An A to K guide to better Bathroom Designs and Renovations

This A to K of bathroom designs and renovations will help you plan your bathroom renovation. Written by a bathroom designer, it considers bathroom design ideas and features to help you create the bathroom of your dreams.

Atrium – A bathroom with natural light and a few plants throughout can create a stunning effect, turning a purely functional room into a space that allows reflection upon your day. After-all, you start and finish you day in your bathroom, why not make it special?

Bath – What’s the purpose of the room? Do you have young kids that need to bathe or do you like a good long soak at the end of the day? Many opt for a shower-over-bath set up to offer flexibility in their wet areas. You can then choose from acrylic, ceramic or cast iron baths depending on the budget and look of your bathroom design.

Cabinetry – There are loads of choices for your bathroom cabinetry. Your bathroom designer can create custom cabinetry with stone bench-tops or you can go for ‘project’ vanities in plain white with a moulded basin.

Design – Engaging a bathroom designer may sound expensive but spending a little time and budget on your bathroom’s design will dramatically improve both your bathroom’s look and functionality. If you’re going to spend thousands of dollars on your bathroom renovation, why not get it right? In fact, a bathroom designer often helps reduce costs by doing it right first time. You can even nominate a budget and then get the best possible outcome because you’re drawing upon expert knowledge.

Exhaust – Ensuring good quality ventilation not only protects the room from moisture and odours, it also provides for lighting and heating if you consider a ceiling mounted three-in-one unit

Family bathroom or ensuite – When planning your bathroom design ask, who’s going to use the bathroom? Is it a family bathroom where light colours will help you keep it clean or an ensuite where serene colours and spaces can help you retreat from the rest of the world?

Grout & Tiles – The tiles and grout you choose with have a dramatic effect on your bathroom’s appearance. Darker tiles with a larger format will make the room smaller, while the grout colour also impacts your bathroom renovation’s modernity

Hobs – Or hob-less? Frameless shower-screens with a walk in tile floor (with no hob) create a seamless and modern bathroom design. For a little extra, it adds a more modern touch to your bathroom renovation.

Insurances – Do the people doing the work have the right insurances? That is, if the value of the work exceeds $12,000 you’re entitled to Home Warranty Insurance that will protect you should anything go wrong with your bathroom in the future (usually waterproofing is the riskiest part).

Only a registered building practitioner can provide Home Warranty Insurance so always ask to see proof of registration and the practitioner’s letter of insurance eligibility. If they can’t provide this, then they’re probably not registered and operating illegally – leaving you open to all sorts of risks should the work fail in the future.

Just relax – Once you’re bathroom renovations complete, remember to turn off the phone, put on your favourite artist and relax!

Keep what you like – Before your bathroom renovations look at the things you like in your bathroom. Make sure you retain the features/function you enjoy.

See the L-Z Guide to better Bathroom Designs and Renovations

Naturally, if you’d like to find out more about creating your perfect bathroom, contact us on 1300 768 464.

Richard Armstrong is a Director of Melbourne firm The Makeover Group. He possesses over a decade of bathroom design and bathroom renovation experience plus post graduate property qualifications. Educated in interior design, he is also a registered building practitioner who contributes to Australia’s leading property publications and websites.