Latest Designer Bathroom Ideas and How To Guides for your Home

While traditional bathrooms feature a large bath, this default design can mean compromising on space.  And with many modern families opting for a shower over a bath for water and time saving reasons, it can be a good idea to consider fitting a shower cubicle instead of a bath.

The shower cubicle can help to free up space in a family bathroom, or can help with the creation of an alternative ablutions area in a home where space is at a premium.  And with so many exciting shower cubicle designs on the market, homeowners will be able to create a unit that fits well with the overall design feel of their home.

For homes with regular shaped bathrooms the quadrant cubicle, which fits neatly into a corner, is a popular choice of unit offering the householder a range of options for personalisation.

Select from a range of door styles – from space saving sliders to traditional outward openers.  Shower cubicles can be constructed from heavy duty plastic materials or can have high quality glass finishes in a range of effects from smoked to transparent, or even etched.

Interiors enthusiasts who are looking for something a little different in their shower cubicle design may wish to create a curved corner unit, or could consider creating a wet room space with a partial cubicle.

If space is limited in your bathroom, or the combination shower/bath doesn’t fit your lifestyle, choosing a prefabricated shower cubicle might be a smart decision.  Many styles and shapes are available for this type of shower.  Some include extra shower accessories as an added luxury.

Typically, shower cubicles are made of fibreglass or acrylic.  They can be found in a variety of shapes, including both the standard square or rectangle design or a more unique angled shape to fit into corners.  Specially shaped designs may come as multi-piece configurations.  Still, installing such prefabricated designs is an easier do-it-yourself project than assembling a custom shower cubicle piece by piece.

If shower accessories are a concern, many options are available amongst the range of prefabricated designs.  A bigger shower stall allows for more luxuries, from shower trays to grip bars to shower seats.  Some even offer deeper bases, providing space for a foot massage.

Shower stalls are often a smart choice for safety reasons as well.  Traditional shower/bath combinations can be dangerous, thanks to slippery porcelain bases and curved edges.  A stand-alone shower enclosure offers flat flooring for more stable showering, sometimes grip bars to help support and maintain balance, and often a seat for those who are shaky on their feet.  Unlike shower curtains, shower doors also offer a more stable environment for washing.  Stalls that are wider also make bending to clean your legs and feet an easier chore.

By design, a prefabricated shower might be the perfect addition to your bathroom.

How do you cope when you have showers all the time, do you end up with lots of shampoo and conditioner bottles standing around in the shower tray or on the sides of the bath? There is no doubt that keeping things tidy in and around the shower can be a tough job. The best way to achieve, what can sometimes be a difficult task, is to get some good quality shower accessories to help you keep everything in its place.

So where do you begin? Your shower area will be tiled, so that can mean drilling holes into the grout to accommodate some shower accessories. Alternatively, you can look for accessories and holders that use suction cups to attach to the tiles. While these work for a time they invariably fall off eventually, so think carefully before you buy them.

One thing to keep in mind is that you should make sure all the shower accessories you have are designed so that the water can fall through them. Plastic trays might be easy to clean, but you don’t want them filling up with water all the time. Various cages, holders and wire mesh type shower accessories are by far the best. What’s more, they require only minimal cleaning. The other advantage with these shower accessories is that they keep everything you need in the shower close at hand. What better items could there be to make your showers more appealing?

Showers used to be somewhat lacking in the accessory department, with the term seeming to solely apply to such absolute necessities as the shower head, taps etc but in recent times that has begun to change more and more. Nowadays, the shower has become increasingly customised for purposes of comfort and convenience, with the result that the small area now has quite an array of its own accessories such as shower caddies, shower mirrors and hanging bars which fit onto either the shower curtain rod or onto the shower door itself. More recently, as more and more people become ecologically conscious, the newest accessory is the shower meter, which keeps people aware of just how much water they are using while they are taking a shower.

Shower shelves are small units that fit just over the showerhead, although they can also hang on shower bars or even be attached directly to the wall. They are very easy to install and are particularly recommended for those with smaller sized showers. Shower caddies are used to store normal, everyday shower items such as soap, shampoo and conditioner, and even razors. The latter is because shaving in the shower has become more and more popular among men, which is one of the reasons for another relatively new shower accessory innovation – the shower mirror.

These mirrors are specially designed for the shower and thus will not steam up around hot water. They can be attached to shower walls with suction cups and many feature a small shelf for razors and even come with waterproof radios for those who like to listen to music while showering. 

An increasingly popular replacement for normal shower heads for the shower in your bathroom is the low flow shower head. Low flow shower heads produce less than half the amount of water than the traditional shower head and are becoming increasingly common in this day and age, as it not only serves the ‘green’ purpose of conserving water but also cuts down considerably on energy costs. Low flow shower heads come in two primary forms – aerating and non-aerating. An aerating shower head allows air to come in with the water, thus making the water spray both softer and more even. The non-aerating shower head does not allow air in with the water, thus creating a spray that is harder and more massage like. Indeed, many of the non-aerating low flow shower heads come with the ability to adjust the flow to achieve a particular massage like feel.
 
Installing a low flow shower head in place of the more traditional kind is not a major renovation, and is indeed a very quick and easy process. They work by controlling both the size and the direction of the water, enabling the water spray to be better focused so that more water actually falls on the person taking the shower, rather than spraying all around the shower. Thus the person taking the shower could take just as long a shower as he or she normally does, and yet will still be helping water conservation because less water is being wasted. Low flow shower heads can be just as stylish and comfortable as their traditional counterpart, and their popularity seems only certain to continue to increase with each passing year.

