Designing a bathroom for future family??

[Fujexa]

Hi all, myself and my DH are planning to renovate our main bathroom soon. We are also hoping to start a family in the near future.

I was wondering if some of the things we like might become impractical with young kids in mind - for example, a wall mounted toilet- are they difficult for kids to use? Or a freestanding bath?

Also, is there any other practicalities we should be thinking of? We are literally clueless - so any opinions are appreciated!!

Freestanding bath is a nightmare unless in a wet room. You can make waves in a bath and easily flood the room.

We have a recessed bath in our current house, the seat of the bath is floor level and the waste is between the floorboards. This was brilliant for bathing our youngest whilst kneeling alongside. It also makes the sides lower to step over to shower with the overhead shower.

We have a hotel style bath fill from the center infront of the overflow. The taps are at an angle to the side. This way two children can be bathed with no one arguing about the tap end. The taps don't get in the way of getting in and out the bath and are easily accessible even when heavily pregnant and you can't necessarily easily stretch across the bath.

If it's your only bathroom a double sink means you can brush your teeth together - great when everyone has to get ready to leave at the same time

We’ve a double walk in shower it’s great and gets 2 children in. We’ve also a freestanding bath. Which we love. It’s huge and fits 3 children in and me. I don’t fill it too much and they are pretty good about not making waves!

I would prefer a freestanding bath for kids too (a deep one that you don't fill too much to minimise splashing). We've put a shower + glass screen over DS's bath and the screen is a pain in the whatsit (gets in the way + he's 1 and messes with it).

I'd also suggest ample storage as kids tend to have a pile of bath toys. Also a decent amount of floor space to change/dress when little as they need to lie down on a mat and you need space to move.

We found a shower attachment on the bath handy for hair washing in the bath.

If you are having a separate shower, have th controls as low down as you can manage - so your DC grow up to reach them sooner

We have a freestanding bath- the freestanding part is fine but it is metal (steel? Iron? Not sure) and it’s very impractical for small children. When funds allow and we redo the bathroom we’ll change it for an acrylic one. The metal baths are also cold and need re-enamelling. I wouldn’t choose another.

Yes to the suggestion for keeping space for drying and taking nappies off etc. And we keep the nappy bin in there too. You can never have too much storage.

Back to wall bath better than fully freestanding, or else you’ll get splashes down the back. Bath filler safer than taps (no injuries) but they can be slow.

Are you having a shower over your bath? If so there is a way to do it so the screen folds all the way back and is out of the way for baths. I can explain more if this is your plan.

Choose very waterproof flooring. Non slip. Tiles or vinyl are good. That’s not just because of water splashes, it’s to make sure it doesn’t soak up wee later when they are potty training/don’t make it quite in time. In fact it’s worth putting marine ply and/or ditra matting across the whole floor (under your flooring) to avoid leaks going through.

Storage.

Wall mounted toilet is fine and makes it easier to clean the floor.

Large tiles to reduce amount of grout to get grubby. Consider mermaid board in shower for same reason. Easy clean protector on any glass screens.

Eggshell paint is nicely robust, water resistant and easy to clean. Works well in a bathroom.

Heated towel rail -make sure it can fit a sensible number of towels on it.

Oh and sinks - choose sinks with plenty of flat surface area around the edge so you can put toothbrushes etc there.

Lots of useful advice for us to take on board there. Thanks all

We have jus todne ours. A walk in shower and freestanding bath is handy as while one of you bath the kids your other half can still shower after work.

My daughter is nearly 2 and loves both a deep bath and a shower so that's why we got both.

Floor space for changing mat, step stool, potty etc.

Storage - wall mounted cupboards to keep stuff out of reach (you can get child safe locks on cupboards that are low down but I find them annoying)

Bath with shower attachment so you can hose them down with the shower when they're in the bath.

If you have space for a separate shower, a good size and with a wide opening.

Storage! We had niches built into one wall to store baskets of bath toys.

Big towel rail to fit as many towels as possible, hooks on the door/wall to hang towels/bathrobes etc.

We have just installed a wall hung toilet and I love it, so easy to clean, the kids don't find it any different to climb up (2 and 4 year old) than a standard toilet.