For me priorities would be
Storage
Easy to clean so lots of smooth surfaces, I like the shower panels you can get now
Lighting to dim and also task lighting if you want to do makeup
Socket for shaver/toothbrush charging
Ledge for leg shaving

I will have a bath with built in storage behind the bath panels for all cleaning stuff and bog brush

Hand held Fanny flush. Seriously great invention. DD2 grew up in the Middle East, she thought everyone had them - particularly great for her periods. It's the only thing she misses.
We asked for them to be put in our new build, but they refused. Curse you Bellway!

@MrsOrMiss

Hand held Fanny flush. Seriously great invention. DD2 grew up in the Middle East, she thought everyone had them - particularly great for her periods. It's the only thing she misses. We asked for them to be put in our new build, but they refused. Curse you Bellway!

What is the official name?

I assume typing that into google will not yield the results I'm looking for!

Definitely a heated pad behind the mirror, it's my favourite thing in our bathroom. Especially as the mirror is flush with the tiles. Other than that a monsoon shower head.

Bathroom board instead of tiles in the shower. We’ve just had our bathroom redone with this. No more cleaning the grouting.

If you wear glasses - a planned safe dry place/ledge to put them while you are showering / doing makeup etc

My bathroom is similar size to yours. We ditched the bath for a walk-in shower, haven't missed the bath at all.

Demister mirror has been brilliant.

Go for the biggest sink you can and not something too shallow.

Fitted units. No tiles.

Love the ideas here so noting for future reference.

Agree with wall hung sink unit and pedestal - easy to clean and doesn't feel so enclosed. We have a bowl sink that sits on top of the unit and two deep soft close drawers underneath - invaluable. No more scrabbling at the back for toiletries ever again. Plenty of accessible space.

Would never put the toilet into an integrated design ever again - had a problem with the flush in January and the whole panels needed dismantling. A real headache.

Get a heated towel rail which is both part of the heating system and electric. Then set the electric timer so it comes on for a couple of hours before you get up and have lovely warm towels every morning.
Persuade the electrician to fit an on/off switch just outside the bathroom door for the obligatory extractor fan, rather than have one that just comes on automatically.
Another vote for electric toothbrush/shaver socket by sink and additional hand held shower extension in shower!
Never, ever buy cute rubber floor tiles with a pattern of raised dots on them - yes, they're non-slip, but you will spend your life removing crud from around the raised dots.

With the shower tray make sure it’s deep enough that the water doesn’t overflow. My friends have just got a massive walk in shower with power shower etc. It’s amazing until the tray fills with water (very shallow) and pisses water all over the floor!.

Underfloor heating. May be worth checking how much it will actually cost you to run it. I saw a thread on here before and the cost seemed to be really high for limited benefit. Most people said that they had it in their house (Previous owners had installed etc) but never used it due to the cost of running it.

Also for me personally, storage, so somewhere to keep your bathroom junk and somewhere to store clean towels. I say this as someone who doesn’t have any space for either of these things and it drives me batshit!

Find out IF you can have a walk in shower BEFORE you set your heart on it!

I had decided to sacrifice the bath to have a big walk in shower, but because the floor is concrete and the waste water outlet is the other side of the bathroom (and for other reasons the shower had to be the other side) the shower would have had to have had a huge step up into it, so i went for a shower over the bath. I got a really wide bath, but I still mourn the walk in shower I actually wanted.

Love love love the skylight in the roof line though & the large light grey tiles that took me an eternity to find

I'm short & heavy, so I didn't want a wall hung toilet.

@Thateverlastingyes77

I don’t understand shower cubicles at all. They are a bugger to clean with all the glass and ten all the little runners and grooves at the bottom. I don’t understand the difference with a cubicle and just having one over the bath, then you get to have both..

There's a load of glass either way - I had a water softener fitted. Game changer!!

