Bathrooms - fitted furniture or not?

[Chasingsquirrels]

Planning on having my ensuite & main bathrooms redone.

Saw the below pink units which I really like the look of for my ensuite and was planning a run of units to the basin under the window and a run of units and wall cupboards on the WC wall as per diagram & picture (tall cupboards in the corner are representing the soil stack, not actual cupboards).

At the moment the basin & WC wastes are exposed pipes running to the soil stack and I really want to hide them.

Furniture would all be slimline and would consist of:
600 basin unit / 600 double unit + filler piece to soil stack.
150 single unit / 600 WC unit / 150 single unit + small amount of filler.
150 single wall unit / 600 double wall unit / 150 single wall unit + small amount of filler.

Having had it priced, the furniture alone was going to cost around £2,500. I've looked around for other options and have found in a similar colour in the region of £1,600.
its quite expensive for quite a lot of storage, which thinking about it I don't actual need.

Reconsidering, I am thinking about keeping the 600 basin & double unit but then building a unit height studwork to build out the WC wall to hide the cistern and having a back to wall WC against it.
Would then paint or tile/showerboard this in line with the rest of the room.
Same "built in" effect, but without the units and would save quite a lot of cost.
Maybe still have a double wall unit above the WC, but in reality with the basin & unit cupboard space I probably don't need a wall cupboard.

1. Would you frame out the WC wall to the ceiling or have the "shelf" above the WC?

(At the moment I have dormant orchids on the cistern, and would have the same on the shelf).

1. Would you still go with the pink units if just having the basin & cupboard?

Not sure of other colours, white sanitary wear and probably white tiles.

Any other suggestions?

I would ditch the wall cupboards, but keep the rest fitted.

Yes, that's another option I could consider. I'll check how much the wall cupboard add.

If I had the wall cupboards I would box in above to give the illusion of them sitting in an alcove.
I like the pink. In a small space I would rather see all units the same colour, rather than a colour as the base and light above.
You could either go soft greys and white with the pink, or do icecream shades?

The wall cupboards are just over £500 of the £1,600 quote.
Basin unit & 600 cupboard = £500
WC unit & 2 x 150 cupboards = 500.
Plus fillers & plinth.

One of the below ranges, one is bevelled edges (pictured in pink) the other is just flat (pictured in white but do in pink).

Definitely only 1 colour of unit, be that pink or white.

Not sure I can quite picture the boxing above, what would you finish the wall above with?
The wall unit would fill the width of the alcove they are in - picture below is as now, the current wall unit sticks out but the new ones would be the same depth as the soil stack. And with the extra cupboard space below I wouldn't have the crap on top!

I'm tending towards just ditching the wall cupboards through, don't know why that wasn't my first thought.

Could go with greys for tiles, they do go well with pink, but I'm not massively keen on grey.

If you had a walk unit, could you have mirrored doors? Reflects light back.

Wall unit, not walk.

Yes that's an option, although it increases the price quite a lot.

Plan to keep a wall mirror where I currently have one, or if I don't have wall units maybe a large mirror in that space.

It seems like a lot of furniture for a smallish room. Do you really need all that storage in an en suite?

I would avoid having the sink under the window because it makes more sense to have the mirror above the sink IMHO. Personally, I would have the toilet under the window and the sink right next to it in one run. And leave the other wall clear or possibly have some open shelving.

No I don't need all that storage, but I do want the pipes out of sight, and the fitted furniture achieves that while providing some storage.

Losing the wall units leaves me with under the sink and unit next to it which is probably about the same storage as my current wall unit. Although not quite as easily accessible as the current wall unit.
Then the 2 x 150 units either side of the WC can hold the toilet brush and bleach & cleaning spray.

The sink is currently under the window, I have no issues with it and like the light.
I have a 2-sided mirror attached to the window wall as well as the wall mirror next to the window, and will keep both (or new - considering an illuminated wall mirror).

The current placement of the various items works well, and I'm not changing the layout just updating.
The room is only 1180mm deep.
If the toilet was on the window wall there wouldn't be space to sit on it comfortably.

Completely fitted bathrooms are much easier to keep clean.

Another good point!
I think building out a stud wall behind the WC would be the same in terms of "fitted" but cost a bit less. But then with the materials, having to tile it etc maybe it wouldn't be much different.

I think I've decided to keep the floor units but ditch the wall ones, they aren't really needed for storage and it will save the cost.

Now just need to decide on all the other things!

Speaking purely in general and not abut your design, DH hates undersink cupboards- being tall he has long feet, and he can't stand at the sink properly if it's boxed in. I see his point. And I don't care for the 'look'- I always see it as a bit '1970s vanity unit'.
OTOH on my part I don't like cupboards above the loo (though we have had them for space reasons) as if anything falls out, unless you're good at catching things, they go straight into the drink (ewww) and they can be awkward cupboards to reach for short people like me.
Not keen on boxing the cistern in unless access is good, but I think it definitely looks neater on your plan- it is a pain to keep the area under/round/behind a loo clean and tidy.
Your thread has given me a lot of food for thought, though, as I'm planning a bathroom renovation for next year, so thank you.

It is going to be a semi recessed basin - preferably an isocast one like this (although I am "ekk" at the price), which hopefully won't have those issues when you consider both the extra foot space to the plinth plus the basin sticking out.

I thought that about boxing in cisterns, but several bathroom people have told me that anything which needs to be accessed can be done so through the flush!!

I assume with the WC furniture option the worktop could be taken off if it needed to be.

I wondered abut having a new loo's 'bits' put behind a stud wall as it does look neater, then remembered that we've often needed access to the cistern of the current loo to fix it, and there would be no certainty that any new loo wouldn't need access at some point.
My absolute first rule for any plumbing is it must be easy to access its fittings and pipes and everything must have easily accessible shut-off valves for maintenance and repair. It's such a pain to have to turn off the water for the whole house, and possibly even drain a hot water tank if you don't have a combi boiler, just to change one tap washer, for example. Or have to turn off the whole house while you fix/replace one problematic/leaky unit.

Definitely agree about shut-off valves. I insisted on them when I had my kitchen & utility done even though the plumber was saying it wasn't worth bothering.