Bathroom Creative Bathrooms

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1. Bathroom Designs (Image 1 of 6)

Planning a new bathroom? First take a stroll through our guide.

Curiously, for a room that is used so many times in a day, the UK's bathrooms have been short changed in design stakes for many a year. We only started really taking on the notion of indoor bathrooms in the forties and fifties, though clearly many blokes still prefer the alfresco approach given half the chance, half time and half a lager.

At about the same time that we started to enjoy overseas holidays en masse, we also began to bring back home a desire for plusher, more design conscious bathrooms. Today, Freud would probably have a lot to say about a nation that values its homes on the multiples of bathrooms therein.

Layout
The location of the plumbing affects everything else, so this must be decided first to save you money. As a rule of thumb, there are three key bathroom layouts that work for most houses.

In a small bathroom you should:

• Use corner units for basins, baths or showers to make the most of the space.
• Combine the shower and bath.
• Don't put in a bath at all if you only take showers - though you need to consider whether this might be a problem when coming to resell. Use smaller sizes for basins and baths.
• Re-hang the door to open outwards or install a sliding door.
• Consider under floor heating, as there may not be the wall space for a radiator or heated towel rail.