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.

@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..

For me, it’s that I’m physically disabled and stepping over the side of the bath was increasingly becoming a trip hazard, plus the bath never got used other than standing in it to have a shower, so couldn’t see the point in keeping it. I went for an enclosure with no runners or grooves and it’s an easy job to keep clean.

If you’re getting a heated towel rail I wouldn’t get underfloor heating as well. The heated towel rail if it’s substantial enough and connected to the central heating should do the job for size of room.

We moved house in March and the old owners left our underfloor heating the the kitchen on (didn’t think to turn it off/notice it was on as I wear slippers). Nearly dropped dead when the first electricity bill came!

It's called a douche spray

Built-in (wall mounted) toothbrush charger, so no wires etc.

As a press poster said, bathroom boards, much better idea, easier to clean. Also choose a solid bathroom tray if you plan on having one, I have two showers one with a solid tray & another with plastic, the solid one is far superior IMHO.

I had a heated towel rail in my old house but it came on with the heating so in the summer the room no dry towels. So when I got my bathroom done in my new house, I asked for the heated towel rail to have it's own switch so I could switch it on and off. Don't do that! It's a pain in the arse remembering to switch it off and as they cost a small fortune to run (I think it's 12p a minute) when you forget to turn it off overnight you end up with a ridiculously hot room and a huge electricity bill! Wish I'd gone for having it linked to the hot water.

Surprised at the amount of posters who’ve said they never use a bath! I love a bath Our main bathroom is unusable at the moment, and I can’t wait to get it done purely so that I can have a bath! I would never buy a house without one (or without the room to add one).

I’ve found this thread really useful. When we get ours done we’ll have:

• Panelling instead of tiles
• Alcoves for bath/shower products
• A light up mirror that doesn’t steam up
• Dimmable lighting
• An electric and centrally heated towel rail
• We’ll be avoiding any colours that will show up stains too badly as we have very hard water

I live in a very hard water area and use shower curtains rather than an enclosure. They are cheap, they wash and you can change them easily. I've had several beautiful enclosures that took forever to clean and look crap within a month or two.

I have a shower enclosure that has a thick glass panelling running the whole length and fixed directly onto the stone shower tray. I thought that I would avoid the hassle of cleaning runners of a shower door. Except now the silicon stuff holding the glass in place is now lime green - lovely

In my next home, I quite fancy having a shower being a curved wall so eliminating the need for panels or glass. Has anyone successfully done this?

We put in a rainfall power shower, it's amazing, also my husband wanted a separate handheld shower and that is great if you don't want to wash your hair.

I was very amused when I made the mistake of visiting an extremely upmarket bathroom showroom to get ideas and ask about price ranges, in preparation for my own (small, modest) new bathroom a year ago.
Price? “ We’ve just completed one for £65,000, madam “.
I choked, and went to look round the display bathrooms, to see what could possibly cost that. Want to know, OP? Well, apparently the “must haves” for one’s new bathroom are: an illuminated glass floor with a water feature “river” running through ferns underneath it, real gold and marble fittings, and a wood burning stove!!!
Good luck fitting those in - I decided a bath, loo and basin would be a tad more useful...

The largest walk-in shower you can fit with an overhead shower and a separate spray. And niches - very important. Get a pump fitted if your pressure is weak.

Wall hanging toilet, twin sinks with storage underneath.

A separate bath is essential (to me). Ours is exactly the right size for lying down with your feet at the end. Central taps.

We have a mirror that connects via Bluetooth to your phone to play music. It was in the house when we moved in a year ago. Never used it.

How small a basin is too small? I think we'll compromise the basin so we can have a bigger shower tray. But can't decide on basin size.

We've got a concrete floor so unfortunately have to have a raised tray, but will choose composite/stone resin.

I'm thinking of shower panels instead of tiles, but the ones I've looked at seem expensive (nuance/mermaid panels).

Talking of expensive bathrooms, I hope they had one of these on display... www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/arcade-pashley-bicycle-with-600mm-basin-mixer-tap

Plinth lighting in the skirting boards that comes on automatically as you go in.

You get up in the middle of the night for anything, it's down at your ankles so doesn't dazzle you but still lights the room enough. Not expensive and pretty easy to install.

When we did our en-suite we had, underfloor heating, large heated towel rail, underfloor heating is on low over night in winter so no cold feet when we go to the loo in the night
Wall hung large basin with drawer underneath, tall wall hung cupboard, wall hung toilet.
Very good quality fan. Large shower cubicle with rain shower head plus another on a slider rail which has different settings. A niche for shampoo etc with small lights set above above it. A control outside of the cubicle, no getting wet before it’s up to temperature
Two low wall lights on a sensor, one near the door and the other by the loo. Fan on separate switch, good ceiling lights.
Main bathroom has similar but we went for a large bath with wall niche and small wall lights so it’s lovely to have a relaxing soak with no bright ceiling lights.

@Thighdentitycrisis

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

This sounds amazing!

An under sink light that comes on from the sensor at night - really useful.

Spots and a ceiling light on separate switches with dimmers, great for varying amounts of light for relaxing baths vs make up and shaving.

Speakers in the ceiling - everyone uses them.

A big enough cabinet to store bleach etc in so everything is tucked away from view.

Walk in shower - getting rid of a door means you don’t need any of those rubber seals that yellow and collect gunk.

Two sinks so DH and I aren’t dancing round each other as we clean teeth. Only if space allows of course

Dual fuel towel rail and underfloor heating (maybe slightly overkill!)

Two sets of lighting - one brighter/overhead and one more subtle. Put at least one of these on a dimmer.

Decent (quiet) extractor fan, wired to go on with one set of lights.

Large tiles to reduce grout lines. Non white grout so it doesn’t show every bit of dirt.

Vanity with deep drawer (shallow drawers are useless for toiletries)

Not a rainfall shower, unless you have amazing pressure

Separate hand held shower for rinsing hair and cleaning shower

Shower controls on separate wall from shower to avoid wet arm

Niche

You can also recess a shallow storage cabinet into any untiled stud wall - deep enough for bottles

Wall hung loo and sink/vanity makes room more spacious, and easier to clean

Compact loo - Villeroy & Boch Subway 2.0 compact looks and feels like a normal loo but has a very short projection, good for space saving. Rimless loos are good. Avoid loos with a poo catching shelf (many european brand loos have this)

So, so many things I hadn't thought of (or even realised existed/were possible). I'm now thinking our original budget just isn't going to cut it

Bidet 100%! I have Crohn's disease and I'm constantly in the shower 😳

Go for panelling instead of tiles. Cleaner, neater and easier for them to install!