Small bathroom ideas for refurbishments
In London, most bathrooms are very small.If you can’t remove walls to make it bigger, colour and style is the key. And the quality of the materials used for refurbishing the bathroom. In the pictures below, the bathroom tilers used marble tiles on the wall and granite tiles on the floor. The plumbers then installed a Jacuzzi style bathtub and plumbing fixtures to complement the bathroom.
This is a typical small bathroom in a London home.
The bathroom basin is a wall hung type, making the floor space bigger.
This is how the old bathroom looked like before refurbishment
For small ensuite bathrooms, click here : Building an ensuite bathroom
So, for one thing, small bathrooms are small in relation to the overall size of the house. Generally, we can say that a small bathroom ranges from 16 square feet to 50 or 60 square feet.
Secondly, small bathrooms do not all have the same functions. A small bathroom can be:
Half-Bath: A toilet and sink, just a place for guests to take care of their basic needs and wash their hands.
Three-Quarter Bath: Toilet, sink, and either shower or tub. A fully-functioning bathroom to take care of all of the residents’ needs.
Full Bath: Toilet, sink, shower, and tub. It’s difficult to shoehorn a separate shower and tub into a small bathroom, so these tend to be combined as one unit.
Small Bathroom Ideas – Tips and Tricks
Use pedestal sinks rather than large vanity cabinets to save space.
Be mindful of the “door swing.” In a small bathroom, the door swing can take up as much as 25% of the room.
Windows, while always welcome, can take up valuable space and make it harder to place large units (shower, tub).
Place toilet, sink, and shower/tub along one wall to mitigate costs.
Lighter paint colors make the room feel airier, larger.
While it might not seem logical, laying ceramic or resilient tile at a diagonal makes small bathrooms feel less cramped.
How do you feel about linen closets? If you have closet space just outside of the bathroom, this is the place where you should store towels–instead of taking up valuable space inside the bathroom.
Don’t overload the senses with wide trim. Keep the trim proportional to the size of the bathroom itself.
Bathroom renovation tips
Many people believe that renovating their bathrooms is an expensive, time consuming task, and to a certain degree they are right. Still, with careful planning, you will be able to achieve great results with your bathroom renovation project without spending a lot of money and time. Read this article to discover how you can renovate the bathroom without going through a lot of effort.
The first important tip is to break down the complex, time consuming tasks into small ones. Sure, replacing your bathtubs with walk in showers can a be complicated process, but if you use specialized help or choose to buy tub to shower conversion kits, you will be able to finish the renovation much faster, or, if you are a skilled handyman, you will save a lot of money by doing it all yourself. For less complicated tasks, do your research using the internet, and then purchase all the materials and tools that you will need. It is much better to spend more time with the research phase, until you become familiar with the process, and then just get out, buy the needed stuff and put what you’ve learned into practice, instead of talking to several different people, and then trying to weed out the good advice from the chaff. Sure, going to various stores is important, but do that only to compare the prices of the needed materials, and not to request some (often unqualified) advice.
Everyone would like to get rid of the mess that is usually associated with the bathroom renovation projects as quickly as possible, but redoing the plumbing can take a lot of time. Keep this in mind if you plan to install a new shower or even a new sink; this might take one or two days, so it is best to have a backup plan, because you will not be able to use the bathroom. A good idea is to talk to one of your friends or relatives and spend a day or two with them.
bathroom renovation tips Since we are talking about bathroom renovation here, you need to set aside a budget for it. Will you upgrade to a luxury bathroom, or will you simply invest in a few items that will give your bathroom a new look? For larger scale bathroom renovations, consider having both a bathtub and a shower installed, if the available space allows you to do that, of course. This might also be one of the strong selling points of your home, in case you decide to move to a different city sometime in the future. Many luxury bathrooms include bath tubs with massaging heads, so you might want to consider installing something like that.
Even if your bathroom is cramped, there are several methods that will help you turn it into a great looking room. Begin by installing tall cabinets that go all the way from the floor to the ceiling; then, install a corner storage cabinet – it will help you save a lot of space, giving you the possibility to keep all the needed items in one place. You can gain even more space by replacing the bath tub with a walk-in shower, also reducing the risk of slipping and thus increasing the overall safety of your home.
Installing showers in your home can help you save a lot of water, and thus money. Recent studies show that the amount of water used for a 5… 10 minutes shower is less than 20% when compared with the quantity of water that would be needed for a bath in a tub. In addition to this, as mentioned above, by using a walk in shower you will diminish the risk of getting injured, especially if you are a senior citizen. Adding a hand grip can also help prevent serious accidents, and being such an inexpensive accessory is highly recommended on our list.
There are many other methods to reduce the water consumption, of course. The leaking faucets are literally making your money go down the drain, so fix these types of problems as soon as you discover them. If you have kids, teach them to avoid leaving the water running when they aren’t using it, and then check if they have done it at least for a few weeks. Replace the toilet with a water-efficient, push button model.
The regular showers are a good step forward, but the steam showers go even further, having many health related benefits which can be easily noticed by the people suffering from asthma or other similar medical conditions. The good news is that even if your budget is limited, you can purchase steam shower add-on kits, which will work fine in conjunction with a regular shower unit.
Did you consider replacing the toilet seat or installing a better looking sink? These are small additions that will not have a big impact on your budget, but can give your bathroom a great new look. Replacing the mirror, adding a new carpet, buying new towels and even applying a new paint coating are all inexpensive renovation steps that will improve the overall aspect of your bathroom.
No matter what type of bathroom remodeling project you plan to do, make sure to take the proper measures and keep the room properly ventilated; this will prevent the mold from accumulating, making the bathroom a much healthier area.