Need new side panels for the bath - what's naff, what's not?

[Tinker]

Being a non-style guru, all tips gratefully received.

Thank you

type in side bath panels on internet search and its amaxing what comes up but cheaply ..in our last place we bought a piece of mdf cut to size and painted it or get a piece of panelling from a diy shop and white wash it for a shaker look then of course varnish it to make it waterproof

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We bought a piece of white covered mdf, trimmed it to fit and slotted it in. Guess you could add panels from bevilled dowelling and paint to match.

My mdf panels quickly split and looked terrible really quickly, even though we thought we had treated them enough.

I've replaced them with pine panelled tongue and groove ones, which have been painted white and look lovely.

I think any of the plastic ones look naff.

How about stainless steel for a really contemporary look? Might take a bit of keeping clean though .

Tongue and groove nice. Ours are tiled to complement overall look, prob MDF underneath.

if you use mdf in a bathroom, you need to make sure it is moisture resistant (maybe that's why some splits, if it's not?)... you can recognize it because it's green when un finished/painted. Also, don't forget to prime mdf before painting (with mdf primer), or else the mdf just soaks up paint indefinitely and you don't get a good finish...
What a mdf spod i am!
btw, i would go for a mdf bath panel, OR you could tile a panel (ply rather than mdf I think) with tiles to match your floor/wall, depending what other finishes you have. Oh, and don't forget to use bathroom paint, not just emulsion...

In our last house we had the pine tongue & groove side & end panel whitewashed & it looked really nice. When we sold it lots of viewers said they really liked the bathroom in particular.