To want a swanky freestanding bath?

[starshine1926]

I am gathering ideas for a house renovation and will be creating a new bathroom upstairs. My friend has a freestanding cast iron bath with ball and claw feet. The lower half of her bathroom is painted tongue and groove. It looks great and have seen this combination in many magazines. However, I fancy an Art Deco look with metro tiles etc. Anyone care to share their experiences of freestanding baths, of whatever shape? Do you get water splashed everywhere?

Yeah avoid metro tiles. Find massive tiles - less grouting to clean and looks far more expensive! Use a dark grout.

I saw a house we were seeing (when house hunting) has one and my eyes lit up...

When I saw it in person the claws were all rusty and there was a tonne of dust hiding underneath.

It put me right off.

Agree with other poster who mentioned climbing in (I stayed in a hotel with one that was horrendously uncomfortable ☹️)

I bought one. When I got it home it wouldn't fit through the bathroom door.

It's now sat waiting for me to remodel the bathroom.

Yes they are cold you need a really warm bathroom with underfloor heating. We all prefer to use the other one it's freestanding but modern ceramic.

I like how they look but I do think it'd mean more cleaning as you'd need to do the legs and feet of it. If that isn't an issue to you then do it x

I’ve got three in my house and I love them. One is a slipper shape. I have separate showers except for the slipper one which has a shower and tap with a shower rail all in one. I’ll try and find a pic. It looks very nice

I think it’s this one

I grew up with the type of bath pp have provided photos of. I'm tiny, but I found that even though we had a very long one, the curve just wasn't that comfortable to be in. Water did indeed go over the sides. We now have a beautiful round bath in dark grey stone. It's so smooth, and I have hot baths so it's always been a good temperature. However: it is massive (you need a lot of space, and a lot of patience to fill it) and we bought a freestanding tap so that we didn't have a willy tap (I've attached a sample image of what was suggested to us so you don't think I'm insane.)

I wouldn't have a shower head over the bath, especially if it's a clawfoot tub - it just doesn't have the same luxe feeling imo. Maybe use the space for a beautiful, huge walk in shower with side jets? We built one for our master bathroom in the US and I had lots of metal currency from different countries cast as the wall with two inlets for our shower things. You can luxuriate without the splashing.

If you like the tiles - I'd agree with a pp to go with a dark grout. My parents have black grout with theirs and its nice!

I've currently got one in my rented house and thought was lovely. Nice and deep and was settled ..for 10 mins until it went cold very quick! Wouldn't get one in my own house !

I hate them and can't wait for this current trend to pass. Looking to buy a house at the moment and loads of them have them.

I like a bath with sides that I can easily put things on. These are impractical and a nightmare to clean.

Always found them to be quite uncomfortable and the cast iron stays cold. They do look gorgeous though!

We had an old claw foot tub and hated it. Replaced it with one like this and I LOVE it.

We have an acrylic corner bath, that looks freestanding but is attached to the wall. It's made the room look bigger and I put toiletries in baskets underneath to keep the bath tidy.
It looks small in this photo, but it's really big, both me and my husband can comfortably fit in it together.

They look pretty in magazines but I’d imagine them to be very impractical. The curves look uncomfortable. I like to have a square back to lean against. I also imagine they’d be a bitch to clean under. The thought of the dust, damp from over spilled water and bits of soap scum and hair gathered under there that I can’t get to properly with a mop is gross.

I think it’s similar to original silver cross prams. They look lovely but you wouldn’t really want one. Things have moved on/evolved for a reason.

I’ve always wanted an egg-shaped bath like arganlady’s but have never had a big enough bathroom. So cool. I don’t actually like having baths, but they’re gorgeous.

oh I've got one and it's comfortable. It's fine.

I'm more of a shower person though and have only really had baths after long bike rides when I can't move. Can't stand sitting in my own dirt!

It does look lovely though! My kids love it and it's easy to bath the dogs.

I would advise you not to buy a cast iron one. We have one and the water cools really fast and my back gets cold when just touching the metal bit (that isn't covered in water)

Isn’t that why you put a sheet in it?

I have a copper bath tub, against dark panelled walls. It keeps the water beautifully warm and it's very comfy to lie in. I have two tables that hold any essentials - drink etc. Water doesn't get splashed on the floor any more than in a normal bath.

We had a freestanding swanky one, it was hideously uncomfortable.

This house has an enormous jet hydro massage affair with all the bells and whistles and I hate it! It's vile, hard to clean and too big.

Real luxury for me is a short, very very deep bath so you can rest your feet at the end and not slide, but your knees and boobs stay underwater. That's what I'm getting now.

Isn’t that why you put a sheet in it?

Sorry bold fails and sent too fast.

I have never heard of putting a sheet in a cast iron bath. Maybe I'm missing something but would still opt for one that wasn't cast iron. Each to their own though.

TenaciousP that's beautiful!