Home Improvement Guide

Are you ready to make your bathroom more than just an ordinary bathroom? For many homes, the bathroom is not the elegant area that it can be. Making a bathroom exceptional is not as difficult as it may sound. More can be done than simply reorganizing the bathroom or giving it a good cleaning. Rugs, artwork, tiles and fixtures all contribute to how elegant your bathroom really is. With a little bit of work, your bathroom can add to the overall appearance of your bathroom.

In general, a bathroom needs to be renovated every 15 to 20 years. Most of the time, a homeowner doesn’t need an interior designer to tell him or her of this. Odds are, most homeowners can already tell when their bathroom is out of style. If renovation is a choice, after picking a budget, a theme for the new bathroom will need to be selected. This theme will be what guides the rest of the interior design of the bathroom. Examples of themes include Tuscan, baroque, or perhaps something simple like a black-and-white theme.

Your financial plan will decide how large your bathroom changes will be. A large budget will allow homeowners to change bathroom tiling, alter the shower, and even change the position of sinks and tubs. A tighter budget will allow a change in fixture type and artwork. The heart of bathroom improvements will also depend on the type of bathroom. Bathrooms for children tend to be more colorful and fun, guest bathrooms should be impressive but functional, and master bathrooms should have a resort-style feeling. Don’t forget, redesigning the bathroom is also a great time to add earth-friendly appliances!

Usually, bathrooms don’t need to have too many colors, which can be to intense and muddled in such a small area. Two colors, or monochromatic shades, are the best. For the functional pieces such as faucets and racks, the type of metal used should depend on the bathroom theme. Conventional restrooms may use bronze faucets to match their wallpaper, for example, while brushed nickel is trendy and used for modern work. A stone or basin-style sink can work very well with Japanese Zen patterns.

Lighting is also very important in bathrooms. Most bathroom lighting should be indirect, avoiding glare wherever possible; sconces and light shades work nicely for this purpose. Tiles play their part as well, whether automatically heated or of plain linoleum, they should be used creatively. Stone tiles are generally the best for modern and classy bathrooms, but are tough to arrange in different patterns. Cheaper tiles, on the other hand, can be arranged in different patterns to give the bathroom a special look.

Many of the last details of the bathroom will depend on what you like and dislike as well as your overall theme. You can add accessories to your bathroom such as candles, lotion bottles, toothbrush holders, and whatever else you like. You can really bring out your bathroom’s theme by choosing articles that will match that specific theme.

An additional great item that no bathroom should be without is a mirror. Use your mirror as an opportunity for design. The mirror will make your bathroom seem bigger and it should be a chance to add something to your bathroom’s style. Choose art and rugs that are water resistant as they will be exposed to continuous moisture. Without being water resistant, the humidity in the bathroom will damage these types of items.

If you are looking for a new home, be sure to look at the great Coldwater Springs homes for sale and the Estates at Spectrum homes for sale. These homes come in many different styles and sizes. There is something for every budget, no matter how big or how small.

Professional bathroom designers are masterful at merging both function and form to create breathtaking results. In this eight-part series which I call “Understanding Bathroom Design,” I draw on my experience working with some of London’s top bathroom designers to explain this exciting field. This sixth article focuses on the vessel-style washbasin – a true designer delight!

The vessel-style washbasin has been around for many centuries. It originated not in London but in Ancient China, before the existence of piped water or water treatment facilities, when people simply needed a vessel in which to hold water that had been drawn from the local well. But in the context of bathroom design, today’s vessel-style basin is free-standing and sits directly atop a bathroom counter or similar furniture unit. The London interior designer can source all sorts of different styles, dimensions and appearances, to match almost any bathroom design imaginable. One can select from a wide array of standard materials, including metal, glass, and semiprecious stone, or – for super-luxury bathroom designs – one may turn to gemstone-embedded or jewelled models.

What are the advantages of a vessel-style washbasin over a more traditional model? These basins aren’t constrained to slide into a regular-sized hole within a standard counter. Accordingly, London’s top bathroom designers can benefit from much more creative designs and shapes, with non-symmetric detailing and unusual footprints adding visual interest. Many vessel-style basins are taller in the back than in the front – a big boost for a smaller London bathroom design that needs a “touch of flair” but that has no space for a rear splashback.

Clients often tell me they have fallen in love with a standalone basin but just can’t figure out where it should go, perhaps because it doesn’t quite fit in their existing bathroom design. In such cases I may recommend the basin be installed in a London powder room, where it will serve mainly for handwashing – instead of shaving, brushing one’s teeth and giving the household chihuahua a bath.

In the next article in my series “Understanding Bathroom Design,” I’ll return to eco-friendly bathroom designs in London and discuss how to clean and maintain your bathroom in a way that helps protect the environment.