New bathroom - where to start? What are you really glad you've got and what could you do without?

[PookieK]

Hi,
We have an ancient, beige, horrible separate bathroom and toilet which we want to knock into one room and make lovely. We probably do just have space to fit a separate shower and bath but would have more room if we kept the shower over the bath. Not really sure where to start, so looking for recommendations from your experience....what is worth having and what isn't? Underfloor heating? Built in storage or freestanding? Where is a good supplier? Any hints or tips?
Many thanks in advance....

:)

Meant to say I've gone quite basic for everything except shower

Dark grey grouting, slate floor, heated towel rail and towel rail/radiator combined. Wish I had got the electric type element too to heat it up when the heating is off.

Agree with the heated mirror, I absolutely love mine! I actually got a heated mirrored cabinet, which has lights and mirrors both inside and out and a plug for raxors/toothbrushes internally as well. It's so good for putting on makeup, and if you open the doors they are mirrored internally as well so you can see the back of your head for hairstyles (using the reflections if that makes sense).

The cabinet is above a big sink with deep drawers beneath, storing all my cosmetics etc.

That, and the big walk in shower with drench head, are the two best bits about our new bathroom. Love it!

agree with vjg13, I really wish we'd got the electric element for the towel rail. Would be so much easier to dry towels in the summer

UFH is fab. A good powerful extractor fan is a must. We went for mirrored sliding doors to hide boiler, water softener etc and its worked out really well as bathroom looks huge. Walls and Floors are great for tiles and post out samples.
Aqualisa showers are great and good value for money.

I was quoted £6k for work on top of £1k for suite/shower that I'd already bought, that would have included replacing ceiling and rebuilding stud wall behind bath and plastering, plaster in places was back to bricks, lighting, underfloor heating, plumbing, moving radiator, tiling floor and around shower. Didn't include painting or cost of tiles. We decided to do it ourselves as it was far more than we'd expected and hired a plasterer and electrician.

Underfloor heating is amazing and so worth it, also grey grout, extra storage in drawers under sink, big shower head over bath plus little handheld for cleaning it.

Interestingly the feature we like is keeping the separated toilet room! But also another feature was a double sink, didn't realise how good it would be!

We have a thermostatic rainforest shower which I love, a huge deep and wide bath which you can lie back in even if you are six foot, underfloor heating by means of carefully routed pipes which means it costs no extra to run. A huge towel rail which is heated and oodles of storage behind a false wall.

The best thing of all, though, is the soft closing toilet seat.