New Bathroom Ideas/Tips

Hoffnung

Can anyone recommend the best places to buy bathroom furniture/suites? 

Also please share any tips or tricks, when deciding on how best to utilise the space in a bathroom? 

What would you recommend/do not recommend? 

We are knocking our toilet into our bathroom to make one big bathroom. We would like a large walk in shower and a corner/stand alone bath. 

We did like the look of some of the vanity units that had a toilet and basin built in. 

Thanks

twopenny

If you like the units with the toilet built in be sure there is easy access to the mechanics of it and pipes.

You haven't said luxurious so I'll go the MSE route and say your local builders merchant usually have good quality but basic shapes. 
One of our local plumbing shops has a huge variety of fancy pieces and the knowledge and they offer a basic design service. They know their stuff also.

If you keep the plumbing ie toilet in the same places or close this will reduce costs considerably.

I went to the trouble of cutting pieces of paper the size of things I needed and placing them out. It showed me exactly how tight or spacious the areas around would be. Quite an eye-opener.
You can draw it out on a plan but that doesn't give you the chance to move around the items.

Other people will draw plans for you but I also drew my own and how I wanted the finished room to look, cheap frame and hung it up. Really helped as different trades do different jobs and it can quickly change in the telling. As it was they could all see what was needed for the finish.

Tiles or board? If tiles find out early on how many at what size and buy more than that to allow for breakage or mis calculation.
 If you buy early. Don't set your heart on something to find it's no longer in production or a different shade, design.

maman

Just a few ideas as we've recently had our bathrooms done. 

Our bathroom came from an expensive local supplier. It's a Burlington suite. We love it.

Our shower room also has a Burlington toilet and washbasin (bought online in a sale) but the taps and shower came from B&Q and are good dupes and we're very happy with them.

Friends have recently had those large panels on the walls but we live in an old house and prefer traditional tiles. I would definitely recommend coloured grout which looks great and hasn't discoloured like white.

Also, we have a wall hung tall cabinet in the bathroom which hangs about 20cm off the floor..It gives a good feeling of space in the small room. 

Emmia

I'd go for a rimless toilet pan, which are much easier to clean, and wall hung - make sure it's high enough up though to ensure that cleaning the floor underneath is easy - we had a wall hung one before  that was awkward to mop / vacuum underneath because of the angles (it was just a smidge too low)

Hoffnung

Thank you for the replies so far!

I think we'd like it to feel timeless, classic, luxurious and not overly modern. I'm trying to aim for something that won't date too easily. 

We have a relative who is doing the building work/electrics/fitting the bathroom. 

So it's the design and sourcing everything that I need to do. 

Good tip about actually drawing it out and placing it in. 

We will be knocking the toilet through to the bathroom to make it a bigger room. 

maman

For flooring, we've had just about everything over the years including special bathroom carpet when that was a thing. ☹️

My favourite is vinyl sheet as that is warrmer underfoot than ceramic, hard-wearing and cheap enough to replace when needed. In the bathroom we have a design like Turkish tiles. 

In the shower room we have Kardndean strip vinyl but that's extended from the room outside. 

Emmia

Hoffnung said:

Can anyone recommend the best places to buy bathroom furniture/suites? 

Also please share any tips or tricks, when deciding on how best to utilise the space in a bathroom? 

What would you recommend/do not recommend? 

We are knocking our toilet into our bathroom to make one big bathroom. We would like a large walk in shower and a corner/stand alone bath. 

We did like the look of some of the vanity units that had a toilet and basin built in. 

Thanks

If you're in London,  a visit to the CP Hart bathroom showroom (allegedly Europe's/UK biggest) at Waterloo is worth doing. There are so many options you can work through in short order working out what you do and don't like. But CP Hart is on the pricier end, so you may want to buy elsewhere.

https://www.cphart.co.uk/showrooms/waterloo/

Slinky

When we knocked through from the toilet into the adjoining bathroom, we looked at the neighbour's house who had previously done the same thing, which showed us just how much room we would be gaining. We rotated the toilet through 90 degrees, and where the door to the toilet had been, there was enough for a corner shower. Is there a neighbouring property with a suitable setup you can look at?

We went for 'comfort height' toilets which are 5cm higher from the floor and make it easier on the knees standing up. Using a normal height toilet now feels like sitting on a kids toilet at school! The population now are generally taller, but the standard height of a toilet is unchanged for decades.

