Where should I go for a new bathroom design?

[ZigZagJane]

Looking at getting a new bathroom as our very old but very practical bathroom is starting to fall apart, piece by piece. Any recommendations about where to get a design completed?
Wickes?
B&Q?
Bathstore?
Victorian plumbing?
Anywhere to avoid?
Thanks

Hopeful bump

I've had a few new bathrooms in various houses but I have never had one 'designed' - usually just pick the loo, bath etc and have them where I want them, pick some flooring and tiles etc, job done.

I find bathrooms can be quite limited design-wise, but perhaps that is my lack of imagination.

I always try to have the loo as far away from the bath as possible, I hate lying in the bath next to it.

I looked online and in magazines and loosely copied a design that I liked. I bought the tiles, flooring, bath sink taps etc from different places and paid someone to fit them.

LVT works really well and isn’t cold to stand on. I got a really, really large mirrored cabinet, I thought it would be too big but I’m glad I did as it works really well. Ceiling speakers are worth getting too!

Oh and lights that can be dimmed.

B&Q are shite, don't bother with them. Don't you have any independent bathroom showrooms in your area? You can get them to look at it and give you layout ideas, but you could get the parts from elsewhere if cheaper and you're on a budget.

Haven't had good experiences with Victoria plum but plumbing world have been great, their customer service and delivery were spot on, and I got some stuff at really competitive prices.

I've used bathstore.com to source my bath stuff and 'designed' it myself. I'm about to do three bathrooms when I move (hopefully- please seller find a house to buy!). Picking tiles is the most fun (tilemountain.com, Bert and May, toppstiles...). I do like the combined sink and toilet combination with a mirror the full width above it.

That's a small one pictured you can get them mush wider

After a kitchen experience with Wickes we did our two bathrooms ourselves. Found a plumber, chose the goods, used the tiler he recommended.

Plumbing world is good as per PP. we used City Plumbing too as were local. Tiles I bought from whatever website did the ones we liked. We found a mirror we liked was half price online, the towel rail came from another website as it was cheapest...

I wouldn't use a design company on a bathroom if we did another one - I've ended up with two that work for us and look good.

Avoid Victoria Plum. God awful company which is a shame as their products are lovely.

Find a plummer (word of mouth if you can). A good plummer will help you design it and tell you what size you need to buy etc.

Having just renovated 2 bathrooms, my suggestions are:

1. Get a good plumber. Wait if necessary for someone with a good reputation and an eye for detail.
2. Agree with the plumber the can do/ can't do's re the room as that will dictate what you can can and can't buy such as wall hung vs floor standing units, depth of units that will work with existing pipe work etc.
3. Buy the best ceramics, units & taps you can afford. Buy cheap and you will buy twice.
4. A decent plumber will have good discount with local plumbing merchants can enable you to buy materials this way. This works well as you get better products at good prices and also the plumber/merchant relationship will be helpful if there are any issues. We had a faulty shower door which was sorted with a single call from plumber to merchant. Merchant started with the 'was it fitted correctly?' and plumber was able to shoot them down and insist product was replaced the next day. Which it was and was hand delivered by manager of merchant with an apology. If I had sourced this myself from an online company I would have been given the run around and days of delay to get this sorted.

Agree with PP about taking the plumber’s recommendations for plumber merchant. They gave me his trade discount on the branded items I ordered. When there was a manufacturing fault with the sink unit (only discovered once fitted), it got sorted very quickly with him directly speaking with the shop. I only paid once for the fitting. So glad I didn’t order it online!

Great advice, thank you all. Much appreciated.

We had an extension built with quite a good sized bathroom. The first bathroom company I approached told me there wasn't room for a bath. Fortunately, the next were a bit more enthusiastic and I now have a bathroom with a walk in wet room style shower, free standing bath, two basins, loo, plenty of storage and dressing table area with stool. I still
Have plenty of space. I think the first company could not think beyond fixing each item to a wall around the outside of the room.

You say it’s practical so are you really going to change the layout much? It’s fine to do just a little bit more work in re-routing plumbing and drains (and the loo likely can’t be moved far anyway).

So whilst you can go to a bathroom shop and get a design it’s really not that hard to do on your own. We did get plans for ours but I think we went off piste in the end. Decided what we wanted and where it should go.

We have just used trade price bathrooms. My plumber has been very, very impressed with the quality of it all. There was a problem with a firing fault on the back to wall sink and it was sorted really quickly and a replacement sent. We then sourced tiles and tile trims etc.... separately. It is being finished today and it is the best bathroom I have ever had in a property. A really relaxing place. Our plumber also managed to get us a massive led, heated mirror from his merchant for a massive discount (£150 instead of £350) which has finished the room off well.