New bathroom, what do I need to think about?

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We are re-doing our bathrooms. Things that annoy me at the moment are:

Towel rails - we have one in each room which has space for my towels and DH's. The DC's are on a coat stand in the corner. Do all your towels live in the bathroom or do your DC hang theirs in their room? Would it be better to squeeze some hooks on the wall behind the door or either side of the towel rail? DH suggested one towel rail above the other (but then where would my laundry baskets go?). We've discounted a heated towel rail as we don't want extra heat in the summer.
By the sink for the hand towel is a hook or a swing out bar better?

Curtains - we have a window opposite the shower that is actually a door to nowhere. We cover it with curtains but this retains damp. What would be a better solution?

Tiles - larger tiles = less grout = less cleaning. Is this correct?

What else do I need to think about?

A heated towel rail of two is much better, you can turn it off in the summer if you need to. Is it very hot on your county? In the summer in the Uk people usually have then on at low but of course that bathroom window will be open for ventilation.

I find that swing out towel Rails are not very strong , especially with children .

I don’t know what a window that’s a door to nowhere is . Can you post some photos?

You need to think about layout and function before anything else. You need to know where the soil pipe is as that will affect layout - it’s very hard to move and other solutions often don’t work well.

Personally I only use classic colours for tiles as less likely to date. And fashion colours ( if that’s what you like ) for things that are easy to change like wallpaper , paint, towels, accessories. But if it’s your forever home / you have lots of money then you don’t need to worry about that.

Don't towels lie on top of each other on a heated rail? Doesn't matter if it's on but if it's not then they'll stay damp longer?

It's a patio/balcony door but there's no balcony! Like one of these (but there's only the one door)

I'm hoping it's going to be our forever home so I want it to be future proof for when we're not so mobile in 30 years!

So it’s really a window, except for how it opens ? So you cant put anything below it. Can you open it for ventilation and if so, why are you worried about it getting hot?

How do you heat the room now?

Most people just arrange the towels so they are hanging flat when then are damp.

Do you have two full bathrooms in your house ? If som why don’t you use one for you and your Dh and one for the kids?

If your house is big enough for two bathrooms you must have somewhere else to keep a laundry basket. Where are your washing machine and tumble dryer.

Does the building code in your country allow washing machines in bathrooms ?

So the purpose of the curtain is privacy because it’s just clear glass and the bathroom is overlooked? Alternative is to put one way glass in ( expensive option) or use privacy film to effectively frost it. Agree curtains in bathroom are annoying.

Towels- the bain of my life. I use a towel rail but don’t heat it in summer. The DC have hooks behind their doors. Their towels dry ok even in winter but our house retains heat well.

Yes, it's a window but it goes all the way to the floor. So I can't put e.g. baskets in front and it's overlooked.

We don't live in a house, we live in a flat. There's really nowhere else for laundry baskets. Washing machine is in the cellar.

heating is underfloor.

I agree with privacy film. You might be able to do just the bottom half, it depends how your window is overlooked . Then you could use a blind after dark. Neater and better with moisture than a curtain.

We’ve got a quite tall towel rail (3 or 4 sections) so all the towels fit if they’re folded. It’s got a thermostat so I just turn it off when it’s get warmer. I had it fitted at the end of the bath so it’s easy to get a towel when you get out, I hate when they’re next to the toilet because it makes no sense!

Is it safe to have a door that leads to the outside with no balcony or is it restricted so it can’t fully open? There’s some really nice privacy films but if it opens fully I’d put something more solid along the bottom half to stop people using it fully.

We used to have a heated towel rail in the bathroom which held one bath towel, a bath mat and a hand towel, then in each bedroom we had an over-radiator airer so the kids' towels went on this in their room. In winter when the radiators were on the towels would dry that way, and in the summer it was warm enough for them to dry naturally on the airer. Like these... John Lewis Radiator Airer, Set of 2, Steel

Don't forget a hook on the back of the door for your dressing gown.

we've had a niche shelf installed next to the shower, which I love. I had to remind the builders to make it slope a tiny bit, so that water runs off it into the shower rather than sitting on the shelf.

We've got underfloor heating and a heated towel rail which I turn to very low in the summer.

Have you got a great extractor fan? A good de-misting mirror?

I’ve been through this and I can tell you exactly what I’m grateful for!

1. If space permits and elderly people are ever going to use your shower, have a folding seat or a ledge you can sit on. Also useful with young children and for washing feet! A grab handle could also be useful to prevent slipping.
2. Have not just cupboard space but drawers to keep all those odds and ends stored out of sight.
3. Have surfaces where you can put things down temporarily when you need to.

Large tiles and shallow cupboard.

This made me laugh- I went hexagonal tiles. They look fabulous but OMG- they took weeks to do. I felt like the bathroom fitter (perfectionist) was practically my husband by the end of it

We redid our bathroom recently and our main considerations were:

• maximising space through the layout (we used online bathroom planners to see what allowed the most movement in the space - nothing more irritating than multiple people clanging into each other in the morning - also makes cleaning easier as your mop/vacuum won't constantly be hitting objects around you)
• minimising cleaning (big tiles, easy to clean surfaces, minimal grout, no blinds or curtains - we used a privacy film for the window instead, maximised storage so that surfaces can be clear, got a WC Unit installed to hide pipework as dusting waste pipes is a nightmare, don't get a clawfoot bathtub or anything oddly shaped unless you love cleaning awkward spaces)
• maximising storage (vanity with lots of storage, bathroom mirror cabinet with lots of shelving within, additional bathroom wall shelving, glass shower partition has a towel rail on it, towel radiator on the wall within arms reach of bath - we never turn this on in summer, it's just a useful place to hang towels NB the D-shaped towel radiators are much easier to hang your towels on than the 'flatter' designs, also if you want to keep it on in summer then consider an electric towel radiator rather than a gas-heated one)
• ventilation (installed extractor fan, upgraded window with trickle vents)
• lighting (installed dimmable lights so we don't blind ourselves at night, bathroom mirror also has adjustable lighting for applying makeup etc.)
• aesthetics (we ordered in lots of samples, and delayed choosing anything so we had time to consider whether we truly liked the tiles etc. We didn't go for a 'safe' option, but really really happy with our design - I knew we would as we'd seen the tiles months earlier, and every time I looked at the sample it made me smile! We also created a mood board on powerpoint so that we understood how everything would look like together)

We did the planning and purchasing ourselves and outsourced the fitting to the professionals - this allowed us to have more choice in our designs than going with a bathroom showroom and also kept costs down.

Also, really consider how you actually live rather than how you aspire to live - what are your main pain points now and how will your new bathroom help you solve them? Don't get entranced by pinterest pictures, no-one actually lives that way and a lot of the designs on there aren't the most ergonomic/easy to maintain!