12 BATHROOM RENO TIPS!
12 ways to create a beautiful and practical bathroom space
1. WRITE DOWN A LIST OF WHAT YOU DON'T LIKE IN A BATHROOM
This is a really effective way to arrive at what you do want in your bathroom. Then write another two lists: your must-haves and your desires. After that, it's a matter of seeing what the budget extends to.
2. RESEARCH THE LATEST TRENDS ONLINE AND GET INSPIRATION FROM MAGAZINES
Explore all the styles you might like and pick one that you know you will love. Stick to your guns. Ensure you communicate your wishes with your builder/plumber so they can adjust the plumbing to suit your desired product and design choices.
3. CONSIDER ADDING SOME PERSONALITY
Overdress the room that you undress in is my philosophy! It's a perfect – and private - space for more than a little design hi-jinx simply because you're not exposed to it all the time.
4. CONSIDER THE MAIN INGREDIENTS
Some of the main bathroom trends we're seeing include: freestanding baths, large open spaces, light-filled bathrooms, bathrooms with a view, double basins and hidden cisterns with wall-hung pans.
5. LIGHTING IS KEY
Light is the most important element in bathroom design. After that, the creation of a feeling of space and then thirdly the use of beautiful items such as tiles, sinks and baths. If light is not an option, a dramatic or beautiful tile is important as a feature.
6. PLANNING MATTERS
Know and understand the space you have to work with. Measure up key areas before you do your product selections. You will need to be prepared with your dimensions filter out the products that won't be right for you.
7. IF YOU CAN, GO WITH SOMEONE LOCAL
Support local businesses by using someone local with great reviews.
8. MAKE SURE YOUR BUILDER CHECKS THAT THE PROSPECTIVE LAYOUT CAN WORK WITH THE EXISTING LAYOUT
If you need to change the location of pipework, you need to know whether you can access below the bathroom floor line and how that might affect what is below. In those cases, keeping existing locations and layouts is a safer way to start.
9. SELECT MATERIALS THAT ARE EASY TO CLEAN
One important consideration that sometimes gets overlooked is: how easy is it to clean? I personally think it's vital to think about this when you're selecting materials.
10. HAVE A CONCRETE BUDGET IN PLACE
Having a concrete budget in place will make you monitor all your choices of items. Bathrooms can tend to blow out in in cost because there are so many beautiful bathroom items on the market! Understand roughly how much tiling you will require in square metres. You may find you have sourced the most amazing tile, but tile prices vary wildly and each square metre can add hundreds to your costs on top of the general building costs. Knowing what you require will stop you from swaying from the final objective – a built bathroom to your budget.
11. ALWAYS USE A PROFESSIONAL
A bathroom designer has a broad sense of what's going to work and what's not. Also, their attention to detail is at a level most home renovators will never be able to achieve. Tackling a bathroom renovation yourself is a false economy if you need to call in the professionals to redo it.
12. MAKE SURE ALL YOUR TAPS, BASINS AND TILES ARE DELIVERED TO SITE AND CHECKED BY YOUR CONTRACTORS BEFORE THEY'RE STORED, READY FOR USE
If, for instance, your tiles have come to the house in a cracked state and are then stored without checking the boxes before they are needed, your building program will be held back while you try to organise more - not to mention the argument that will ensue with the supplier that the damage has happened onsite.