Bathroom Design & Installation Guy Comes Up Double Trumps

I do love a good bathroom.  I had my own bathrooms ripped out and completely modernised a few years ago.  Out went the basic rectangular shower cubicle with the ghastly dripping and lacklustre shower unit supplied with the house.  Out also went the enormous hand washbasin that stuck out like an oil tanker in a canal.   I employed a dedicated bathroom designer and installer, luckily already known to me through a colleague.    He looked at the existing features, asked me some questions about my future needs with mobility issues and formulated a plan.  Within a couple of days, he had presented me with ideas as to how to turn the room round to be more effective in every day use and he suggested up to date equipment that would last for years and be useful and of great help to me every single day.   This included a push button power shower with separarte motor in the loft for mine and the family bathroom shower.  Push button loo flush insted of struggling with handles.  And . . . a smaller, neater handbasin installed with the workstop surround.    It is still all wonderful, some years later.

Limescale Deposits Ruins A Gorgeous New Ensuite

I had my ensuite and bathrooms updated a few years ago.   It was one of the more exciting episodes I have experienced since owning this house.    I had come in to a little extra funding and needed to have some minor repairs carried out to the shower head in my ensuite.   Not having any idea where to start, I called upon my pal’s son in law, who had his own bathroom fitting company.  He could have just replaced the shower head and made a couple of other cosmetic changes but knowing I have great problems with arthritis in the hands and wrists, suggested I change the entire design and have a larger, easier to manoeuverable shower cubicle together with fully electronic push button shower.  These changes have made my life so much easier!  I also opted to have the old basin & loo ripped out and replaced with sparkling white porcelain & chrome.  Even ater several years, the ensuite and bathrooms look brand new – each item is stunning because I am still thrilled enough to wash them down every day and wipe away any sign of calcified water.

Small Depth Cabinets & Worktops Make Smarter Bathrooms

There are one or two things about bathroom decor that calls for special attention.  Take steamy walls and cabinet fronts – these two subjects always generate a lot of traction in the homestyle press.  If you have plain painted walls in a room where the family are moving in and out in a hurry, then they will get marked very easily.  The best paint finish would be Kitchen & Bathroom paint which can be sponged down.   I pesonally like to have cabinets in the washrooms to hide the glorious mess that very soon accumulates as soon as a family stsrt to use these rooms on a regular basis.   I have narrow depth work tops and the cabinets re not so deep, in fact about the depth of half a kitchen cabinet.  The workop just sets them off, especiall when I put the over irror lighting on.   To finish off he look, I had absolutely sparkling whiter than white porcelain sanitary ware – it’s so clean and shiny it alost looks like blue porcelain, with very shiny chrome hardware – all very plush indeed.

Top Flight Bathroom Showrooms Truly Inspire

I love looking around bathroom showrooms – especially those high end ones in the smarter towns .  They exude absolute luxury and offer ideas that even the plebs amongst us can utilise.   In fact that’s what happened a few years ago, when I visited such a showroom that I had gone past many times on my way to the multi storey car park  that rose above it.  I ventured in there one lunch time  just because I’d not had the guts to go in such an emporium before.    In fact I only went on that occasion because I was looking for ideas to replace the defunct shower in my ensuite.  They had he most amazing selection of much more exciting designs, some of those are on the market today but they seemed so futuristic and space age at the time.  I didn’t get a quotation from them as it was dauntingly smart in there.  But it did inspire me to ring a family friend to ask if her bathroom fitting son in law would care to quote. for the work.

Hotel Stays Educate One’s Bathroom Choice

We all love to visit hotels at some time during the year.  The chance to sleep in a truly comfortable bed, knowing we won’t be needing to do the housework next day is a supreme luxury, albeit short lived.   That frst exploration of the swanky bathroom is exsquisite.  doe they offer the top quality shampoo and body lotion – how easy is the shower to operate.  That has always been a bugbear of mine.  How to ge the damned shower to coe on at the right temperature the second time I use it!     I was on a nationwide project for 5 years, staying in all sorts of hotels.  I loved it!  I had no one at home to miss me and I revelled in each new location.  To the point where I knew exactly what I wanted in my bathrooms when I had them upgraded.  Fitted cabinets with narrow worktops add such a look of quality.  My friends and neighbours still gasp with delight when they’re allowed near!

