Help! new bathroom.

pmlindyloo

Any help/suggestions/regrets very much appreciated.

We are going to have our bathroom refitted.

It is a very small room - basically bath down one side and toilet and sink at right angles to the bath.

Sink is a pedestal (spelling?)type and toilet is fixed to the floor.

Questions:

1. Should we be going for large tiles on the wall(s) in a light colour to make the room look larger?

2. Storage - sink with drawers/cupboards underneath? (does this involve major work to the pipes since we have a pedestal one?) or bath with a drop down front panel?

At the moment we have carpet on the floor - yuk! So, any suggestions for flooring? Vinyl/tiling?

There are just the 2 of us.

Have spent ages googling and going to showrooms but thought I would post on here to get ideas/views from people who have actual experiences of what they were pleased with or wished they'd never done.

Many thanks. :beer:

Gigglepig

I like tiles on the floor rather than vinyl, but it is personal preference :-) If the whole room is done in a neutral colour tile you can also vary the look of the bathroom by changing colours on cheap shower curtains and towels.
I also like having a heated towel rack - a ladder style one may be helpful if you have limited space in the bathroom and would like somewhere to hang and dry towels.
I also cannot get enough storage space in the bathroom, so would look at storage solutions under/above the sink. Perhaps you can find some inspiration on the IKEA website, they have nice solutions for small rooms.

pmlindyloo

Thank you - will have another look at IKEA.

Inspiration is what I need!

Because it is so small I want to keep things simple but, on the other hand, I don't want to make it like a public loo!

We currently have baskets everywhere to hold all our toiletries but am aware that they make the room look very cluttered and even smaller.

I do like the look of heated towel racks but the one remaining wall also has to hold the mirror so can't really go for the heated rack. I have had one before but found they didn't really dry the towels very well if they were folded and very wet. (My DH tends to 'throw' the towel onto the rail (must do more training!!!!!!!!!!)

violettasomerset

We have just had our bathroom refitted, it is very small too. We went for large white "bumpy" tiles (25x33cm) and a mosaic trim around the middle to add some colour. The large tiles do look smart, and fitting is quicker as you don't need so many. We went for a corner wall cabinet with a mirror on the door, put above the loo, which works well and has lots more storage than the previous tiny cabinet, plus we have a smaller freestanding mirror on the window sill above the sink which is fine for brushing teeth or washing face. If you get the pipes boxed in behind the loo and pedestal sink, it gives more space to store things out of eye-line.

We looked at having a unit below the sink, but it was much more expensive and we thought it would take up too much room in the small space. Someone suggested (after it was finished) having the bath panel put on as two doors, so you can store things underneath, which I think is a good idea for things you don't use often.

We've had vinyl on the floor, which I prefer over tiles as it is warmer under foot. Also it probably depends on your budget and whether it is "worth" the extra money for the type of house you have (we have a 1960s semi so financially no point in going for anything fancy).

martinthebandit

We have just had our bathroom re done and one of the main benefits is that we no longer have tiles on the floor, they were much too cold.

pmlindyloo

Some good ideas here - thank you for all your replies.

I particulary like the idea of having big plain tiles with the mosaic trim.

Mmmmmmmmm still unsure about storage.

How are those units under a sink fitted? Sorry, going to sound silly here, do you get the room in the drawers/cupboard or is most of it taken up with waste pipe/water pipes?

I do fancy a mahogany fronted drawers/cupboard and a mahogany frony bath panel. Trying to inject something a little different so that it doesn't look too plain.

Thanks again for your help.

27col

Where did this idea come from that tiles or some other optical illusion could make a small room look bigger. It doesn't matter what you put on the walls, the room is still the same size.
Yes, a good part of the storage in a sink cabinet can be taken up by the plumbing. A unit that I recently fitted in my son's house has at least 1/3rd of the drawer cut away to accommodate the sink waste.

muskoka

I have the tiniest bathroom I've ever seen in my recently purchased house. Hence, i went & has a nosey at all the neighbours bathrooms to see what they've done & yes, now I'm going to follow the same route.

Fit an 'offset bath', NOT corner and NOT standard straight bath. Makes TONS more floor space. Fit a short projection loo & fit a modern corner sink. Shower over bath

More floor space makes room feel bigger. I've bought wall tiles floor to ceiling - about 12" x 8"- think I'll get away with that size & will look balanced.

Take your time & decide what is right for you

diable

Medium sized tiles on the wall large tiles on the floor at a diagonal to make it look larger. You can also have a sink placed on to a unit so you have storage and a concealed cistern to de-clutter and a wall mounted pan as anything on the floor makes cleaning awkward.

rome1067

We put karndean on the floor in our bathroom, art select range called alderney. Its quite pricey but warmer than tiles and looks really good.
Our sink was from www.bathrooms.com, its the Latium basin cabinet which is not down to the floor, so gives the illusion of more space as you can see the floor beneath it. We also got the wall unit to match so together it is plenty of storage and there's four of us! Our sink is quite big but I'm sure you could find alternative to suit.
We put quite big tiles on the walls and kept all colours quite neutral (our sink is black glass in white unit) then accessorised with deep purple towels. It does look really nice , my favourite room!

shar46y

We had Rhinofloor vinyl on our bathroom floor. Much warmer underfoot than tiles.

Heated towel rail, went for a dual-fuel (is that the right term?) one so we could switch it on even during the summer when the central heating was off.

And (recommended by our builder) a frameless glass shower screen rather than a shower curtain - looked less cluttered and felt much more luxurious.

Apart from the floor, everything was white. We accessorized with different coloured towels, soaps etc depending on the mood.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22737238@N00/5532471510/sizes/l/in/set-72157605484281366/