Personally I wouldn't go for anything other than an open back toilet; our other neighbour had a built in vanity/cistern setup and had several leaks that were awkward to repair.

twopenny

Also consider sharp corners on a vanity unit if it isn't placed between two side walls.

JIL

I ordered all my stuff from plumbworld. I stuck to brands. I just found it straightforward and easy and they were the cheapest. 
We had a walk in shower, the biggest I could fit and I also went for a fluted screen, as it doesn't show the water marks. I had tiles with a feature wall and white elsewhere. 
I kept it all fairly neutral, thinking I could change accessories down the line.

Lighting is also a big consideration, I went for a big mirror which is lovely at night. I also have four spots in the ceiling. 
Storage : give it lots of thought. 
Heating: I got a designer towel radiator for £120 on ebay, that was £360 elsewhere and I love it. It's also in a corner and higher up the wall. 

Think about smooth lines and cleaning. 
We also had epoxy grout, advised by the plumber and tiler.

Just my ramblings, don't know if they help.

jennifernil

We have done a couple of bathrooms in the last 4 years, just after Covid lockdown, one big and one small.   In both, we removed the baths in favour of fairly large shower enclosures, both 1200 x 900mm.  We could have fitted a bath again  in the larger one, but have lots of storage for towels etc instead as we have another bathroom with a bath still left, and also because we are too rickety to climb into a bath these days!

All fittings remained in the original positions.  Having decided on the original layout ourselves, there was no need to move anything.

In the big bathroom we have refitted the original bespoke (by my OH)  units, 4 floor ones in an L shape, with the original big mirror and 4 wall  hung units above.  The new L shaped worktop is 40mm thick Iroko.  Basin is an inset one by Ideal standard, we retained the original mixer tap.  

Toilet is a floor standing back to wall rimless Ideal Standard with cistern concealed in a  new bespoke unit, which is also topped with the Iroko.   The toilet is a tiny bit lower than the old toilet, at the time they did not do a rimless pan in the comfort height, plus my OH tried a comfort height one and did not like it as his legs were dangling!

Shower tray is a Mira Flight Safe, very non slip, shower is a thermostatic Aqualisa, and the corner enclosure is a very sturdy one, which I cannot remember the make of.  They are manufactured in the Lake District.  It was chosen for the large door opening.  It was the most expensive thing we had to buy.

Otherwise, we replaced the radiator as it was a bit rusty, straight swap, and fitted a larger electric towel warmer in the same place as the previous smaller one.  Some of the other fittings were retained and reused as still in perfect condition.

I would stress that trying to heat a bathroom to an acceptable showering temperature with only a towel rail radiator does not work!  Cover it in towels and only a fraction of the heat can escape.

We had the ceiling over boarded to take LED downlights.  The walls are fully tiled in 250 x400mm matt white tiles, and the floor is LVT in a copper+ slate effect.

As that all turned out well, we used the same shower tray and enclosure in the smaller bathroom, slightly different Ideal Standard toilet, same cistern cabinet, same  worktop as we had some left over, same towel warmer, same tiles and flooring, same lights, original bespoke mirror, and another new radiator .   This may sound boring but we have used different colours of blinds and accessories,  and the basin and other units are new and different.  

I am not a fan of bold tile effects, especially in smaller bathrooms!

Basin and unit is from Ikea, as are the wall hung storage units and the additional floor standing unit, which has also been finished off with an Iroko top.  This bathroom is rarely used these days, so we did not want to spend too much. The Ikea stuff is good enough to “see us out”.  The only disappointment has been the new Ideal Standard mixer tap.  Despite buying one stated to be  for low pressure water, the flow from it is not as good as from the old mixer.  Shower and toilet supplies are good, so that remains a bit of a mystery.

All items were purchased on line, having sourced the best prices from reputable suppliers, and we stuck to known brands for everything.   By the time we bought the items for the smaller bathroom, post Covid, prices had increased quite a bit.   Fitting was the biggest expense, we used a small firm which had also done work for our son and our daughter, their work was of a high standard.  My OH did some work himself, refitting the original units and all the worktops, painting the ceilings, and laying the flooring, the latter 2 done over a weekend so as not to hold up the other work.