What's the current fashion for bathrooms?

[Karbea]

We are hopefully having our house extended/refurbished and I will need to make decisions about two bathrooms and a downstairs shower room fairly quickly.

If you've had your bathroom redone lately how do you do it, what's in at the moment (not that I'll necessarily follow fashion but it's nice to know)...

I like subway tiles but these seem to have been around for ages and don't want to go that way if they are on their way out!

Thank you.

We had no skirting boards when we did our old bathroom-I liked it a lot.

Disclaimer - this is what I think about 'fashions' rather than what I think is nice, and nor is it meant as a judgement on what anyone else has! Off the top of my head:

Travertine: OUT VERY OUT
Countertop sinks: OUT VERY OUT
Waterfall taps: NEVER WERE IN
Metro tiles: Fine, especially used judiciously, unlikely to ever be awful. White with dark grout still the best choice.
Herringbone tiles: In, especially in more than one colour or with accent colours. Likely to be OUT at some point though.
German style plain white square matt tiles: In, but you need to commit and it's a fairly austere look!
Fully tiled: Out
'Hotel Style': Out

I think a sort of mix and match look is coming - which is a PITA to clean. The same way freestanding kitchens are coming back, but with bathrooms.

Colourwise, whites, greys, some pastels. Lots of matt finish.

IMO you can't go wrong with good quality fittings, something that's easy to clean and something, above all, that You Like.

We are having grey floor tiles and bumpy white wall tiles but I'm not sure yet.

I agree with grumble's list

I think you're spot on grumble! Minimalism and then separately, classic metro tiles are what i think are the classics.

corblime, if you are still around, where is your sink unit from and would you recommend?

Well I have to disagree with grumbleina - waterfall taps are very fashionable. They are not to my taste though.

Fashionable: rectangular sinks, but not something I'd have; the vanity unit that looks like a washstand; wall-mounted bath taps; freestanding roll top baths, but these must be on their way out soon, surely? And of course - mega fashionable (but often useless) is the chrome ladder heated towel rail, which is supposed to function as a radiator, but doesn't.

wowfudge what is the problem with the chrome towel radiators? We've ordered one but aren't too late to cancel. It's replacing a radiator so I want to be sure to get it right!

White towel rails are better as radiators, but don't look as good in most bathrooms. but if you have a towel rail as big as possible (about twice as big as you think you need) they do work fine for warming towels and the room

There are oodles of threads on here about heated towel rails. As Closer states, you need to buy bigger than you think. They don't belt out heat when they are covered with towels.

wowfudge that'll be OK then, I've still not managed to get DH and the kids to hang the towels up.....
Thanks, I'll look at the threads.

Pinechest - have you tried City Plumbing? We have their Trapini sink/vanity unit which is floor standing. Also IKEA do some nice floor standing ones I think?

Blimey this thread moved quickly!! Another place to look is Victoria Plumb ...

Not sure about metro tiles being timeless, we ripped them out 18 years ago, they looked hideously dated then (replaced with 'classic' travertine).
They'd look gorgeous now though!

pinechesterdrawers It was from a local bathroom shop where we bought everything. Probably could have got stuff cheaper online but the local place were very helpful finding things that worked in our awkward space. The sink and unit were chosen because it's particularly narrow (front to back) but still quite a big sink. I don't actually remember the brand I'm afraid.

I suppose our bathroom is not very fashionable then as it's quite hotel like. But it's neat and easy to clean and I like that. Our bathrooms are small and I wanted neutral colours and not too many different materials so it didn't look cluttered. We have a chrome radiator as a towel rail. Seems to work fine.

I've no idea what's fashionable btw but would say it depends on the age and style of the house.

I ordered a massive chrome radiator/towel rail and it was rubbish at heatig our tiny bathroom. Am sticking with a traditional radiator this time.

We've just done ours. We've gone for metro tiles but they are the more modern Matt finish, flat surfaced ones, not the glossy bevelled retro sort. They are a lovely soft sage/grey colour which looks fantastic against the white. We opted for linear rows rather than brick bond as I'm a bit over that now.

The floor is done in grey wood grained / plank effect ceramic tiles that look like driftwood. It's fantastic. Some of the wood effect tiles look very cheap and fake but mine look great, I took ages to choose them but I'm very happy with them. I am aware that they are very 'in' though, and will probably carbon date my bathroom!

We have very white gloss vanity unit and moulded basin very similar to the one in with one corblimey has in her photo with a matching mirrored cabinet above.

I would have loved to play around with trendy mix and match, geometric tiles, more colour etc, but it's a tiny windowless bathroom so I thought plain and simple would be safer.

We had to replace our bathroom suite for practical reasons but still have the tiles from the previous owners which must be 20 years old, but are livable - basically large square 'wobbly' white tiles and a dark grey/black white border with a white art nouveau style swirl on it. Untiled bits of wall are also painted white and we have charcoal grey slate effect vinyl flooring and red accessories, towels etc. We have a white heated towel rail, which seems to get dusty very quickly - I would prefer chrome personally from that POV.

If we were redoing, I'd keep the basic black and white scheme but go for a more modern style of tiling, and as a huge pop art fan I would have to factor these in somewhere - I've had my eye on them for about 10 years!

...having said that, DH would probably divorce me if he came home to those!

Wyrd I love them.
I think we're going for a green theme for our new bathroom. Off to Pinterest now for inspiration.

Not to throw cold water on your plans but however you do it make it super-easy to clean! WE had enormous tiles which are good and mosaic which are not. Wall hung loos are easy to clean around. I have Ikea sinks which are also working out well. And heated towel rails if you can (I don't have those but will do in my next life!)

I dithered about tiles for ages, hate subway tiles which seem to be just about the only thing on pinterest/houzz. Wasn't particularly bothered about being in fashion, just something fairly neutral without being stark white.

Ended up with an off white, medium format tile and grey floor.

Not quite finished in the photos

4ever

Tbh if I had my way, my entire house would look like a modern art gallery - wood floors, off-white walls and black/wood/glass furniture with lots of modern art on the walls to brighten it up.

Sadly DH doesn't share my vision .