What will be the Avocado bathroom of the future?

[Eastwickwitch]

I'm doing a whole house & am questioning my taste. I know opinions are subjective but could you help with your ideas?
So far I'm thinking

-not stone everywhere e.g. whole bathrooms full of Travertine
-not down lighters everywhere
-no feature walls I can't wallpaper anyway
Any ideas would be very welcome.

I don't agree with wood burning stoves although I am secretly a bit sniffy about them in little modern laminate covered houses, they just look plain daft.

There will always be a place for them in ancient buildings, smoky cottages and farmhouses. What else would you use?

our woodburner is in our family room and the whole room was planned around making that room snug and centred on the fire
those who do not realise its only a few years old, never would

I had a woodburner put in my 1970s house - I wanted a real fire, have lots of free wood and didn't want a draughty chimney (or as much mess as a an open fire)...I love it!
It is plain -didn't want an old fashioned one - or one that looked like a TV ...it is big though - if you are cutting your own wood you want one that takes long logs...it will be more of a focal point than I realised!
And it is probably reason rest of house still looks like a building site - light it and sit in front waiting 'for rest of house to warm up' (only one working radiator in hall). Drift off, daydream and realise I've only got an hour left before school pick up!

Gracehill park - belfast sinks are a PITA already. All sorts of crevices under the wood surround for nasties to lurk in - not to mention the wood drainer (joke) that holds water due to it swelling and is not possible to keep clear of water if you have a family that ever uses the sink. I think they are ornaments. The only way to dry mine out was to buy a dishwasher. Grrrrr...

pigletjohn - I'm looking online for kitchen lights that meet fire safety regs.
We have a strip of flat ceiling around 1 metre wide around a huge square skylight, or lantern as the architect likes to call it. The back wall will be windows and French doors - from the outside it all looks Edwardian. So nowhere to put pendants though will have one in the dining area. And there will be units up each wall so no place for wall lights though will need lights under the cabinets. Was hoping for some sort of small ceiling lamps for a gaslight effect but so far can't find any.

Looking for inspiration online yields about a million pics of kitchens with skylights with small round downlighters and no other lighting solution, so figure best bet is to go for ones as unobtrusive as possible.Though if you have better ideas for a tight budget, I'm all ears.

Is it already done? ceiling fitted?
If you really insist on avoiding downlighters (def go for fire-rated sealed ones with LEDs if you do go for them)

I think you could do 2 things -
One is make boxes/alcoves into the ceiling (if you can get downlighters in there it must have a space behind) - would be more expensive - much easier to fix one sheet of plasterboard up and cut a few holes in it for downlighters then to fix up supports etc to make plasterboard boxed recesses ....and you will have to leave some room to conceal cables and the room lighting won't be as effective. Depending on the way the supports/joists run and the spacing -you should be able to do two long recesses on opposite sides and then a couple of smaller recesses on the other two opposite sides.
Or put strip lights around the edge of the skylight and hide them with a trim (although that will mean you will be dependent on your undercounter lighting for working light) - actually good way of describing what I mean is like having under counter lights hidden by the trim on the bottom of kitchen wall cabinets....but sideways on
Maybe you could get under counter strip lights ....the 'nicer' ones not designed to be hidden and put those around the sky light without needing to hide them?

Who that's what put me off wooden worktops -
I know you can oil them etc every so often but honestly I find it a PITA just to wipe the crumbs off mine ...

unlucky, I've only oiled mine once in 15 years ..

unlucky ceiling not done yet - first fix being done on weekend so need to choose where cables need to go. I think we'll just have LED firesafe downlights all round - I want lots of light!

With striplights, you'd see one as you walked in, so would have to look pretty good.

Reading with interest, we have just moved to a Barn conversion decked out with corner bath, horrendous 80s tiles, gold accessories and pink carpet in main bathroom. Kitchen units and tiles are from ark and flooring is amtico with oak leaves round the outside Our bedroom has fitted wardrobes and drawers which are cream, Roman/Greek style complete with pillars. Some hortific patterned carpets.
Plus points are nice range cooker, multi fuel burner in lounge, great views.
To be honest we totally fell in love with the house and it's position and looked oast all the other stuff.
Which is good because it will be at least 12mths before we can afford to do the extensive work we want to. We discounted the immaculate houses with less space and land up for the same price. Doesn't everyone buy a house knowing that they will want to change things? It can't all be to your taste.
Oh and we want solar panels!

Lizzy*
I lived with a kitchen I hated for 12 years till I built what I wanted.
And the bathroom (pink) was vile and tiny
but space is all ....

Talk, this is our forever home. I smile everytime I pull up in the drive.
It will be done out how we want sometime, no rush

Hi gloss anything, especially kitchens.
Ditto things with no/hidden handles. If you do this don't snigger at people who fumble about trying to open the stupid things from all edges.
White floors - I know the Swedish/shabby chic thing looks clean, but only if you are meticulous about cleaning. If not, no one wants to see your pubes and your breakfast combined just where they are sitting.
Girls having pink bedrooms where the curtains/toys/carpet/bedspread/posters and desk glow puce angrily, looking like a fake import of femininity without any of the subtlety.
Twigs in a vase

Lizzy you can still get govt funding for solar panels

Solar pv - the electricity ones - are now quite cheap. Mine were just over £6k (a couple of years ago that would have been £15k -but then the Feed in tariff (FIT) was much higher)

You can get a green deal loan for them (but you pay interest) or here in Scotland you could (not sure if you still can) get £2k interest free loan towards the cost. (I missed that, found out about it too late) Speak to the Energy saving trust. You can also get them fitted for free (basically rent out your roof), you don't get the FIT but do get to use the electricity for free.
Mine are 4kW east/west. Means you generate less than south but you get the electricity when you need it most (morning and evening). I've had one feed in tariff (FIT) payment at the slightly higher rate than now of 15.44 unit - nothing nicer than getting a cheque for £140 from British gas! And I had a problem with four of the 16 panels in the middle of summer -so hopefully next year it will be a bit more. (I'm on track to pay for them, including loss of earned interest, in just over the 20 yrs with just FIT payments at current rates.) And although I'm not living there yet I did manage to boil the kettle, cut the lawn, trim hedges etc etc for free - the meter didn't move. Next payment for winter (shorter days) will be a lot less though...

Laqueen
Definitely the last one.
My kitchen / dining room / family room is all 'open' but there are clear archways between each and the family room is decorated differently and carpeted so that the sound does NOT crescendo
and the floors are solid wood so they do not echo
)))) cold sounding rooms ((((

Ah, just thought of another one. Varnished pine mantelpiece with a cast iron (style) fireplace. It looks incredibly cheap.

I think practicality is more important than looks/fashion.

If you are decorating your house to sell, presumably you aren't going to live in it very long and of course you should make it fairly neutral or suitable for your chosen market.

However, if you are going to live there for another 10 years, whatever you do will look a little worn so you might as well decorate your house for yourself rather than an imaginary prospective buyer.

I like quirky I think. Just moved from a new build, loving having sloping floors, funny shaped rooms (our barn was converted in the 1980s, no big rooms!), just quirks.
I will say that with this house and the house before last, and actually my first ever house before that I just knew within 10 seconds that I was going to live there, it felt home.
The only house that never really did was the blank canvas new build.

Weird really as I am shite at envisioning what a house could be, am no Kirsty "just knock through here, move the bathroom to here..."

I really, really don't have you down as a new build gal, laq, I honestly don't.

Your heart would wither and die

I would love a new build, nice straight lines, proper insulation, modern plumbing and electrics. Sigh.