Single mum. No time. Urgentlyly need help with designing and purchasing for two new bathrooms. Please help!

[Wishingandwaiting]

I'm desperate.

Builders move in in three weeks time. I have avoided the issue because a) been very busy b) utterly disinterested in anything related to home improvements an design.

So, it's a big job overall, but what's particularly concerning me are the bathrooms.

Two bathrooms. One main, one ensuite. It's being completely renovated.

I need to provide builder with my choices re tiles, flooring, units, showers, taps etc.

Please please can you help! What brands are good for toilets, showers etc? What type of shower? Any floor/tile recs?

Thank you so much!

It depends on your budget and taste. If you want to look at goods in-store, you could try bathstore who also offer a free design service. Or, if you have an idea what sort of things you want, there are plenty of online services. My single most important piece of advice is do not get a fixed-head shower as (a) it is not easy to direct the flow (b) they make cleaning the shower unit really difficult. Buy nice taps and invest in a decent brand of shower (German brands such as Grohe come recommended, make sure it is thermostatic).

In terms of tiles, you are a way away from those and it may be worth talking to the tiler about what he thinks works best and which suppliers he recommends, this at least narrows it down a bit. My other piece of advice is pay a bit extra and have some recesses built in the shower cubicle in which you can store your shampoos etc.

Really though, it will take an hour to visit a couple of tile shops and have a look at some of their designs or you could browse pinterest to get ideas of things you think work well. Most tiles are not that specific so you should be able to find something similar online or in a large store if you see something on pinterest that you like.

Mermaid boards in the back of the shower. We have an aqua colour and it looks great and is so easy to clean. The rest of the bathroom is all white so it pops. Definitely alcoves in the shower and think about storage and heating.

Like the sound of the mermaid board.
What colour did you go for?

4 hours and counting - researching tiles and units. Not my thing at all!

hi have just (last week!) finished two bathrooms; one i used a design firm as was as serious renovation and redesign job - they did it fantastically but was v v v expensive. the other i sourced everything on line and bought the tiles in person from the diy shop. I can't tell you the difference in price between the two but it was well thousands! i am not a person much into this stuff, but i would def just buy on line/in the shop in future as long as the builders were going to take care of all the work and you had a tiler (my expensive tiler very very kindly stepped in and tiled the diy bathroom for me for £100 if i supplier the tiles).

Blimey, string, your tiler doesn't work in London, does he? I need my bathroom doing and that's some price...

Pinterest is your friend for helping you decide the kind of look you are going for and for ideas.

Bear in mind that the larger the tiles the cheaper the tiling job and the easier to clean.

For the actual bath/taps/shower I went to a non-chain plumbers merchant/bathroom supplier at a quiet time of day, and asked a friendly elderly gent to talk me through the options and brands and get me a bulk discount for the lot.

Lala - i know i was so pleasantly surprised! but i have been blessed with incredible good/reliable contractors through the whole painful renovation (think they all took pity on me when the main contractor pulled out the night before the start!). i should add the main bathroom was nothing like that low priced...

You can spend any amount on a loo. Our bathroom fitter brought us a plumber's merchant catalogue which we used for a lot of the generic stuff like towel radiator, bath. We have a £60 generic loo and an ideal standard one. The IS uses slightly less water and flushes 100% better but that's just an anecdote.

Tiles will be much easier in a tile shop than online. We used the same colour scheme for both bathrooms but used different black floor tiles and different white wall tiles for each. We didn't tile completely, we kept some areas of wall so we can easily change the colour scheme with just paint. Plain monochrome then using towels/bathmat for colour is a safe option if you're not feeling inspired colourwise. You could do a separate colour for each person and use bathroom as a neutral backdrop.

Mosaics can be a bit high maintenance as there's a lot of grouting to get mildewed/mouldy.