Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Property/DIY

Join our Property forum for renovation, DIY, and house selling advice.

Original poster

what do you wish someone had told you before you redid your bathroom and/or kitchen?

167 replies

Heathcliffscathy · 20/03/2010 17:59

following on from the awesome breastfeeding thread, and on a much smaller and less important scale obv, i'm looking for your collective wisdom as i embark on major building works in my house.

weirdly not only am i going to hopefully benefit from your bathroom and kitchen wisdom...but as i'm preg AND undertaking building works of doom i'll be benefitting from the bfding thread too...

so your dream kitchens and bathrooms linked please...and also things you wish you'd known.

TIA

OP posts:
cece · 21/03/2010 22:12

Have a look here for tiles. Our kitchen ones are the brick ones 10x20 cm in kiwi green (see profile pics). You can order online but we got ours from Topps Tiles - they ordered them in for us.

cece · 21/03/2010 22:13

Oh yes bath size - got mine from a local plumber merchants. Got the usual length 170cm but got slightly wider one at 80 cm. Much more comfy for lying in.

cece · 21/03/2010 22:16

Kitchen tile

LadyBiscuit · 21/03/2010 22:17

This isn't so much what I wouldn't do as what I would - DO get a big sink. I decided not to have a double drainer because I had one before and I didn't really understand that point of that little teeny sink at the side. My sink now is big enough to put baking sheets into to soak. And FGS get porcelain, plastic stains horribly. And also second the pull down tap and drawers, not cupboards. My kitchen has no cupboards except for the corner one and under the sink.

Will put pics of kitchen and bathroom on profile if you would like

Original poster
Heathcliffscathy · 21/03/2010 22:29

now...bath panels...hate them in plastic or fake wood. want and inset bath (inset in what?) or steel sides (but don't want to pay 2K for a kaldewei one)...any suggestions?

OP posts:
cece · 21/03/2010 22:47

Ask your builder to build a shell for it to be inset in and then tile it.

LadyBiscuit · 21/03/2010 22:57

sophable - I just had mine tiled the same as the rest of the bathroom (see my profile). It photographs really badly but it looks lovely

Original poster
Heathcliffscathy · 21/03/2010 23:00

ladybiscuit i can't click on you to view your profile! am i banned?

OP posts:
LadyBiscuit · 21/03/2010 23:05

Maybe I don't have it turned on or something? I don't usually have anything up there. Hang on ...

Original poster
Heathcliffscathy · 21/03/2010 23:11

oooo lady biscuit...lovely, how do you deal with plumbing prob if one arises...does it come off?

OP posts:
LadyBiscuit · 21/03/2010 23:13

Yes - the tiles are just grouted onto a wooden panel. Obviously it would be a total pita to do that but it's possible! It's weird - I can't find a way to post more than one pic to my profile

Anyway, glad you like it - I'm thrilled with it. They're massively heavy sold stone tiles from Fired Earth and I was a bit dubious but I'm so pleased now

suzi2 · 21/03/2010 23:21

Don't go for tiles that will date - you'll end up hating them in a few years and think they look very 2010. We have Karndean flooring (Amticos cheap cousin!) in our kitchen and love it. Don't scrimp on a shower -you spend a fairly large proportion of your life in it. make sure it's enjoyable and easy to clean. Don't go for mosaic tiles behind a shower - too much grout to clean.

emmarussell · 21/03/2010 23:30

Agree underfloor heating
Also agree don't use a project manager - waste of money and the sub-contracting ends in disaster most times (we have had several)
Only use a builder/ plumber who is recommended and not one from an advert. A patient who was a builder told me that any builder who needs to advertise is rubbish.
Rated People is a great site with reviews from previous customers. You can post your job on it and trades people will reply.
Make sure you get a full costing up front, and in writing otherwise you will find things being added all the time (learned the hard way on this!)

Good luck!

DecorHate · 22/03/2010 07:01

I had my bath tiled as LadyBiscuit suggested and tbh I hate it now. Maybe would be ok with very large tiles and dark grout but I find it is just another area of tiling where the grout always needs attention...

KoalaSar · 22/03/2010 09:35

Two sinks - it revolutionised my life (one on each side of the room).

When buying a range, don't bother with two ovens; you'll hardly ever use the smaller one and you'll wish the bigger one was bigger.

Ranges look nice but I wish I'd have an eye-level oven.

Cream floor tiles - never again.

Black granite is continually streaky. Wish I'd gone for a biscuit colour instead.

wilbur · 22/03/2010 09:57

Like your kitchen, cece - love the green tiles, gorgeous colour. Now tell me - is your breakfast bar always that tidy or did you tidy it for the pic? We have a kitchen island which is permanently covered with homework, lego, bits of broken warhammer, dh's post that he never opens, whatever book ds1 is reading and many, many items of glittery stationery. When it's cleared off, the room looks lovely... Sigh. Maybe if I banned the family from our family kitchen.

Freezingmyarseoff · 22/03/2010 09:57

Sophable, are you me?
We're also doing a major extension with a new bathroom and kitchen and hoping to get an aga....

Just marking my place to come back and get lots of advice.
thanks for starting this thread
Congrats on your pregnancy

scubagoose · 22/03/2010 12:28

Hi
I am in kent and looking for a new kitchen where burnhill kitchens good then? roughly what sort of price range are we looking at???

wahwahwah · 22/03/2010 12:33

That my builder was bending the truth slightly when he said I couldn't have a heated towel rail. It is freeeeeezing in there in the winter.

My kitchen if fab though. We spent loads and loads on it and I love it. We had a little man come and design it so every mm of space is used - proper cupboards up to the ceiling, white goods slotted into minute spaces, lovely granite tops (aha - not formica, so no burn marks like my old one, and not marble so no stains, and it will never ever chip - I know because I am very clumsy and drop things all the time).

LadyBlaBlah · 22/03/2010 12:33

Karndean floors are worth the money

White granite is amazing to look at and cleans really well

Take the stickers off your Velux windows before they put them on. Otherwise they will still be on there 12 months later, and continually piss you off because you can't quite reach them and you can't ask DH again because you are officially off the nagging scale already.

PavlovtheCat · 22/03/2010 12:35

Not to get a non-moveable tap for the sink. Its a right pain when rinsing teeth and wanting bath little baby bear cub in it!

That European size baths are wonderful but cost a shit load in water as it takes 3 times as much to fill it!

Littlefish · 22/03/2010 12:40

LadyBlaBlah - LOL at the Velux window stickers! I'm at nagging stage. There is only one left, but the others have left nasty gluey marks on the window which drive me mad, but unfortunately dont annoy DH enough to make him want to get a ladder out to clean them off.

cece · 22/03/2010 13:30

wilbur - lol about tidy breakfast bar. I could take a photo of what it looks like today to post but I am far too embarassed

And yes we still have stickers on the glass in our lantern!

I love my eye level oven btw.

wilbur · 22/03/2010 16:52

That makes me feel better, cece! Agree about eye-level oven too, much better for those of us with bad backs.

LadyBiscuit · 22/03/2010 16:54

I have no issues with the grout in my bathroom. How weird. I don't have white grout though - Fired Earth advised on cream which is great because it hides the grime doesn't look dirty