Bathroom renovation - where to begin

[VintedoreBay]

I posted in Home Decor but maybe here is better?

I've got contractors booked to renovate kitchen and bathroom, living room, attic room and hallway. Starting Jan.

Kitchen all sorted but bathroom - omg totally haven't sorted what I want yet! Got a couple of weeks....and I've no idea where to start.

I think I want some colour and some pattern tiles on the floor.

I want a sink with storage, new loo, new straight bath (double ended I think) and separate shower.

And I think I want black taps and hardware (is that the word) but only if they're easy to keep clean and looking good. Are they? Or is chrome better? God I'm so useless.

Looking for low maintenance, easy cleaning so I guess....large tiles on the wall and floor?

Help! Can you tell I'm new to this renovation malarkey?

Can you show me your bathrooms? Point me in the right direction?

We got the Karndean online from Flooring Direct or somewhere like that...but had looked at samples in various shops! Our builder/kitchen fitter organised the floor fitters so we sisnr need to organise the fitting.. for a small space might be OK to do yourselves if you feel confident!

Howdens also do flooring by the way.. various options suitable for batbrooms

@AuraBora thank you that's helpful! And no I definitely don't feel confident in our DIY abilities 😂

@TheCave so helpful thanks! I'll check out that company on Instagram.

Where did you get your tiles from?

We went to a couple of local flooring places that stock Amtico and Karndean, borrowed samples from them and tried them in the space and got outline quotes. They have slightly different ranges at several price points so it's getting a feel for whether you can get what you want in that particular range. Chose Amtico as they had what we wanted, the shop then sent someone to measure up, ordered it and organised the fitter.

And, yes, Howdens also do LVT flooring although didn't seem to have quite the same range available as the other two.

There was another one, Invictus, LVT which a different carpet shop stocked. That appeared to be cheaper than Amtico and Karndean.

By then I was losing the plot with too many options though!

Yeah work on your life.

Look at Victorian Plumbing (NOT Victoria Plum), they usually deliver quickly. Buy the best shower you can afford - Aqualisa digital with a remote switch on is good.

Go with a stone resin shower tray, not a cheap plastic one otherwise they flex and break the silicon seal.

Most important, ask how the walls of the shower will be constructed behind the tiles. Just plaster is not good enough, you need waterproof sheets (aquapanel).

Bigger tiles will reduce labour costs.

Don't go for black taps, ever. They are terrible. Just go chrome.

Think about how you will hang towels, reach loo roll etc.

Try and put in an electric toothbrush charger.

Think about having a recess in the shower, you can get some great stainless steel ones.

@VintedoreBay the patterned floor tiles are from Porcelain Superstore (quite reasonably priced). The plain white and orange tiles are from Ca' Pietra (and cost a lot of money - over £1k for most of the walls in a tiny, absolutely tiny shower room, of which half of one "wall" is the door). Shower room looks incredible though.

We love the tiles too! The bath panel was actually an idea from our bathroom fitter, and I think I prefer it to a panel matching the sink which might have been too dark (and is very easy to clean!)

Tbh I don't think I'd change the flooring even if I could go back! We'd looked at LVT/bathroom safe styles and I know they're warmer underfoot but they seemed less hard wearing/more prone to damage and more slippery to me. The tile is semi-textured (wood grain effect) so it's never slippy when wet. It feels sandy/almost like concrete underfoot and very stable. It's just slightly cold on a morning but it doesn't bother me. Very easy to clean and can use bleaching products etc if wanted.

I would avoid a double ended bath. We have one in one of our bathrooms because I thought it looked better, and it's very uncomfortable to bathe in because the plug hole is in the middle of the bath. If you can find one where the plug is in the middle of the bath but at one side or another that might be better, but if I had my choice again I would put a single ended bath in with the plug under the overhead shower.

If you can find one where the plug is in the middle of the bath but at one side or another that might be better

This is what we currently have and are upgrading as current one is cracked chipped stained and not installed well. But I can see why a completely central drainage plug would put you off a double ended bath, ouch!

Black taps etc can look really good. Mine do ! :). The finish does not come off if you purchase good quality ones, but in a hard water area they are a bugger to keep 100% clean. You really need to clean off, or at least dry off, every day after use.

these are some pics of the 2 bathrooms we did last year, as you can see each has a totally different look. The main one, I’d seen an image on Instagram, and I didn’t copy it but ok the inspiration of navy/white and brass from it…and the black and white was inspired by something I saw in a showroom.

Before someone says it, I live in a very soft water area so the black isn’t an issue or consideration for me.

Get on Pinterest and Instagram and get an idea of the feel you want-contemporary? Ultra modern? Traditional? Downright old fashioned? Fun and quirky? Until you work that out, you’ll not get anywhere.

Once you’ve decided on the look you want, you need to decide what’s your priority. For me, the huge bath was the main thing and totally non negotiable, but I was prepared to compromise on the flooring (we ended up with sheet vinyl, feels warm on your feet, and by this point in our reno, cost was a huge factor. Spend well on your taps, and compromise on things like wall coverings….I initially wanted wetwall panels for the main bathroom for cleaning/maintenance reasons, but the look I wanted didn’t exist, so tiles it was, and I suck up the cleaning and maintenance to achieve that look (grey grout rather than white helps!) Think hard about your lighting too, we’re away to have to get a sparky to split lights currently on the same circuit, to put them on separate circuits as the original sparky wanted an easy life and I didn’t have the balls I have now to challenge him!

(name changed to a previous username as I have this stuff on open Instagram!)

Oops forgot the shower!

I can confirm that the plug in the centre of the length, but to the side of the bath is absolutely fine!

Looks really good. Although we now know who bought up all the loo rolls during the first weeks of covid 😂

@manoffthelead 🤣🤣in my defence we didn’t buy this house till 2022!

@shesparkles love your flooring, looks great! Thanks for sharing your pictures.

We have a huge double ended bath. Looks great but much too big for me as if I fill it too much I float which isn’t very comfortable! Debating whether to get rid of it for a large walk-in shower instead of the corner shower we currentl6 have.

I would love to float in the bath 😂

I know your thread is old but @VintedoreBay wondering how your bathroom ended up?

Great thanks! The only thing I'd changed is - wish we'd installed underfloor heating 😆

We ordered sample tiles from Porcelain Superstore but they took absolutely aaaaages to arrive and weren't at all what we expected really, colours were off a bit. So instead we went to our local tile merchants as recommended by our plumber and ordered from there having seen and handled them.

Everything else we ordered from Drench.co.uk and we were and still are really pleased, delivery was so quick and customer service spot on. We went chrome, Crosswater fittings, rak rimless loo, double ended bath, rainforest shower.

Good luck