GWBATHROOMS

You will likely have come across wet room designed bathrooms while staying in a hotel at some point, and if not, then just to make sure you know what I am referring to; a wet room is a bathroom in which the shower is open or set behind a single wall and fitted so that its floor area is flush with the floor of the rest of the room, the water then drains away through an outlet in the floor located in the chosen area of the room that all floor tiles will subtly curve towards. I hope that makes things more clearly imaginable for you? – if not, a picture will.

I think they are great, and are very efficient when it comes to having to clean the room as you can just literally splash water everywhere and know that all the dirt and water will easily be guided down the drain that has been purposefully fitted in the ideal location of the room. They also offer a modern, contemporary look and feel to a home that I am quite attracted to, a style that is minimalistic and simplistic.

You can of course also still fit a bathtub into a wet room, and it will not take away from the idea behind the design. I just think for my own home, and in fitting with my personal taste, I would go without the bathtub and opt for just having a shower area. This goes with the fast paced life we tend to live in these days. If fitting a bathtub, I would recommend one that is free standing and more rounded than lengthy, but this is just my opinion and suited to my personal taste.

A wall hung vanity unit, with stone top is ideal for the basin area and then a large fitted mirror to offer the sense of more space and for giving the entire room more light. Also a shaving light strip fitted to the top of the mirror for the finishing touch to a perfect, modern bathroom.

So you are finally going ahead with the challenging task of redesigning and renovating the bathroom at home, and after many hours of discussions, browsing countless shops online and offline and comparing prices up and down the country, just when you think you are finally finished  with the planning and can move on to stage two; the buying & fitting, somebody goes ahead and ruins your day by throwing in the spanner of a question, being ‘so, are you choosing to tile the bathroom walls or will you be painting them?’ All of a sudden you are back at the drawing board, back online and re-evaluating how much you are spending and what exactly you are spending it on. Don’t forget also, that if you decide that you are going to be painting the bathroom walls, then you need to get yourself some mold resistant paint, which is specially formulated for using in bathrooms. If you are finding it tricky to find the right colour for your bathroom that is also mold resistant, then you can actually also use paint with a semi-gloss or high-gloss finish, as these two types of paint will also offer some resistance to the damp conditions, and although they are not in-fact mold resistant, they are easily wiped down and cleaned. So if you spend a little time now and again just caring for your bathroom and maintaining a clean room, then you will be able to avoid any issues with mold for many years to come.

Tiling the bathroom will probably be a little more daunting and also expensive, however if it is done right it can make a huge difference to the overall finish of the bathroom; turning a normal home bathroom into an exquisite, classy bathroom that gives off a sense of luxury & success. Some people also choose to tile their bathroom floors, which again when done well can really come off looking fantastic, while also being easy to clean and maintain. There are so many styles and types of tiles you can choose from in today’s market too which will make this task quite fun, but also quite tricky at the same time. You can even buy and tile your bathroom with 3-D tiles which can provide quite an interesting look and feel to the room. Ultimately, if you choose to tile the bathroom instead of paint it, then you are opening up yourself to a great many more options and will be allowing yourself to be a lot more creative with what you do in relation to the tiling. So if you are a creative person at heart, then you should probably go with tiling and enjoy the challenge.

If you are currently re-designing or renovating your bathroom at home, then one item of furniture that you should certainly consider investing in is a wall hung mirrored cabinet. The size and style of cabinet will depend on the size of the bathroom and the style of the rest of the fittings that you have already installed or are planning on installing. The more common and most popular mirrored cabinets will come as either a one door cabinet with one mirror covering that entire door, or a two door cabinet that will open from the middle, with a mirror on each door, so in effect providing two small mirrors; most of the time each door will have a framed edging, although some double door mirrored bathroom cabinets will have a more contemporary look, with the mirrors covering the entire surface, providing clean sharp edges and no frame. Most cabinets will also have a small light fitted to the inside of the cabinet for lighting up the storage space as well as in some cases, providing a back-light for the mirrors if necessary.

The most suitable and common place to hang the mirrored cabinet of your choice would be above the vanity unit and/bathroom basin. Hanging the cabinet above your bathroom sink and vanity unit (if you have one) makes perfect, logical sense as it then can be used as your shaving/make-up mirror and is probably the most convenient place for storing toiletries, toothbrushes and toothpastes. Having all your bathroom products in this one place is very handy and also it helps to avoid making the bathroom and bathroom basin area too cluttered and messy. Some cabinets, especially the double door styled cabinets, offer a great amount of storage space, so you will be pleasantly surprised with just how many items you can neatly store away inside, so you know where everything is and it will always be within reaching distance when standing in front of the mirror, which is where most of us spend more of our time.

