In most houses the chance to create a ‘showroom’
bathroom is often limited by space, the majority of people only change this
room because of it’s colour or the layout is not suitable to their daily needs.
An average bathroom will have a bath,
basin, pedestal and toilet, the positioning of which can rarely be altered
without additional expense.
So to create a bathroom with design and
flair you have to use some of the new specialist products that manufacturers
have introduced that can help homeowners make their bathrooms more adapted to
their needs …….. often without great expense.
One of the most significant change has been
with showers. Aqualisa, based in Westerham, Kent, are probably the market
leaders in digital showers. Their introduction of exposed digital powered
showers, which can be retro fitted over baths, has provided customers with a
great showering experience without lots of additional pipework and labour. The
beauty of digital showers is that compared to traditional showers where the
valves are built into the wall, these digital showers have a processor, which
controls the water temperature and flow rate, and they are installed either in
the loft space or the airing cupboard, thereby reducing disruption to the bathroom
and making any maintenance incredibly easy, and they come with a 5 year
warranty, Aqualisa defiantly are standing by their products.
Another change has been the number of
shower enclosures designed to replace a bath; you can have an enclosure that
takes up the footprint of the existing bath. However, not every bathroom can accommodate
this, so there are alternatives that provide you with plenty of space - from
rectangular enclosures to P shaped enclosures that give you a large showering
area but with small overall dimensions.
To add a little personal flair in bathrooms
more companies are now offering bespoke tile solutions where you choose your
field tile and then have the tile cut to take a mosaic insert thereby ensuring
your tile finish is unique to you.
Also new to the market has been the arrival
of shower bath. Originally developed by Ideal Standard the design has been
modified and many manufacturers have created many different-shaped baths that
double up as baths with a generous shower area. But do be careful there are a
number of baths that are good shower areas but are not very comfortable baths.
One of the best is the Arco by Pura, which offers you the best of both worlds.
So if you want to update your bathroom,
visit a local showroom and talk to an adviser who understand your needs - and
can solve your problems.