Marvels Of Chrome & Pure White Porcelain

Ahh, the exciting subject of bathrooms and washrooms.  I have had a fabulous pair of ensuite and bathroom for some years now.    It all started when my shower packed up in the ensuite – it was flopping  and leaking water all over the place and the shower cubicle wasn’t up to much after only 4 years of service.  So I asked the son in law of a jolly good pal if he would assist me.  A few weeks down the line and several thousand £ later, I was the very thrilled owner of these marvels of sparkling white porcelain and chrome with the addition of fantastic push button electronic pressure showers.  I have a pump for each up in the loft and they are still as fabulous to use as they were all those years ago.    I keep all the chrome as clean as possible with a specialist limescale remover – in fact the hard warter deposits are minimal in the areas I can reach!

Adding Shower Room To Avoid Care Home Nasties

The grimness of having to use the facilities in my mother’s care home bedroom is all to familiary to my sisters and me.  We have been visiting this establishment for over 8 years now and the horror comes back every time one of us needs to take a call of nature.  Everything else about the bedroom is perfectly adequate.  the very hi-tec bed has of of those marvellous bed raiser/lower/tipping hand devices.  No, don’t tempt me . . . another very disappointing reception from our ma when I entered the room did make me reach for the controls.  But no, I jest.

These facilities could so easily have been built into my own home, just a few thousand to engage the services of a professional bathroom company to modify the second bedroom, adding  appropriate shower room with grab handles and all the kit, would have kept her nearer the family.  But I have a degree in hindsight!

Choosing That New Bathroom Is No Child’s Play

Bathroom design is not a subject one delves into very often – usually it crops up as a result of the existing facilities suddenly not being the be all and end all of our world.  Usually we buy a house – like me, a new one.  Everything is already installed and for the most part, work very well and as it should.  The ony time  you’d destroy that happy situation is to rectify any elements that have stopped  giving pleasure.   Choosing a new bathroom is nearly as complicated as doing up the kitchen.  Slightly less so in fact because the choice of units is more limited in number and design.  The shower cubicle is always a thorny subject.  I think the tallest & biggst person in the home should be the model for all shower equipment.  If it goes round, over, under them. . .  everyone else should ignore the rest.    Taps are the most difficult.  Do we look for chrome, steel, pewter, and is that going to be half cup, full handle, knob?  Wooh, the choices are endless!

All Style But No Substance In Bathroom Refurb

A chum of mine thinks he’s top dog in home refurbs and compares his home to just about everyone else’s and of course, if there is much of a variance of style then the other party is clearly in the wrong!  I notice this when I was honoured by receiving a video of their newly refurbished bathroom. . . .  Because they live in an Edwardian era bungalow, which has been added to and added to over the decades, it is now a chalet with dorma windows in the attic bedrooms.   The bathroom was put up in the loft conversion and offers velux windows in the roof.   The over bath shower is one of those old fashioned chrome ones with an exta head on a small linked hose – absolutely perfect for hair washing without getting everything else drenched by the main raindrop style shower head!  They’ve added brick style tiling, offering the extraordinarily popular London underground effect, in dark green ceramic with white grouting.   The basin is simple, round and sat on top of a metal framework.  All posh but no storage area for all those shampoo and body wash bottles!

Streamlined & Functional Over Fluffy & romantic

We probably all have very differing ideas of how a bathroom should look.  I certainly do enjoy having a state of the art shower in each bathroom.  I don’t bother with baths much these days – the guilt feeling conjured up by using thousands of litres of hot water is so excessive that any enjoyment is completely dissolved.  I know that my stark fuss free showers probably wouldn’t appeal to the person for whom that daily shower or bath invlolves a pamper and total immersion in being good to oneself.  Having a quick minute shower is my limit – saving water usage is a priority in my house.  One small step to reducing waste.  I don’t like fussy blinds or curtains in bathrooms or kitchens.  Having to keep them very clean and grub free is impossible in a busy room with lots of folk leaving their grubby fingerprints and products all over the shop.   I’m not fanatical about sluicing down everything after use so having my streamlined facilities makes very goo sense!