I just prefer opening a door and walking in to the shower than climbing into the bath and I like the fact that the floor of the shower is wider and flat. I bought a bath with the widest flattest base I could, but it's still not the same as a shower base, nor as wide. I hate feeling 'contained'

I haven't used the bath in the 6 years it's been there and now my hip is screwed, I probably won't. Kids barely use it either, preferring to shower.

Could you tank it so it's a wet room and you don't need shower cubicle?
Also don't get a wall hung toilet - they curve in a lot steeper and basically act like a shelf to catch poo, so it never goes straight into the water. Really regret getting them fitted when we redid our bathrooms, never cleaned so many skid marks. Sorry if that's tmi.

Definitely a shower WITHOUT door tracks.
Ughhh I HATE cleaning them..

Sink with mixer taps rather than two separate

I prefer a large sink and a proper basin - not one that is a bowl on a flat pedestal. I can’t stand the way they splash all over the surface

We just approved the last design changes and we go for

Huge walk in shower, I am sick of cleaning folding or sliding doors and all the nooks and crannies in the bottom “sink”.

Wall hanging toilet and sink with drawer unit underneath, lots easier to clean.

Bath tub with controls in the wall and draining thing in the middle so you can sit on each side comfortably, we have a tub with two round ends. I would have loved to get a free standing one but no space as we do need the shower

Underfloor heating and stainless steel towel rail, expensive as hell but needs a lot less energy to heat.

Mirror cabinet with lighting all around it.

Moving the light switch outside of the bathroom to the hallway.

Dimmer lights.

Good lighting, get the tiling done by someone decent. Get the plumber in if the shower pressure is crap and make sure all pipes are hidden where possible if any are 'out'.

If you plan resell and it is the only bathroom, I would consider very carefully whether no bath will benefit you long term in that respect. A lot of people, myself included, wouldn't buy a home without one.

I agree with PP who said dimmable lighting. I would never have thought about having it in a bathroom but it was in our house when we moved in. It's amazing for evening baths or showers and night time toilet trips.

I also love our rainfall shower but if you get one, make sure it has a normal shower hose too.

I would want:

• towel rail that is both on the central heating and can run separately on electricity - really useful during the summer so you can put damp towels on it and they will dry off
• a nightlight - stayed in a hotel where they had this and we both said if we ever redid a bathroom we would have it. They used a blue bulb for added effectiveness in not dazzling your eyes and had a control switch by the bed as well as by the door so you could see where you were going to and from the bathroom too which was useful.
• easy to clean and maintain so easy access
• I don’t want an overhead rain shower - means if I have a shower I always get my hair wet which is a pain (and shower caps never work!). I want a height adjustable shower head (as what would be tight for me would be too short for dh). I would also want to have a separate smaller head that you could take off to use - rinsing round the bath, showering young kids, being able to wash a specific part or thing without all having to be under the shower etc.
• conveniently placed hooks to put dressing gown and towels on to get to easily at the end of the shower/bath without slipping or twisting or any awkward moves and so they are still dry. If the towels can be warming even better! Needs to be at least two and big enough so the towel/dressing gown stays on easily.
• hooks elsewhere for clothes to wear if you want to get dressed in the bathroom but not have them getting tangled up with shower towels
• a mirror set up that allows you to see the back of your head easily (or even full length back view)
• somewhere to put glasses whenever you need to take them off -when in the shower,bath, st the sink etc
• somewhere you can put pads and tampons when you’re actually on the loo and about to need to use them - I hate when you have to put them either miles away or worse, on the floor.
• Ditto somewhere for your mobile to go - mine oftenlives in my back pocket at home and I dread it falling out and into the loo when pulling trousers down. Hasn’t happened to me (yet!)) but has to many others I know. So somewhere safe to put it - currently there’s just the side of the sink which is sort of ok but not ideal- something a bit bigger and flatter and less likely to be wet or soapy would be great!

-the ability to plug the toothbrush charger in, inside a cupboard to keep it cleaner.

• dh always seems to leave a magazine in the bathroom so somewhere for that to go other than the floor!