If you were thinking of renovating your bathroom what would you do differently?

[Rescue2024]

Looking for ideas of things to look out for and things to avoid. I’m in two minds of half tiling or full with big tiles.

we have dark grout in the kitchen so I’m thinking the same and if -lasts in the bathroom is a bit too retro.

I have a walk in shower with tiled floor - if I did it again I would get a full tray as I'm constantly anxious that the tiling and tanking will leak!

I love the look but the anxiety is not worth it!

Measure everything carefully- twice!!

I got black fixtures and fittings, they show limescale and water marks so quickly and if you scrub too hard you can rub the black off.

We put in a shower bath which gives a lovely big area to shower in, but the sides of the bath are vertical so it's crap to have a bath in. I need one with a reclining end, I really miss having a bath.

I’d have a vanity unit instead of a pedestal basin.

Storage. Lots of it.

I have a p shaped bath and I like the space it gives for showering.

Taps in the middle.

i have two fully tiled walls and two painted. I’d do it that way again as easy to refresh.

These are great.
looking at a wall hung toilet, I can’t figure out where the waste pipes go though

I came to say this. My good friend got the most gorgeous bathroom fitted with black taps etc. and she’s just had them changed to brass. She was fed up with the limescale, she couldn’t use anything harsh as it stripped the black off exposing silver underneath and it looked worn really quickly.

I am going to be doing my bathroom in the next year - but I did some chambermaiding in the summer last year and each block had different showers to clean.

I will have one shower tray the length of the room - so no spillage from inadvertent angled shower head onto tilled area

show tray to have large trap for ease of cleaning

One screen, no doors, not hinged, again for ease of cleaning. Not wanting nocks and crannies to have to try and clean inside which get rusty and dirty

a fake wall with indent to place shower gel etc

small sink and low toilet, both wall hung and not on the floor - again for ease of cleaning.

tiles to 3 walls and Im having what I like but its not fashionable.

Want simple Crome fittings, they don't date and easy to clean, especially with limescale as I live in a hard water area

Underfloor heating!!

And a demister system on the mirrored cabinet

Sorry, not what I would do differently, what I did in our new bathroom and am so glad that I did

Our shower has a mosaic tiled base. Never, never do this. All that grout, what was I thinking?

Will be a bath with shower, is the P shaped bath without a dip to lay in the bath, not clear on google. I prefer to bath than shower.

the fake wall with shelf is a good idea.

I would never have a bare wooden top vanity unit with the sink on top again. I have to oil it regularly and I’m quite anxious about how long it’s actually going to last.

The opposite of a never but our towel rail is on the wall at the end of the bath and it still makes me happy every time I finish having a shower that I can lean over and get a warm towel without stepping into the colder section of the bathroom 😂

Completely opposite to this- we put a walk in in the old house and tray in new house and I miss the walk in!

It has a sloping end so can have a comfy bath. Opposite end to the shower.

Ive been looking at replacing with a walk in shower but now all the standard showers feel too small and restricting!

Things i’d do differently- I went full tile, next time I would leave some wall, just so that I could’ve personalised the space a bit more with a picture/shelf

A central tap and plug- I have 3 DC and when sharing a bath one of them always sits on it and lets the water out or catches themselves on the tap

Agree with others our shower tray isn't deep enough. I love how it looks but anxious about over flowing.

One thing I'd do again is a shaver socket hidden in cupboard/ cabinet for neat and easy electric toothbrush charging.

We currently have a pedestal basin and it's quite large. When we replace the bathroom later this year I'll be making sure the sink of the vanity unit we put in is a good size. So many are tiny - in our last house we had to use the isolation valve to reduce the pressure (not a good idea) as the small basin meant water went everywhere when you ran the basin mixer tap.

Make sure plumbing is accessible in the event of a problem. This can be discreet panels you unscrew. I worked with someone whose shower leaked inside the wall and the bath had to be taken out, the tiles and plasterboard removed to get at it. Then the tiles couldn't be matched and it was a fully tiled ensuite... What should have been a couple of £100 to repair rapidly turned into pretty much a new bathroom.

I’m leaning towards 3 walls tiled and one painted so I can have a shelf for plants

I got tile sheets which are amazing - no grouting! But its a walk in shower and like PP have said, I worry when the plughole clogs that its going to overflow. Another time I will definitely NOT get an electric towel rail - they cost a bloody fortune to run so mine rarely gets switched on now! I would stick with a radiator.

I agree with all of this (also a former chambermaid!) - it's what I've done before and I will be doing again when I install a new shower room. I never 'got' the black taps trend nor indeed the critall shower screens. I can't see beyond the cleaning issues. And I loathe sliding/moving shower doors.

The only thing I really regretted from my last house refurb, in terms of bathrooms was not leaving any wall untiled as mentioned above. It meant it was a palava to try to prettify the space later on (needing to drill through tiles to hang up pictures and so on).

Check it warm enough. We moved in to a house in the summer and did the shower room straight away and didn’t realise how much extra heat we should have put in. Radiator and electric heater and underfloor heating ALL needed whereas it has one pathetic heated towel rail. Quite a big mistake to make but it was a heat wave when we did the thinking!

We have a walk in shower with a non slip floor. It’s definitely non slip when it’s dry but not so much when it’s wet. We now have two plastic mats from Amazon which are indeed non slip.

Look for a dual fuel towel radiator, with separate rails for the towels, meaning heat can dry the towels and heat the room. We only use the electric when we need to for a short time.if you only get a radiator, the towels don't dry during the summer months when the central heating isn't on.

never ever ever box in your pipework/toilet cistern etc so that you can't then access it...