most boring thread of the night - curved bath panels!

[hester]

Ok, if anyone out there can bear to read this.... I have a curved corner bath (NO I didn't choose it, but resources force me to live with it). The wooden bath panel is rotting and needs replacing, and internet searches have only turned up one rather hideous moulded white plastic job for around 100 quid.

Does anyone have any better ideas? Would it, for example, be possible and not too expensive to get a local chippy to construct something with MDF planks - like a panelled look?

Would thhat be b&q? I dont like theirs, but if its not the one you saw, you could take a look! Failing that, there's prob no reason you couldnt make one from plywood; it should be ok for the angle of the curve.Even if you perhaps had to make it in 2 sections to avoid too much pressure on its most curved part, iyswim.

Would a tiled look work?

jimswife - it was Homebase, so I'll take a look at B&Q.

pinkcushion - yes, I think tiles could work. Presumably they'd have to be small to go round the curve. Do you think that would work better than just painted MDF?

Ours has a curved edge but isn't a corner bath.

The builder put on an mdf panel then tiled over that with small glass mosaic tiles - it look fab!

That does sound nice, Iwish. How much did you pay for that, if you don't mind me asking? (Can you tell my budget is tighter than tight?)

We have same kind of thing as Iwish but with bigger tiles. Looks great. I really couldn't see how it could work but the plumber was unfazed. Couldn't tell you how much it cost cos we had quite a lot done at the same time.

Iwish, SweetApril, do your tiles go all the way up to the bath itself, or is there a wooden ridge?

Mine go all the way up so it's a solid panel of tiles.

We had one of those moulded bath panels (not a corner bath though) in our last rented house. The first time I put my knee on it (lifting a toddler out of the bath) it cracked. I replaced it with board.

This house has the tiled sides jobbie. Which was fine until there was a leak under the bath and the plumber had to smash the tiles (while muttering 'stupid design, I don't know why people do this'

Sorry, only just got back to this thread.

The tiles go from the floor right up to the top edge of the bath. I have no idea what that bit cost either I'm afraid as it was done during the extension.

The mdf panel was fitted really quickly and easily though (think it's bathroom quality mdf to resist moisture), then just tiled on top of so didn't take long really. I would imagine that your choice of tiles would make the biggest impact on the overall price.