Nearly everyone knows the trick (if you can even call is a trick) of using a mirror in a room to create the illusion of more space, and it certainly does work. Some plans in this space making approach work better than others though, so you need to give it some thought and certainly take the room dimensions you are focusing on into consideration, as well as the current lighting options and colours of the walls. For the best results in both space creation and light reflection, you need opt for the light colours, best as most people know, is white. White walls and ceilings will really add the feeling of more space to a room and as the colour white reflects all light, if you get your angles right, then your mirror or perhaps mirrors can have light bouncing all around your bathroom making it the brightest room in your home, or possible the brightest room in the entire neighborhood.

The type of mirror that you should be aiming for is the large wall hung style of mirror. If you can find and afford one that has an invisible edge or edge without a frame, then that is even better as the Mirror will fade into the wall and become almost invisible. The bigger the mirror the better too, as it will of course be able to reflect more light and create more space. You also need to think about which wall you will be fitting it on – you want it to be a wall that will reflect the light coming in from the window, but at the same time, it needs to be at some kind of angle to the window, otherwise you run the risk of just reflecting the light straight back out the window and miss the purpose of lighting up the room.

After a long week at work there are not many things I enjoy more than a long hot soak in the bath, to wash away the weeks aches and pains and prepare myself for a nice relaxing weekend. It is important to treat yourself from time to time and when you have time, you should make a little effort to treat yourself during bathing. Too many people rush in and out of the bath and/or shower and in general, they never give themselves time to unwind and relax – ultimately this kind of lifestyle can end up in illness long feelings of stress and anxiety which is of course not good for ones wellbeing. So below I am offering some tips and suggestions for how you can create a perfect bathing experience for yourself or a loved one and enjoy a calming feeling of total relaxation.

Lighting

It is important to set the mood with the right level of lighting – you don’t want it to be too bright in there, as this will prevent your mind from reaching a calm, sleepy state, it is also important however to be careful not to make it too dark as it can bring around a feeling of frustration when not being able to see further than a foot away. So, if you have a light dimmer switch, you can bring the lights down to a suitable level, otherwise you can go out and buy yourself some big candles that give off a good level of light, if you can find some scented candles then even better.

Essential Oils

If you have never tried using essential oils then you are missing out – they do actually have many uses; from therapeutic to medicinal, some to help you sleep better and others to awaken your senses. In this case I would advise getting yourself some lavender or chamomile 100% certified essential oils and you should also buy yourself a small oil burner and some tea light candles – you can then add water and a few drops of the essential oil into the oil burner, then enjoy the relaxing, stress relieving effects of the essential oil of your choice.

Bath Salts

To help soothe your body and rid yourself of any aches or pains you may have gained over the week, you should purchase some bath salts – I always find Radox bath salts to be a great option. Add the bath salts into the bath while it is running, so it mixes well and enjoy the deep soak and lovely aroma.

Music

I would recommend preparing for the bath by finding some nice soothing music, you will be able to find all sorts of specialized music within Youtube – music that has specifically been designed for helping to relax the senses and promote a feeling of happiness and wellbeing. Find the right music that suits your taste and have it playing at a relatively low level – not so quiet that you cannot hear it, but not so loud that you cannot hear anything else.

Enjoy!

One of the most important, or perhaps the most important decision you will need to make when re-designing or renovating your bathroom, is deciding upon the type/style of bathroom vanity unit that you are going to be fitting in it. There are a handful of options that you will have to choose between, and it will much depend on the size of your bathroom and who you will be sharing it with that will likely be the main factor guiding you to the choice to end up making.

If you are going to be sharing the bathroom with your partner or maybe your entire family or house mates then it will certainly make the larger units that offer space for two basins more desirable. If this is the case, then you will need to take care in measuring up the size of your bathroom and remember to account for the space you will need to save for the toilet and bath/shower (if they have not been fitted already). The Double Basin Vanity Units can be quite large both in terms of depth and length, so for the average home bathroom they tend to be bit too big, as they will end up taking up too much space. Another important factor in this decision making process is whether you need something that offers storage space or not? If you are someone that likes stocking up on your toiletries, and having spare toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoos, mouth wash etc., then you should probably go for a vanity unit that will provide you with the much needed storage space. These units tend to be the free-standing types of vanities, although you can also get wall hung vanity units that offer the same type of space – just make sure the wall you will be hanging it on is a solid and able to bare a considerable amount of weight.

If you do not have much clutter in your bathroom and don’t plan to stock up on the various toiletries like mentioned above, then you will probably be best suited to opt for a pedestal type of bathroom vanity unit; these are also often called free standing units and the right one can add a strong elegant look to your newly fitted bathroom. Make sure that whatever choice you make is going to fit in well with the other bathroom furniture items you have already purchased and fitted, or are planning on purchasing soon. One last thing that you should be thinking about, especially for those of you that have very limited space, is the idea/option of investing in a corner vanity unit & basin. The right corner vanity unit will fit nice and snug into a space in your bathroom that would otherwise go unused and be wasted.

I hope this helps to get the ball rolling and gets you thinking along the right tracks when you come to renovating your own bathroom, helping you to avoid a situation of wasting much time, effort & money.