For a more modern look in the bathroom, many people are opting for the latest trend in Walk-in showers: wall-less or door-less models.  Of course, opening the shower area up like this requires taking extra precautionary measures, but it could be just the thing your bathroom needs.

Wall-less showers require some waterproofing in the bathroom.  In this style of shower cubicle, the shower valve, showerhead, and drain are affixed in one corner of the bathroom.  The rest of the bathroom must be waterproofed with a special membrane to prevent mildewing of the walls, countertops, and other items. The floor needs to be sloped toward the drain as well, and sometimes a radiantly heated slab can help to dry the floor more quickly. This option is great for those who need wheelchair access to the shower, since it eliminates the need to manoeuvre around tight corners.  A wall-less shower cubicle might also be a smart choice if you are limited on space in your bathroom.

When going wall-less isn’t possible, many people are opting for a door-less shower enclosure to help eliminate some of the clutter in a small space.  The shower area should be a bit larger, to allow enough space for the water to stream from the showerhead into the shower tray without leaking elsewhere.  Oversplash can cause problems if the shower is not designed correctly.  Angling the shower can help with this problem, as can a built-in lip between the shower and the flooring.  This is an ideal choice for the elderly, the handicapped, or for anyone looking for a clean, modern look.

When we think about shower trays we usually immediately picture the basic small square ones. However, there are other shower trays available and if you have a bathroom that is big enough to fit them in, you might want to go for a larger one.

There is a range of different shaped shower trays on the market, which makes it easy for you to select one that will suit your own particular bathroom. You can choose from the traditional square shaped models all the way up to large rectangular models that give you much more space to move in.

If space is at a premium in your bathroom you will probably be restricted to a square model, but you might also consider getting one with one corner angled off. This makes a huge difference to the look and feel of the bathroom, while not affecting the actual size of the shower in any fundamental way. You can also buy walk in shower trays that are really at the top end of what’s available. They tend to be of a P shaped design to ensure that you can get in easily and have plenty of room to move around in. 

As you can see, the shower trays you can choose from are many and varied and of course you have different materials to consider. Whatever design you ultimately choose, the most important thing is to decide what will work best in your own bathroom.

Shower enclosures or shower cubicles are the areas (usually small) in which people take showers. The purpose of the shower enclosure or shower cubicle is twofold – both to provide a place of privacy while so exposed, and also to prevent the water used whilst taking the shower from covering the whole of the bathroom floor.

Obviously, the first thing that needs to be considered before choosing a form of shower enclosure for your bathroom is the size of the bathroom in question. There are numerous kinds of shower enclosures, available in almost any size, so it is vital to choose one which will both fit nicely into your bathroom – while still leaving plenty of space – and which suits the plumbing in your bathroom.

Another thing to consider is the length of time you can expect the shower enclosure you choose to last for. Shower enclosures are generally quite expensive, so durability is a very important consideration – with a life span of at least ten years being the usual expectation for such an investment.

 The shower door needs to be assessed for the same consideration, as well as its efficiency in preventing water leakage; a rubber seal on shower doors is considered to be the best way to prevent water leaving shower enclosures and spilling out into the bathroom itself, while a metal door handle is always going to be more durable and long lasting than one made out of plastic. Thick frosted glass for the doors is the best option, for both durability and safety reasons.

When it comes to choosing a shower tray for your bathroom, it is important to look at how much floor space is available. A very compact bathroom will probably need to be fitted with a pentagonal shaped tray if you want to maximise space. This shape gives maximum shower space but takes up minimum area in the bathroom.

A quadrant design with a curved front gives more room in the shower than the octagon but you will need to fit a curved shower door which will usually be a lot more expensive that a conventional flat one.

Rectangular shapes give lots of room and come in different sizes. Squares are available up to about 90 square centimetres in size. Both of these shapes can be fitted almost anywhere you want them.

If you have a bit more space available, a shower tray with a built in area to dry yourself in is a real luxury. It means that you can towel yourself dry without stepping outside the shower and treading water everywhere.

Low level shower trays are recessed into the floor and usually come as rectangles, or squares. If these are tiled up the sides you can get the benefits of having a wet room without the expense of waterproofing the entire bathroom.

Your choice of shower tray will depend very much on the amount of space you have available and on what you are willing to spend. The best way to select the most practical shape and size is to draw a plan of your bathroom and find out exactly how much room you have to position a shower tray. Most bathroom shops will draw a plan for you if you have the measurements.  They will then advise you on the best options for the space you have.

The first thing to consider when remodelling a small bathroom is the fact that you are bound to have all kinds of things cluttering up your bathroom, and because it is so small, you need to provide bathroom storage so that everything is neatly out of sight but can still be found easily and quickly.

Whether you are intending to do any work yourself, or you want to get an expert to do the job for you, drawing a plan of what you had in mind will help you to visualize it. Have a look at magazines, catalogues and other places where there are pictures of bathroom layouts and designs and note down any fittings that you particularly like. Then you will have some idea of what you want when you put it all together. You may change your mind on some items, such as bath, taps, or even basin shape but that is all part of the design process.

Fitting a sliding door will save space in a small bathroom and a shelving unit built around the sink or the installation of a vanity unit will save lots of space and provide storage. Many people get rid of their bath, which takes up so much space in a bathroom, and fit a shower cubicle with a curved or sliding door and a compact shower units like the Grohe Euphoria Shower System. This is a good idea for saving space but you need to be sure that you will not decide later that you should have kept your bath.

Think about what you have in your small bathroom and get rid of anything that is not really essential and store it somewhere else. You may be surprised at how much more space there seems to be by doing this one simple thing.