So, you’ve saved the necessary funds and you have more bathroom inspiration across your Instagram and Pinterest accounts than you’d care to admit. It’s bathroom reno time!
But, before you get stuck in and commence your project, explore our list of bathroom design mistakes to ensure you create a bathroom worthy of the glossy images that inspired it.
Biggest Bathroom Design Mistakes to Avoid
1. Insufficient Storage
Nothing quite destroys the spa-like feel of a modern bathroom design, or the refined beauty of a traditional bathroom, like clutter.
Without storage solutions, bathroom clutter (of which most families or couples generate rather a lot of) can take over, blunting the impact of your carefully curated design. Be sure to avoid this common bathroom design mistake to achieve bathroom perfection.
Vanity Units – The ultimate bathroom storage solution, vanity units are available in a wide range of designs which feature both discrete and open storage, enabling you to select a model based on your storage needs. At Parker Howley, we manufacture bespoke vanity units in Yorkshire UK, and can tailor our contemporary and traditional designs, both visually and internally, to your unique requirements.
Storage Units – If your budget allows, a bespoke storage unit, (like our tall boy models) could be the perfect solution to organise and hide away your toiletries and bathroom products, while serving as an attractive focal point. If you’re interested in an open storage solution, our skilled craftspeople are only too happy and capable to bring your ideal solution to life.
Alternative, Off-the-Shelf Storage (no pun intended) – You can also explore mirrored medicine cabinets, floating hardwood shelving, rattan storage baskets, overdoor storage solutions, and freestanding wooden drawer models.
2. Overlooking the Power of Accessorising
When it comes to bathroom design, key accessories like lighting and mirrors, and smaller touches like bath trays, door/cabinet handles, toilet roll holders and robe hooks, baskets and plants, make a big splash. Putting all your focus on the room’s major fixtures and design features is a common bathroom design mistake we hope to save you from making.
Lighting – Lighting is more than purely functional. When done right, it creates an ambience, a mood, and an environment perfectly suited to serenity and relaxation.
Traditional overhead ambient light fittings are growing in popularity due to their aesthetic contribution to the overall space, helping you to make a statement and add a stunning focal point to your space.
But this is only the beginning. Layered lighting is key to achieving the ultimate space to unwind. In addition to the ambient lighting sauce mentioned above, which helps to define the space’s atmosphere, task lighting is key to define specific areas of your bathroom and aid in particular functions, and stylised accent lighting (mid-level lighting, uplighting, and cove lighting) helps to highlight particular features of your bathroom.
Mirrors – Similarly, while your bathroom mirror needs to be fit for your washing, grooming and general getting readiness, they’re a hugely powerful aesthetic tool you should use wisely. Too many people make the bathroom design mistake of choosing a mirror that is too modest for the space. Go bold with your choice in terms of size, shape and style, and consider how each model can enhance your space. Explore our range of mirrors by leading brands Crosswater and Origins Living, our curated by PH range, and custom options.
Other Accessories – Consider displaying fresh, fluffy towels and robes in open shelving to inject some soft textures into your space. Add plants and accessories made from natural materials like wood and stone to achieve a luxury, spa-like aesthetic. Consider functional items like stools and speakers to tailor the room to your unique relaxation needs, and remember that even the seemingly tiny details like handles and towel/robe hooks, have a big stylistic impact.
3. Poor Use of Space
Today, freestanding bathtubs and spacious modern showers are all over bathroom interiors publications and content.
As stunning as freestanding bathtubs are, squeezing one into a room that simply can’t support its scale, to achieve that luxury bathroom aesthetic, is a big bathroom design mistake.
Maybe you’re not really shower people, and therefore have room for the freestanding tub of your dreams. Or perhaps an inset bath can provide room for you to have both a bath and shower. Maybe a traditional over-bath shower suits your bathroom design perfectly, or perhaps a modern rain shower or wet room is more closely aligned with your family’s established routine and preferences (baths vs showers).
Consider how your available space can comfortably facilitate your ideal bathroom design, and create within its established guidelines to ensure you create a cohesive space you never want to leave.
4. Layout Faux Pas
Bathroom layout faux pas are surprisingly common, the main one being having a toilet that is visible from the doorway of the bathroom. When it comes to WC placement, dedicated enclosures provide the ultimate modern, spa-like look, but generally, positioning the toilet behind the door is key.
Placing bathtubs or vanity units opposite the bathroom door ensures that your bathroom makes an aesthetic impact whenever the door is opened.
Furthermore, zoning your bathroom, and ensuring a clear path of movement through the room to each zone, is key to achieving a spacious, airy feeling room, in even the smallest of spaces.
5. Less Interesting Hardware & Plumbing Fixtures
Another common bathroom design mistake made today is failing to harness the aesthetic power of more stand-out hardware and fixtures. If you’re wondering if taps can be that important, or believe a toilet is just a toilet, read on.
Taps – Chrome taps have been seemingly ubiquitous in bathrooms since the 30’s, but don’t take chrome as a given, there are a range of finishes to explore. At Parker Howley, we offer basin taps in chrome, copper, brass, bronze, matt black, gold, gun metal, nickel, stainless steel and beyond to help you style your vanity unit, and add the perfect final touches to your room design. Similarly, beyond standard taps, there are tall taps and wall mounted models to explore, which help to lend a clear visual identity to your space.
Basins – The world of vanity unit basins is larger than you might think. First choose from undermount and countertop models, considering the tap style you’ll need for each (wall mounted and tall taps for countertop basins, and wall mounted or standard mono taps for undermounts). Select from round, spherical, oval, square, rectangular and statement shapes, and from a range of finishes, such as gloss white and black, matt white, grey and black, copper, brass, nickel and more to dial in your aesthetic.
Baths & Toilets – Choose from inset, freestanding or sunken baths made from acrylic and enamelled steel, stone, cast iron, copper, tin or beyond, and browse coloured tubs to make a stunning statement and give your bathroom the wow factor. For modern, spa-like luxury bathrooms, explore floating toilets, which are available in a range of colours beyond classic white, including grey, black and muted, natural tones.
While we hope you’ll be encouraged to explore different finish options and contemporary fixtures, do so with care, as using too many different finishes is a bathroom design mistake that can lead to a confused aesthetic.
6. Unsuitable, Uninspiring Flooring
While it goes without saying that carpet is a bathroom no-no, solid wood is also a flooring material to avoid, as it’s prone to warping in wet conditions.
If you’re looking to achieve the wood look, composite/engineered wood is resistant to warping when exposed to moisture, and a suitable pairing with underfloor heating solutions.
For many, porcelain tiling is a bathroom go-to, and for good reason, as it’s great in wet conditions, and versatile, able to achieve a modern or traditional look depending on application.
Jumping straight into a same-tile-all-over approach is a common bathroom design mistake. So, be sure to explore accent and statement tiling to create texture, focal points, and give your space a unique visual identity.
We hope this has given you a little food for thought, and perhaps helped you avoid one of these common bathroom design mistakes. Contact our team to discuss a bespoke vanity unit to bring your dream bathroom to life.
