What you wished you had known when you designed/replaced your bathroom(s) and clever gimmicks

[2020again]

For the first time ever I have the opportunity to re-do bathrooms in a house and looking for input. What are the things that you wish you had considered when you designed a bathroom or things you got wrong? Are there any gimmicks nowadays that people don’t know about - I am thinking of the thermostats that allow you to turn the shower on and get up to set temperature before you get in but am sure there are others. One bathroom will have separate shower cubicle and bath and the other just shower cubicle both plus toilets and sinks of course. Any ideas welcome.

We have motion sensor night lights in ours and LOVE them, gives a dim light for a night time loo trip rather than a bright one

Heated pad behind the mirror, connected to the light switch. I have loved this ever since w rout it in and will be putting it into our new bathrooms at the new house (we are moving). The mirror is flush with the tiles and I just love it.

pallisers safety bar for what?

like a grab bar for when you are older and less steady on your feet (or pregnant and unsteady now that I think of it). basically something you can grab if you are falling in the shower or bath (common area for falls). to put them in properly they should be put into the studs - not added onto the tile. We aren't elderly but we put them in all the bathrooms knowing someday we might be - or our elderly parents might visit us.

If you are buying a bath, get in it before you buy it. There are so many uncomfortable baths. I put a lovely comfy bath in our old house and then we moved to a house with an uncomfy bath and it's very disappointing.

I love my bathroom. My one main regret is that my builders saw me coming and charged me a fortune for mine but you live and you learn.

The one thing I'd change in the design, is that I wish I'd gotten marble/quartz worktops for my vanity rather than the wooden top. Not because I don't like the wood, but because I love the quartz in my kitchen so much, and my supplier allowed me to keep the offcuts at no extra cost. My bathroom was renovated a few months before my kitchen.

Just had my bathroom done and one of my favourite things is the light switch. It is a touch switch and is on the wall in the bathroom instead of being outside or a pull switch. It is also a double switch so that the light and fan can be controlled separately.

Some fantastic ideas - please keep them coming.

@Catycity

I think it looks better when all the bathrooms in a home have the same tiles. It just flows a lot better for Interior home design imo. In the future if you needed to sell I think it looks better to potential buyers because there’s a theme running through.

I don't agree. I have 2 totally contrasting styles and it looks fantastic.

Ignore my previous comment. I misunderstood the point being made 🙄

Get a shower head on the bath - even though there is a separate shower - for ease of cleaning.
Heated towel rail radiators for drying towels.
Somewhere to hang towels if you are a large family and can't fit enough heated towel rails for all.
We have a hands free.montion sensors light in the downstairs loo. Works great for a wee but switches off during a poo.....if we leave it on longer then most times we would be wasting electricity. Saying that we aren't changing it!

@pallisers

pallisers safety bar for what?

like a grab bar for when you are older and less steady on your feet (or pregnant and unsteady now that I think of it). basically something you can grab if you are falling in the shower or bath (common area for falls). to put them in properly they should be put into the studs - not added onto the tile. We aren't elderly but we put them in all the bathrooms knowing someday we might be - or our elderly parents might visit us.

love that.

also great for when you have a twisted ankle or just feel weak when ill.

Motion sensor toilet flush, very hygienic. Just wave your hand in front of it and voila!!

We have just done ours and while we are still finishing it off, I love it. We put all of our plumbing and pipes under the floorboards so no visible pipes and no boxing in which is a small thing but makes a huge difference to the finished look and gives a lot of space. Splash walls instead of tiles in the shower (it had mosaic tiles before, never ever put these in a shower!). Don't be afraid to move things round. Our main bathroom is quite large and can have a few configurations. We originally stuck with the layout we had as we were planning the refit as moving stuff seemed a faff but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to change it. And it was such a good idea. It's so much better how it is.

Get the best extractor fan you can afford.

Shop around, it doesn't all have to come from the same place. We have a vintage painted toilet from one place, sink from one place, taps from another, bath from an showroom sale and so on. There's also so much more choice than white and chrome match match. We have a copper antique radiator/towel rail combo and it's beautiful. We then matched fittings to it. I love colour and quirky stuff though. We have patterned Moroccan tiles on the floor, ochre splashback tiles, vintage railway hooks and shelf brackets, framed concert posters, vintage railway signs ("beware pickpockets and loose women" is a favourite) and er, a picture of Victoria Wood.

Storage storage storage.

I think I'm in the minority here, but I like a separate switch for the extractor, so it doesn't automatically come on every time the light is switched on. We have a light directly over the shower which is also an extractor, and it has its own pull cord right next to the shower. Extractor switches which are outside the bathroom or linked to the light are both massively annoying in my view, but it seems that's what 99% of people have.

Don’t have big shiny white tiles on the floor. Bugger to clean.

Definitely have some form of dim lighting option for night time visits. We had a humidity sensor on our extractors. Was good for staying on longer after a shower but not after a wee.

Soft close toilet seats are so much better.

We had a room made into a wet room type bathroom last year. Very glad to have dual power towel ladder (on when CH is, or can be electric), underfloor heating, wall hung loo and basin, huge wall cupboard for towels, cleaning stuff, meds, etc., walk in shower with screens, no doors. Also the extractor fan comes on with the main ceiling lights, but there's a light in the shower alcove and a strip above the loo and basin with a separate switch which is nice at night, quiet and gentle.
DP has a broken ankle and can sit on a chair in the shower and use the handheld wand. It probably would have been a good idea to put grab rails in.

Pay attention to the details - choose your tile trim to match or complement either your brassware or tiles (my tiler just put in white plastic because I'd specified everything except that! Even against white tile it still makes me wince every day). In a small room get your tiler to carry the floor tile a few cm up the wall as a skirting, makes the floor look bigger. Don't tile every single wall, do use specialist bathroom paint. Get under floor heating and a heated towel rail. Wall lights by the mirror (on a separate switch so can act as your low level night light). Put a storage cubby at the end of the bath if you can (for cleaning stuff, access by a panel). Alcove to the side of the shower (recess between wall joints) for bottles. As PPs have said, get the best extractor fan you can. Place your lighting carefully and try to avoid a grid of spot downlights, looks awful. Find out your water pressure and choose taps/shower accordingly. Don't go overboard with your shower head, remember the bigger the diameter the more diffuse the flow of water will be. But do (as suggested above) have one fixed and one hand-held shower. Don't have a wooden vanity top, either the water damage or the stress of keeping it dry will do your head in.

Get an Aqualiger branded shower, do not be talked out of this by the salesperson (who's probably on commission) and into their own brand that 'is just as good and half the price'. Aqualiger are head and shoulders above other brands and I regret not sticking to my guns every time I have a shower

@DesdamonasHandkerchief do you mean Aqualisa? Do you have one of their electric ones?

Another vote for a heated mirror that doesn't steam up when you use the shower. We bought a cabinet off EBay and it's brilliant.

Why not mosaic tiles in the shower? We are currently doing our bathroom and the plan is to have chequered mosaic on the floor of the shower.

@ItMustBeBedtimeSurely

Why not mosaic tiles in the shower? We are currently doing our bathroom and the plan is to have chequered mosaic on the floor of the shower.

I would assume that cleaning the grout between all of the little pieces of tile would be an absolute nightmare

yep. grout cleaning.
we rented a place with mosaic tiles in the bathroom (a band around the whole room, shower over bath). it was very visible which tiles were constantly getting wet and which didn't and no amount of cleaning helped.

Can I reach to turn on the shower from outside the cubicle without getting soaked.(to clean it or warm it up).