Bathroom mistakes & non negotiables

[Iceache]

We’re planning our new bathroom and am in the market research phase! Some things I learned doing our last bathroom:

Heated towel rails don’t heat the room

White grout and small tiles looks crisp and clean but you will be in the shower with a toothbrush and bleach for the rest of your days

Teracotta tiles are great for hiding dust & dirt

What would you do differently? Do you love or regret anything? Our bathroom will be a decent size (approximately 3.5 x 2m) but not enormous (plenty of space for a large walk-in shower & bathtub).

Our bathroom is a fair size, and our towel rail heats it fine.
I insisted on floating basin and toilet for easy mopping.
Mirror with light and shaver point (mainly for electric toothbrushes)
Most simple shower door (easy to clean)
Get built-in alcove in shower for toiletries

With regard to the shower cubicle we bought Kinedo, so basically 3 sides are glass and the fourth is the door, they do make other configurations.
We absolutely love it, no scrubbing grout, there is no mastic to turn orange from the soap, really easy to clean.

Loving all of these!! Thanks to the poster who explained UFH to me - that makes a lot of sense! Our house isn’t excessively cold really so I’m thinking it may be a wasted expense, but I will see what my dad & plumber think!

Some things we’ve decided which may help others:

Extra quiet extractor fan (my dad fitted one in my last house and it was brilliant; no awful humming noise whilst you’re relaxing!)

Consider the vista of your room. I know this sounds daft but I’m a bit obsessed with the aesthetics of rooms from all angles; we’ve planned our bathroom so we can’t see the toilet from the landing as I think it’ll be nicer to look in on!

I can’t recommend stone-look tiles enough: smooth, easy to clean, soft & non slip under foot and hard wearing but look like natural stone until you really examine them.

Ease of window opening; our last house’s bathroom window was just a bit too high for me to comfortably open whereas our current bathroom has wide- opening, easy access windows so I constantly open them for more ventilation.

Funnily enough this may be exactly what I’m after. I was explaining to my dad today that I really don’t want an open shower as I hate how they soak every inch of the bathroom, but I also don’t want a door because either it’ll break (two boys 😩) or I’ll be forever scrubbing orange mould with a toothbrush 😩

We have a largest bathroom (3 x 2.5metres, I think) and only have a large heated towel rail and it is definitely warm enough.

SPC Wall panels & SPC flooring.

Quick installation, easy maintenance.

Have them switched separately. You can get inline extractors which are Bluetooth and app operated and can be set to run for a specific amount of time or until the desired humidity level is reached. An isolator means you can also switch it off if anything goes wrong.

Heated mirror with lights above the sink. Mist clears quickly and stays clear.

Controls outside the shower.

No flat bottom sinks, things don't rinse away as well without lots of help.

Agree on the towel rail.

Storage. Including a toothbrush plug IN the cupboard.

I have a long rectangular walk in shower and it’s lovely. I just spray it with method shower spray once a day and no marks on the glass.

Wish I’d got a better quality mirror as a year later water has caused some little black marks on it

Our aqualisa shower is remote.
Just done the bathroom and massively regret the sink size, we were led by the showroom as else have fitted units but it's minuscule.
Storage everywhere.

basin and loo off the floor to enable easy cleaning, we fit a small door sensor with an led light under the loo so if u use during the night it will give you enough light to use without turning all the lights fan on etc
the other tip I would give is to use a fire door on the bathroom door to help cut out sound

Great thread! We're finalising our design tomorrow so all good input, good to read that a few of our ideas are in here!

We're going for underfloor electric matting, our bathroom is such a cold damp room in the dark side of the house, it gets no sunlight in the outside wall at all but I don't want to put the heating on to dry it out.

I'm having spots in the selling and a separate "reading light" over the bath, and a more powerful extractor, all on separate switches

I can say from experience that black tiles show every single mark, this time we're having wood effect porcelain tiles - anyone tried these?

We've asked for shower niches but after reading this I'm going to ask for the controls to be outside the shower too 👍

Multipanel in shower. Overhead and handheld shower. Controls at the end you walk in. Dual fuel towel rail and separate radiator. Heated mirror. Zinsser Permawhite Mould Resistant paint (can be colour mixed). Non slip flooring. If you want to future proof, put in a spur for a bidet loo, or better still, put the loo in now.

Definitely check the basin size. We have a traditional pedestal we're replacing and have chosen an 80cm wide vanity in order to get a similarly sized basin.

We are also having a LED mirror with demister pad so I'm pleased those who have them rate them.

I use this on white grout and the silicone around the bath. It’s a miracle spray. Never had to get the toothbrush out.

https://hg.eu/uk/products/hg-mould-spray

I LOVE the reading light over the bath!!! I am so copying this!!

Someone mentioned a ‘poo shelf’ in the toilet and not to get one with one but I have no idea what that is 🤣

Wood effect tiles: I’ve never had these but be careful with colour. In our last house we had dark wood (oak colour) laminate and it showed up EVERY SPECK OF DUST; in this house we have lighter (pine) hardwood floors and honestly even if I never hoovered you wouldn’t see anything. So choose your wood colour wisely!! Maybe get some samples and leave them on the bathroom floor for a week to see which gather dust etc more!!

I’m definitely getting a lit, demister mirror!

wood effect tiles - look closely.
we had ones (inherited) that had quite rough texture that would shred socks and mops.
we have ones in the shower now that are a nice texture and non slip.

This makes my teeth hurt 🤣

Oh yes to a niche! We ripped out our bath (I have a dodgy knee, and can't get in or out of a bath anymore) and put in a wet room.
I love it, but I do wish we had put in a couple of niches and a tiled bench in the shower area.

Mine is built in and I love it! It’s like a bench at one end of the shower, and covered with tiles.

I’ve got a useless heated towel rail. It looks really funky but it sits quite close to the wall so we can’t hang anything bigger than a hand towel on it. There are rails for about 8 towels, but nobody needs 8 hand towels in a bathroom. The bath towels still have to be hung over the edge of the bath.

Storage storage storage. Build it in to any funny little gaps. It will get used.

Niche in shower

Controls on a non shower wall so you can open the shower door and turn shower on without getting your arm wet

Rimless loo, soft close lid that contains the seat

Double ended bath with the plug NOT in the middle right where your bum would be when relaxing lying in the bath.

Dark paint shows up EVERYTHING.

Large tiles, grey grout.

Half height tiles around the room.

Don't bother with tiles. Glass panels are your friend.
Agree to no poo shelves.
Also no pop-up wastes - too many failures and bailing out bath water.
Yes to wall hung. Made me nervous but have stood the test of time.

I second a niche in the shower being really useful.

Do not go for a square sink - all the dirt collects in the corner.