Bathroom must haves

[WindFlower92]

Hi all. We're currently looking to renovate our bathroom; at the moment it's split into two rooms with just the toilet in one, so we'll be knocking the wall down (which may or may not have asbestos). It's quite a small space so storage is a priority! I'm looking for what you would make sure is included, and what hidden costs there are that get overlooked! We want new shower/bath and to potentially move the toilet along the wall; not sure what this will involve!

Look forward to your ideas - what would your dream bathroom include and what would be your budget basically!

Need to add a question onto that - if we were to add in a bigger window what kind of company would do that and what's the process? I buy a window and a builder cuts it out and fits it?

In a small bathroom where there is not space for a bath and shower I would sacrifice the bath for a larger, walk-in type shower any day. And I love baths, but if there isn't space for a seperate one then it should go, imo.

Where there isn't space for stand alone storage then:

• a heated towel rack to double up as towel storage and heat. This only works if the house is quite warm anyway; in a cold house it often isn't enough on its own.

• vanity sinks so you have cupboard space underneath

• shower shelving (another reason to lose the bath and just have a bigger shower space)

Heated towel rail is an absolute must have. Getting out of the shower into a hot towel is my luxury!

Good idea - hadn't thought of the towel rail!

We have recently done this, converted two rooms into one. We went with an L shaped bath. The other half and smallest kid prefer baths. We have a rainfall and moveable shower head thing in one. Got the heated towel rail which in our case is where the 'other' door used to be. We have a vanity sink combo which is great for storage and managed to fit a small cupboard as well are mirrors etc. Don't forget about a charging point for toothbrushes / shavers. The bathroom feels so much bigger now even though it's still small.

If you do storage under vanity - try to make it a drawer - much easier to use than scrabbling about at the back of cupboards.
I would also invest in a large but shallow one door mirror cabinet as again much easier to store stuff and tidy up quick. I have a small bathroom but have a shallow almost floor to ceiling cupboard which houses loads of loo rolls and cleaning stuff as well as shampoos / toiletries etc. Make space for a hand towel ring/hook separate from bath towels on radiator, bin, loo roll holder and loo brush. I would prefer a shower over a bath if space is limited rather than losing a bath altogether.

Why do you want to make the window bigger? Not sure if you would need planning permission? A while ago I had a quote of £1200 to cut out and fit a new window - but this was on ground floor - 1st floor might be more expensive.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Innishh - we currently have a window for the bigger room and a tiny strip window for the toilet room - the small one needs to go as I reckon it would look weird them both being next to each other, and I quite like the idea of a longer windowsill! Extra surface area for a start! Not the end of the world if the bigger window has to stay as it is though.

An expensive shelf!!!

Are your windows next to each other? They may use the same lintle so relatively easy to replace with a bigger window when the wall is gone.

Ventilation is very important. Also a bin! I like a grab tail over the bath to hang rinsed out filthy clothes!

@WindFlower92 we did something which sounds similar. We keep the small window (which has been in the toilet room) and it's now in the shower cubicle which means the shower is nice and light and there's a window sill for the shampoo plus easy ventilation to assist the fan.

I forgot about a bin!

The windows are next to each other, so that's good!

We're hoping to be able to build a sort of shelf wall/cupboard type thing so we'll have lots of storage and room for plants!